One of my drill sergeants liked to call us ignorant. To him, it was a significant character flaw, one that he existed to stamp out of us. His version of ignorant was a lot like stupid.
But ignorant really means you just don't know. Maybe there's a connotation that you don't know because you haven't found it important, so maybe there's some choice involved, but basically it's not that you're stupid. Ignorance is a correctable condition.
In 1 Cor 12 Paul tries to correct the ignorance of the Corinthians regarding spiritual gifts. He remembers that they previously believed that their lives were guided and blessed by idols, so he knows they may be susceptible to being led astray.
In the first six verses, Paul makes a couple of key points. First, he gives a simple test to use when you wonder if someone is speaking by the Spirit: Do they acknowledge Jesus or not? If they do, that's of the Spirit. If they don't, it can't be.
The second point is more interesting to me: He points out that the same Spirit grants all of our spiritual gifts. That's interesting because it suggests that all of our gifts have a single purpose. All the variety in our churches, of musicians and speakers and cleaners and cooks and teachers and chatters exists for a single purpose. And that purpose is set by God (vv5-6): "There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men."
My gift is no more or less special than anyone else's. Together, all of our gifts make the church what God wants it to be.
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