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The Apostles Creed 3- Christ Conceived by the Holy Spirit
The Apostles’ Creed is foundational to our Apostolic Christian faith (even though Jesus’ Twelve Apostles did NOT write it).

Creeds and Credo

How do we know if our fellow worshipers also believe what we do?

Although creeds were originally individual (credo from the Latin, I believe), they shortly became statements of doctrine in which groups set forth their essential beliefs.

Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, Tenney, v.1,p.1025

Talk of JESUS .com
- YOU witness publicly in worship of the LORD GOD that WE believe in this.
- So, DO YOU?
Structure of Christian CREEDS

We believe in…

Here’s a brief outline of the fundamental objects of our faith found in The Creed:

I BELIEVE or WE BELIEVE IN:
1. God
2. Jesus Christ
3. the Holy Spirit
  - and the Virgin Mary
The Apostles’ Creed and other affirmations of faith were adopted corporately by the Church to refute permeating heresies plaguing believers since the time of the Apostles.

Roger@TalkofJesus.com

I believe in

God the Holy Spirit

What do we believe about the Holy Spirit?

Q36 of the New City Catechism

Kid’s Answer:

That he is God, coeternal with the Father and the Son.

Of course any simple or complex answer falls short of describing the Eternal God. A reminder about God and Trinity:

As Scripture states:

GOD IS ONE IN ESSENCE,

and as the Gospel reveals,

THREE IN PERSON.

More on Trinity from R.C. Sproul

The Nature of Spirit – (Holy and familiar)
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Define God. 
It's the question unanswerable that could lead us far beyond a limited glimpse of the Holy Spirit.
 
But note Scriptures and definitions which attempt to show the unseen. (God, of course, is unseen and so is spirit.) 

Picture, if you will, the ether of a non-existant creation described in Genesis 1. 
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.. and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

Genesis 1:2b KJV

rûaḥ ĕlōhîm – the Spirit of God – וְרוּחַ אֱלֹהִים
- wind, breath, mind, spirit
7. Spirit of God, the third person of the triune God, the Holy Spirit, coequal, coeternal with the Father and the Son..

G. never referred to as a depersonalised force.

Source: BlueLetterBible.org Lexicon :: Strong’s H7307 – rûaḥ

Yet no man explains the Holy Spirit (or the Father) better than JESUS, to whom the Father IS personal.

Jesus answered [the Pharisee Nicodemus],

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which has been born of the flesh is flesh, and that which has been born of the Spirit is spirit.

Gospel of John 3:5-6 LSB

πνεῦμα – pneuma – Spirit is spirit
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Much more to study in the link above from Strong's G4151 
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Now the esteemed Pharisee Nicodemus would know both the Hebrew and Greek application of spirit. Yet here the Son of God instructs Nicodemus about the Holy Spirit.

The Lord Jesus continues by describing spirit in general, referring to ‘wind‘,’ as does Moses in his Genesis 1 description of creation:

“The wind G4151 blows where it wishes and you hear its sound, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who has been born of the Spirit G4151.”

Gospel of John 3:8 LSB ref. Strong’s G4151 pneuma
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Most Bibles capitalize "Spirit" to mean the Holy Spirit and use "spirit" [small 's'] for the spirit of man, an angel, etc. 
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A Singular Role of the Spirit

Think for a moment about the incarnation of the Son of Man.

Can the LORD God not create whoever and whatever He wants in whatever manner God has desired?

God has created spirit beings – angels – in which some do not believe.

The Lord God has also created spirit beings who have (like adam) also sinned against God.

(Scripture confirms such demons and devils wielding some influence over man. So does Jesus also speak of such unseen spirits of evil.

And yet, just like the Person of the Holy Spirit some of you do NOT believe, neither do you believe in evil angels and demons exist.

Jesus Christ, Who was Conceived by the Holy Spirit

So what heresy is the Apostles’ Creed addressing here?

Some deny that Almighty God —Father of all creation and all generations of adam — is capable of conceiving the Son of God as a second adam in the womb of a daughter of adam.

Do you believe the account of Luke’s Gospel?

But Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” The angel answered and said to her,

Born of the virgin Mary

“The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
and the power of the Most High
will overshadow you;
and for that reason the holy Child
shall be called the Son of God.
Gospel of Luke 1:34-35 LSB

The Christ is born of a virgin, as prophesied — a humblest of births in a place also prophesied — providentially raised as a son of man.

From the King James Version:

And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.

And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren.

For with God nothing shall be impossible.
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Mary believed the angel. 
Do YOU believe that? 
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I believe in God, the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary…

Beginning of The Apostles’ Creed

And Mary said,

Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.

And the angel departed from her.

Gospel of Luke 1:38 KJV

Next: a Savior who Suffered

Comment on Scripture – Share the Gospel
December 23, 2025
Death Put Under the Authority of God —Resurrection — in Order
For God has put everything under his feet.
1 Corinthians 15:27a CSB

How can this include DEATH?

Is death not the antithesis of LIFE —decay into deep darkness the defeat of created man?

How can the resurrection of the dead — even those martyred in Christ — take place?

The Apostle Paul continues to address the concerns of the Corinthian church putting all things in order and now addressing THE END.

The Order of Resurrection

The apostle to the gentiles (Hellenists, that is, Greeks including Corinthians) began his logical argument with
The Fact of Christ’s Resurrection and logically continued to connect those facts.

And Now the News – Resurrection of the Dead

LAST TIME, we ended with Paul’s astounding opening statement about death and resurrection about an ORDER of the Resurrection:

Then comes the end…

1 Corinthians 15:24a CSB

I stumbled over it. Do you?

THE END…

Isn’t DEATH, after all, the end?

And in the end
The love you take
Is equal to the love
You make…

“1,2,3,4,5,6,7,
All good children go to heaven…
Everybody’s laughing
Everybody’s happy
Here come the Sun King…

Of course, we all have much anti-Christ philosophy replaying in the mortal minds of our imaginings (it isn’t hard to do..).

The cultural challenges of the resurrection were no less for Paul and the Corinthians than the Promethean philosophical objections of the 20th century and this Common Era.
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AGAIN, as we first addressed in the Facts: 
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Cultural ‘science‘ of Promethean Logic

Prometheus, in Greek religion, one of the Titans, the supreme trickster, and a god of fire. His intellectual side was emphasized by the apparent meaning of his name, Forethinker. In common belief he developed into a master craftsman, and in this connection he was associated with fire and the creation of mortals.

Source: Britannica

Perhaps they also hope against hope that these things aren’t really so..

in a self-deceived way..

the problem here is not merely cognitive..

but.. Promethean…

from WARRANTED CHRISTIAN BELIEF PP290-294

NO – Death is NOT ‘The End.’

The Apostle Paul will address this — DEATH and its threats did not phase him and should not prevent those possibly facing martyrdom for claiming Jesus Christ and the resurrection to the crowds of Corinth.

What do I gain if, humanly speaking, I fought with beasts at Ephesus?

If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”

1 Corinthians 15:32 ESV

Paul has emphasized order in worship and now, the Apostle even presents an order in the resurrection of the dead, rather than random godless chaos without form.

1 Corinthians 15:
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King James Version 
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For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:

1 Cor 15:3-4 KJV

But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.

v. 20

AND what were the instructions of our Lord Jesus Christ to the Twelve sent to some with the Gospel?

The Fruit of Faith (an illustration from a parable of Jesus)

And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.

But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?

from Gospel of Luke 12:19-20 KJV

And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear:

Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him.

Gospel of Luke 12:4-5 KJV – Jesus on death and judgment
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Some foreboding in our Lord's call to stand up to death — is there not?
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Saul of Tarsus & the fearless witness of Paul

When Paul had met the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus, Christ’s new apostle to the gentiles came to understand the reality of WHY those Saul had previously persecuted and killed had not changed their testimony — even as these saints of Ephesus or Corinth faced mortal death.

(And remember Stephen as he was stoned to death in Jerusalem?)

Just three or four years after he writes to the Corinthians, Paul also will witness the resurrection to King Herod Agrippa II, hearing his case brought by the Jews until Paul appeals to Caesar.

Therefore, having obtained help from God, to this day I stand, witnessing both to small and great, saying no other things than those which the prophets and Moses said would come— that the Christ would suffer, that He would be the first to rise from the dead, and would proclaim light to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles.”

Acts of the Apostles 26:22-23 NKJV

Christ the firstfruits of Resurrection

For as in Adam all die, even so

in Christ shall all be made alive.

But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.

1 Corinthians 15:22-23 KJV

WHAT AN ILLUSTRATON! — āḏām [man – אָדָם] — made in the image of God — now mortal and re-destined to dust — in Christ (and Christ alone) redeemed and revived from DEATH — death, common to every creature made alive for a time by God.

Let me explain the REIGN of Christ, Paul reasons:
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Once again, in the more AUTHORITIVE-sounding King James Version, let's examine Paul's text in words provoking push-back from Christians unaccustomed to such absolute authority of a most-powerful King. 
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Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father;

when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.

For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet.

1 Corinthians 15:24-25 KJV
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IS this the JESUS we know?
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Afterward —The Whole Harvest

At the same time the wicked shall rise also. But they are not taken here into the account.

v. 23

Then — After the resurrection and the general judgment. Cometh the end — Of the world..

When he shall have delivered up the kingdom to the Father, and he (the Father) shall have abolished all adverse rule, authority and power — Not that the Father will then begin to reign without the Son, nor will the Son then cease to reign…

But this is spoken of the Son’s mediatorial kingdom.. which will then commence.

John Wesley; Parallel Commentary on the NEW TESTAMENT, p.580

John Wesley provides explanation and delineation of the roles of the Father and of the Son — in the time between the resurrection of ALL the dead and prior to the Judgment — and until the end.
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The King James Bible Commentary provides additional insight into Paul's explanation to the Corinthians of the end time.
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” The logic is inescapable.

KJB Commentary on 1 COR 15:14 , p.1496

If Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain.

The proclamation of the Gospel (vs.1-11) is hollow. Not only that, but your faith is .. ‘groundless.’

Faith in a dead saviour is both preposterous and pathetic.

ibid.
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Much in the way Wesley's explanation of 'Who does what?' helps us, the KJB commentary also guides our understanding of the order of THE END [vs.23-26]. 
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The end refers to he end of the kingdom of God. At that time he will have put down all rule.

27-28 .. However two facts must be accounted for here:
- First, when Paul say s that the Son is subject to the Father he is not speaking of the Son in terms of his essence, but in terms of his function, or ministry, as the incarnate Son.
- Second.. At this present time the administration of the messianic kingdom is given to the Son.
  
  However, at the conclusion of the messianic kingdom this function will be returned to the triune God that God may be all in all.
ibid.
WE don’t trust God, because of many who have claimed God — or Christ Jesus — in ways worthy of our suspicion.

Roger@TalkofJesus.com

The Apostle Paul is trying to show the Corinthians (and us) something about the order of God we do not understand, as well as the Authority all flesh tends to resist.

ὑποτάσσω – ‘Put under’ (in order)

Believe only Scripture and an order of the resurrection makes sense in the redemptive providential plan of God.

Misapply portions of the Gospel or add an oversimplified imagined LIFE after death without consequence for opposing God and your gospel claims will prove false — Promethean in the sense that you know that it can NOT be true (but you continue to hope that it is).

Take a look at the Biblical use of the word — hypotassō — primarily a military term that Paul uses NINE TIMES here IN TWO VERSES:

1 Corinthians 15:25-28 — For He must reign…

v.26 The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.

For he hath put^G5293 all things under his feet. But when he saith all things are put under^G5293 him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put^G5293 all things under^G5293 him.

And when all things shall be subdued^G5293 unto him, then shall^G5293 the Son also himself be subject^G5293 unto him that put^G5293 all things under^G5293 him, that God may be all in all.

1 Corinthians 15:27-28 KJV — Lexicon :: Strong’s G5293 – hypotassō

How does New Testament Scripture use this term [ὑποτάσσω]?
- to arrange under, to subordinate
- to subject, put in subjection
- to subject one’s self, obey
- to submit to one’s control
- to yield to one’s admonition or advice
- to obey, be subject
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Personally, most of us (including Christians) do not like any part of this kind of order. 
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Let every soul be subject G5293 unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.

Romans 13:1 KJV
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How are YOU, dear saint of Christ, doing with that?
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YES, the Apostle Paul — put under Christ — obediently presents the resurrection of the body in order.

NEXT, he will talk about the resurrection body. And shortly Paul will urge the saints of Corinth to submit to those who have labored with the Apostle bringing forth the firstfruits of Achaia [16:15-16].

What do you think?

(logically and Biblically, of course) about the order of DEATH and the Resurrection?

Are you prepared to die daily (along with Paul) for the Lord Christ Jesus?

Comment on Scripture – Share the Gospel
May 27, 2025
Spiritualities – ‘I would not have you ignorant’
Spiritualities – πνευματικός

Spiritual:

“always connotes the ideas of invisibility and of power. ..it is in fact an after-Pentecost word.

the activities Godward of regenerate men are ‘spiritual sacrifices,’ 1Pe 2:5; their appointed activities in the churches are also called ‘spiritual gifts,’ lit., ‘spiritualities,’ 1Cr 12:1; 14:1;

Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words Adjective Strong’s Number: g4152 Greek: pneumatikos

Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant.
First Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians 12:1 King James Version

I want to begin HERE by proceeding with the Apostle’s letter to the church in Corinth because SPIRITUAL GIFTS seem not only mysterious, but frequently misused in preaching and therefore confusing to Christians growing in our faith.

So in addition to working our way through 1 Corinthians 12 we will also examine and hopefully clarify the context of these spiritualities of which the Apostle writes throughout his epistle.

The Corinthian connection of Spiritualities

Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant.

You know that when you were pagans, to mute idols you were led, as being carried away.

Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking in the Spirit of God says, “Jesus is accursed,”

and no one is able to say, “Jesus is Lord,” if not in the Holy Spirit.

Ignorant?
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21st century Common Era christians don't use such offensive self-evaluation of ANYONE in our church, do we? Yet the Apostle Paul did in asking church members to examine themselves.
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ἀγνοέω – agnoeō – verb
- to be ignorant, not to know
- not to understand, unknown
- to err or sin through mistake, to be wrong
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We may eventually acknowledge what we formerly did not know or did not understand. But how we avoid confession of current err and continuing sin.

Yet the Apostle consistently corrects the Corinthian church in these things pointing to Christ in a Spiritual sense: 
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For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea; and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and all ate the same spiritual food; and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them, and the rock was Christ.

1 Corinthians 10:1-4 :: Legacy Standard Bible (LSB)

The Idolatry of Baptism – the Idolatry of Communion

In 1 Corinthians 10 Paul outlines the SIN and ERR of IDOLATRY
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Soon the Apostle warns the Corinthians that God may not recognize some worshippers gathering for their communions:
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But if anyone remains G50 ignorant G50 about this, he is ignored G50 by God.

1 Corinthians 14:38 LSB

Spiritual Gifts

Let’s clear this up FIRST through basic and ROOT definitions of this important adjective.

REMINDER that an adjective describes a person (you, me, a fellow saint).

pneumatikos

relating to the human spirit, or rational soul, as the part of man which is akin to God and serves as his instrument or organ
- opposed to ἡ ψυχή: hence, τό πνευματικόν, that which possesses the nature of the rational soul, opposed to τό ψυχικόν,
The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual.

1 Corinthians 15:46
- The Apostle Paul uses pneumatikos 15 times in his first letter to the Corinthians.
Root Word (Etymology)
From πνεῦμα (G4151)

pneuma – spirit

neuter noun From πνέω (G4154)

The KJV translates Strong’s G4151 in the following manner: Spirit (111x), Holy Ghost (89x), Spirit (of God) (13x), [more]

“See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; touch Me and see, for a spirit G4151 does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.”

Gospel of Luke 24:39 LSB

What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost G4151 which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

1 Corinthians 6:19 KJV
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Paul uses the Greek πνεῦμα (pneuma) 41 times in 33 verses in 1 Corinthians, pointing to the spirit in the body and also referring to the Holy Ghost.
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Now there are diversities G1243

1 Cor 12:4a KJV

And there are differences G1243

1 Cor 12:5a KJV

And there are diversities G1243

1 Cor 6a KJV

What distinctions?
1. gifts
2. administrations
3. operations
1 Cor 12: 4b,5b,6b KJV
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OR perhaps less formally:
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- spiritual gifts
- ministries or service
- effects or workings
And the Paul’s connection of these three outlined?
1. but the same Spirit [G4151] pneuma
2. but the same Lord. [G2962] kyrios
  - Root Word (Etymology)
  - masculine noun
  - From kuros (supremacy)
3. but the same God [G2316] theos is working all things in everyone.
No matter which English translation or version of Paul’s first epistle to the Corinthians you prefer note the frequency of applying this

Higher Authority over the Church.:

πνευματικός

pneumatikos – pnyoo-mat-ik-os’
- relating to the human spirit, or rational soul, as part of the man which is akin to God and serves as his instrument or organ
- belonging to a spirit, or a being higher than man but inferior to God
- belonging to the Divine Spirit
  - of God the Holy Spirit
  - one who is filled with and governed by the Spirit of God
- pertaining to the wind or breath; windy, exposed to the wind, blowing
πνεῦμα – pneuma – Spirit

occurs 40 times in 32 verses in ‘1Co’ in the MGNT Greek.

1 Corinthians 12:7- 11 BSB

Now to each is given the manifestation of the Spirit, for the common profiting.

For truly, to one is given a word of wisdom by the Spirit, and to another a word of knowledge according to the same Spirit, and to a different one faith by the same Spirit, and to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, and to another working of miracles, and to another prophecy, and to another distinguishing of spirits, and to a different one various kinds of tongues, and to another interpretation of tongues.

Now one and the same the Spirit works all these things, apportioning individually to each as He wills.
1 Corinthians 12:11 BSB – Spirit,
Πνεῦμα (Pneuma)
Noun – Nominative Neuter Singular
Strong’s 4151: Wind, breath, spirit.

spiritualities (or spiritual gifts)

The Apostle assures that these spiritualities (or spiritual gifts) are just that: GIFTS of the Holy Spirit of God.

Therefore the Lord chooses which saint may receive what gift,

θεός – theos – God

occurs 106 times in 86 verses in ‘1Co’ in the TR Greek.
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And where in the Apostle's first letter to the Corinthians did Paul first point to the Highest Authority of God?
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Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God,^G2316 …

1 Corinthians 1:1a
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From his call by Jesus Christ after the Lord's resurrection and consequent authority 'through the will of God' the Apostle Paul will proceed to instruct Christ's body (the Church, as he will illustrate) in the humility and nature of the gifts of their spiritualities. 
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And God G2316 hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.

1 Corinthians 12:28 KJV
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MORE on that NEXT time... 
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κύριος – kyrios – Lord, lord and master

From kuros (supremacy)

occurs 69 times in 59 verses in ‘1Co’ in the TR Greek.

— he to whom a person or thing belongs, about which he has power of deciding; master, lord

Lexicon :: Strong’s G2962 – kyrios
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And when does Paul first mention the Lord and at the same time extend the line of His authority and mission to Corinth?  
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To the church of God in Corinth,

to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy,

together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours:

Salutation of the Apostle Paul’s first epistle to the Corinthians 1:2 BSB

Throughout his letter Paul reveals the unseen unfolding mysteries of Christ through the Spirit of the Triune God.

The Corinthian saints are no more like the communities in which they live who have spiritualities of their own.

Were the communities and spiritualities of Corinth so different from our own 21st century C.E. gatherings and communions which include all with great diversity, yet with considerable ignorance of the Spirit?

And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord.

1 Corinthians 12:5 KJV
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NEXT: Members in Christ's body 
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Talk of JESUS . com

Comment on Scripture – Share the Gospel
February 20, 2025