Ye know that when ye were [of the] nations [ye were] led away to dumb idols, in whatever way ye might be led.
Paul is about to explain how the Spirit of God works in the church. First he takes the Corinthians back to what they used to be. The verse remembers pagan Corinth: idols that could not speak, and worshippers driven by a power they never chose.
One writer notes that Paul leads them back to what they were, and that the reminder is good for any reader.
Before His positive teaching on the Spirit and His workings, he leads them back in memory to what they once were by nature. It is good for us to be reminded of this often. A lazy familiarity with truth can tempt us to forget what kind of people we both were and are.
Mute means the idols could not speak. Older wording in the quotes below calls them "dumb." That silence sets up the contrast. One commentator draws out both sides of it: what they were dragged into, and who God turned out to be.
He says "when you were pagans," not "that you were pagans." It told them nothing new to say they were pagans. In those days it was not merely a leading. It was a carrying away to what they would now look back on with pain, seeing its extreme folly and its boldness. It was Satan's direct opposition to the truth of God. They would learn that the true God is nothing like a dumb idol. He has spoken to us by His Son. And by His Spirit He opens mouths that were once silent, so that they speak for Jesus Christ the Lord.
The phrase describes people moved along without knowing what moved them. Their ignorance of the true God left nothing to steady them.
They had no solid hope to rest their souls on, because they did not know the God who made them. So they gave way to their own delusions. His power and divine nature appealed to their consciences from almost every object they saw, yet they stayed in guilty ignorance of Him. So they were carried away to these dumb idols, however they were led. Their own natural instincts drew them, and behind that was the strong hand of the ruler of the darkness of this world.
Being led is not the problem. Blind following is. The same difference applies to how a Christian follows those who guide him.
Not a blind following of them, as when they were heathen (1 Cor. 12:2) following dumb idols. Are you to be led blindfold? No; you are to be led intelligently. "No one can say 'Jesus is Lord' except in the Holy Spirit."
Their old background made them easy targets for a counterfeit of the Spirit's power.
Most of the Christians at Corinth had been poor Gentiles. They had no discernment, and the enemy's delusions led them about like fools. So they were in greater danger of being deceived again the same way. The Spirit of God gives force to the truth in a man's heart and clears his moral sight. When a man is not filled with that Spirit, the enemy's seductive power dazzles his imagination. He loves marvels, however unbelieving he may be about the truth.
The mistake mirrors a sin recorded in the Gospels.
The Spirit of God worked in our Lord Jesus, and the Jews said the power came from Beelzebub, the prince of the demons (Matt. 12:22-32). That was the unpardonable sin. Today the danger is the opposite sin: calling the power of Satan the Holy Spirit of God. This glaring error was a danger in the early church too. In a pagan city like Corinth, believers were especially open to demons speaking among them as oracles.
Paul is not shaming them. He is naming the raw material grace worked with.
And who are they? Men who had been worshippers of dumb idols (1 Cor. 12:2). Gentiles, distant outsiders. "Such were some of you," he adds, after describing many kinds of evildoers (1 Cor. 6:9-11). What a company! Surely the worst of Corinth! Totally unable to reform themselves, but described as "washed, sanctified, justified in the name of the Lord Jesus."
- Mute — the idols could not speak. The verse turns on that silence, and on a God who speaks.
- Dragged — they were not merely led but carried away, and would later look back on it with pain.
- Blind — they did not know the true God, so a power they never chose moved them along.
- Vulnerable — that same background left them open to counterfeits. The modern error is to credit Satan's power to the Spirit of God.
- Delivered — idol worshippers became "washed, sanctified, justified." God opened their mouths to call Jesus Lord.
I give you therefore to know, that no one, speaking in [the power of the] Spirit of God, says, Curse [on] Jesus; and no one can say, Lord Jesus, unless in [the power of the] Holy Spirit.
Paul turns from food, worship and order in the church to what he calls "spiritual things." He opens with a test the Corinthians can use on the spot. In a city full of shrines and oracles the danger was real. How do you tell a voice moved by the Spirit of God from a voice moved by something else?
Verse 2 has just reminded these believers what they used to be — swept along to idols that could not speak a word back. One writer sets the true God against those idols:
They would learn that the true God is nothing like a dumb idol. He has spoken to us by His Son. And by His Spirit He opens mouths that were once dumb, so that they speak for Jesus Christ the Lord.
In the early meetings, men spoke as inspired. Not every one of them drew on the same source:
The enemy used the same tactics in the early days of the church. He brought men into the public meetings of believers who really did speak by inspiration — but their inspiration came from demons, not from the Holy Spirit. So Paul lays down the test in 1 Corinthians 12:3. The confession of Jesus as LORD is the test. Many accounts could be given to prove that this test always works. It never fails. In today's spiritist seances, demons often say things that sound noble and beautiful, but they will never own Jesus as Lord.
The first half of the test raises a question. Jesus did bear a curse — so who put Him under it?
No such man calls Jesus "accursed." No one puts Him under the curse, except at the cross. God did it there, as we know, when Jesus died for our sins. But no man speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus Himself accursed. And no one can say that Jesus is Lord except through the Holy Spirit.
"Lord" may sound like the smallest thing you could say about Christ. That is exactly the point:
He takes up the lowest way of honouring Christ. Of course, to say "Lord" is far from the highest way of naming Christ. It is what everyone is called to own when they part company with the world, repent and believe the gospel... So it was the very first confession all through Acts. No one was owned as a Christian until he owned Jesus as Lord... But "the Lord" means that He is the one God has exalted. God did not only raise Him from the dead; He set Him over everything.
The verse names only two places for the name of Jesus. What about everyone who seems to stand in between?
If the name of Jesus is not given the highest honour, freely and sincerely, then its only other place is utter contempt... Between "accursed" and "Lord" there is no other place it can rightly hold. There seems to be a wide space between a living, worshipping faith and a deliberate, outright denial of that name. When the Spirit weighs a person's character, He treats that space as nothing and as a deception. For Him men are believers or unbelievers, confessors or deniers of the Lord.
Anyone can say the words. One writer presses that on people who use the title every day:
But you say, "we say it all the time — that Jesus is the Lord. We are always talking about 'the Lord Jesus Christ.'" ... The flesh rebels against His Lordship over us. Our hearts are not willing to submit to His authority. We would rather choose our own path than walk in the one He has marked out for us.
Commentators differ on how far this verse reaches. Some use it as a personal test of who is really a Christian. This writer says Paul's subject here is narrower:
An unclean spirit would not say "Lord Jesus," and the Spirit of God could not call Jesus accursed. But the question here is about spirits. It is not about conversion, and not about the need for grace to work in the heart before anyone can truly confess the name of Jesus. That need is very real, as we know, but it is not the subject here.
- Lord over dumb idols — idols never spoke back. The true God has spoken by His Son, and He opens once-silent mouths to speak for Jesus Christ the Lord.
- Lord is the test — the enemy's voices never confess Jesus as Lord, however fine their words sound.
- Lord, not accursed — at the cross God laid the curse on Him for our sins. No one moved by the Spirit ever curses Him.
- Lord is least and first — it is the lowest way of naming Christ. Yet it was the first confession in Acts, and it marks Him as the One God has exalted over everything.
- Lord means no middle ground — the Spirit sees only confessors or deniers. Saying it truly means a heart that stops choosing its own path.