1 Corinthians 12:4-6

“Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5. And there are differences of administrations, and the same Lord. 6. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all.”

Paul here mentions three principal diversities to which correspond three principles of unity which in reality form only one.

We already know what he understands by gifts, χαρίσματα; they are the creative powers which God communicates to believers when their new activity expands under the influence of the life of Christ. The principal of these gifts will be enumerated 1 Corinthians 12:8-10.

The term διαίρεσις, translated diversity, strictly signifies apportionment, distribution; this is its meaning in the LXX. and in profane Greek (see Heinrici); comp. the participle διαιροῦν, distributing, in 1 Corinthians 12:11. But as the apportioning of these gifts by the Spirit is not made arbitrarily, and as it rests on a real diversity between the individuals as well as between the powers themselves, the word may be rendered by the term diversity, like μερισμός, Hebrews 2:4 [distribution, Marg R. V.]. We shall see how carefully the various kinds and species of gifts will be distinguished in the enumeration 1 Corinthians 12:8-10.

All these varieties of gifts have one and the same principle: the Spirit who produces them when He comes to dwell in believers.