1 Corinthians 12:2 Commentary and Bible Study

The apostle warns them: ‘You know that ye were Gentiles carried away’, and it seems rather strange and out of place. Why say this? Is it necessary to remind the Corinthian believers of their background? Well, it is. The key words here in are dumb idols. ‘Ye know that ye were Gentiles’, pagans; if you like; strictly speaking, Greeks, but it is the pagan aspect that is in mind. Carried away – an interesting term. Some people have interpreted ‘carried away’ as though it is meant in the sense that you used to engage in very frenzied worship, pagan worship; but that isn’t in mind at all. The English translation ‘carried away’ of the Greek, well, it is a term that means much more carried away as prisoners, as a condemned man would be led away to execution. You were pagans, and you were led away like people to the slaughter, led away to your dumb idols. As Gentiles they were so easily swayed, worshipping idols that could not reveal any truth. They were not channels of revelation; the gods behind them did not really exist, and God would not have spoken through them. ‘You were led by those idolatrous teachers and you followed in the idol temple. You believed what they said. It gave no satisfaction; you had no union with those mythical gods. It was just a religion of fear and superstition. You Corinthians were once pagans. You didn’t make any choice in this. This wasn’t an act of intelligent thought; it is just the way your society was, and you went along with it. You were just hapless victims, as it were. But no, actually you were not entirely victims; you approved of it. You didn’t want the true, the living God. You were happy to be led away into paganism.’This is an important verse, because it throws light on the whole passage. This passage is going to be about spiritual gifts. Now, the object of the spiritual gifts was to deliver revelation. ‘You have been brought’, says the apostle, ‘to a God who speaks. You came to hear the message of salvation – God speaking into the world about the Saviour that he had provided, calling you out of death and spiritual darkness. You understood it; it authenticated itself to you. You responded to that message. Now you are a child of God. Now his word is being completed. You have the Old Testament, but the New Testament’ Paul could say, ‘is being delivered’, and the spiritual gifts are about this. They are about the delivery of God’s Word, the New Testament, to the world for all ages. But there is no message in paganism. Yes there are myths; myths about all the gods and the different things they do, and how they behave, what their intentions are. But you know perfectly well that all these myths were made up by men, and some are still being made up today. There was no moral message, no message of salvation. Now the spiritual gifts are all about hearing God, hearing his voice, hearing his word.’