1 Corinthians 12:3 Commentary and Bible Study

No man can sincerely and feelingfully say, ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Ghost. The meaning of the verse really is this: a true spiritual gift can only be given to a true believer. This is an introductory principle given at the start of Paul’s teaching on the spiritual gifts. He wants them to know he is talking only of genuine spiritual gifts which all have this underlying foundation which can be tested. The essence of the matter is our understanding of Jesus Christ, and our attitude to him. A right understanding of him can only come from the Spirit, and a wrong understanding of him proves the absence of the Spirit, for the Spirit always starts with Christ, since he is the Spirit of Christ, sent by Christ into our hearts. Every gift of the Spirit operates for the benefit of the body of Christ, and his body includes every true believer, for all have been baptized into Christ and has his Spirit within them. To say that Jesus is Lord, as Hodge comments, is to use the Greek word which translated the divine name for Jehovah in the Old Testament. The believer’s relationship with Christ is unlike the weak commitment which the pagan has to his idols. The Spirit is the source of all the spiritual gifts, but he does not give them to any without also giving them a deep reverence for Christ. ‘Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed.’ What does the apostle mean by that? Well, they used to take that view, when they were pagans. If they had heard about Christ, about the notion of one God and a Saviour; if they heard that all the gods they supposedly worshipped were futile and non-existent; then they would ask, ‘Who is this?’ If it was explained to them that he is the God-man, who came to earth, and was executed at Calvary’s cross, and suffered and died, then their reaction would be, ‘Then he must have deserved it. He must have been a criminal and that is the end of him: he is no Saviour.’ That is calling Christ accursed, anathema. That is what the many of the Jews spoke. They said, ‘He is cursed, he hung on a cross, and he was justly punished. He was a criminal.’ So they were calling Christ accursed. Why? Because they had never heard the voice of God. They had never heard the message. The Spirit of God had never worked in their hearts, and shown them the truth of this message. ‘And that no man [on the other hand] can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.’ Now we have to understand the sense in which Paul means this, because we know that is very easy to say lightly, ‘Jesus is the Lord’, without the Holy Spirit, without conversion. So very plainly, what Paul means here is that no man can truly say, ‘Jesus Christ is the Lord of my life, and I have found him; and he is the Saviour of the world. And I believe in him; my trust is in him, and I obey him, and I hear his word, and do his bidding.’ No man can sincerely take that position, unless the Holy Spirit has worked in his heart and brought him through repentance and faith to conversion.