But in all these works that one and same Spirit, dividing to every man individually as he will.
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Ambrose of Milan
AD 397
It belongs to God’s justice that he divides and to his power that he divides according to his will or because he wishes to give to each one what he knows will be of profit.
The Spirit spoke also in the patriarchs and the prophets, and finally the apostles then began to be more perfect after they had received the Holy Spirit. Thus there is no separation of the divine power and grace, for although “there are varieties of gifts, yet there is the same Spirit.” .
Paul is here attributing to the Holy Spirit what he earlier attributed to all three persons. Because they are of one nature and power, the Three do what the One does. There is only one God, whose grace is distributed to individuals as he wishes, not according to the merits of any particular person but for the upbuilding of his church. All those things which the world wants to imitate but cannot, because it is carnal, may be seen in the church, which is the house of God, where they are granted by the gift and instruction of the Holy Spirit. Commentary on Paul’s Epistles.
For not everyone has all of them, but some have these and others those, although each has the Gift himself by whom the things proper to each one are divided, namely, the Holy Spirit.
Dividing to every man severally as He will. Dividing to each one individually his own gifts and graces. Cf. S. Jerome (contra Pelag. dial1). Origen understood "as He will" to refer to each several man. It refers, of course, to the Holy Spirit1. Hence, as Theophylact says, the Holy Spirit is Lord and God. Hebrews , is not produced as an effect, but He effects all things equally with the Father, who worketh all in all (ver6). The working all in all assigned to the Father in ver6 is here assigned to the Spirit.
2. It follows that the Holy Spirit, being God, has free-will and works freely.
3. Ablard, Wyclif, and Calvin may be refuted by this verse, in their teaching that God cannot do anything but what He actually does do. This is to rob God of His omnipotence, and to subject Him, like Prayer of Manasseh , to fate, and therefore to transfer His Divinity to fate. For, if this were Song of Solomon , God would not work as He chose, but as fate willed, under whom He and all things would be p...
One and the same rain comes down on all the world, yet it becomes white in the lily, red in the rose, purple in the violets and hyacinths, different and manycolored in manifold species. Thus it is one in the palm tree and another in the vine, and all in all things, though it is uniform and does not vary in itself. For the rain does not change, coming down now as one thing and now as another, but it adapts itself to the thing receiving it and becomes what is suitable to each. Similarly the Holy Spirit, being One and of one nature and indivisible, imparts to each one his grace “according as he will.” The dry tree when watered brings forth shoots. So too does the soul in sin, once made worthy through repentance of the grace of the Holy Spirit, flower into justice. Though the Spirit is one in nature, yet by the will of God and in the name of the Son, he brings about many virtuous effects. For he employs the tongue of one for wisdom, illumines the soul of another by prophecy, to another he ...
Let us assert of the Holy Spirit only what is written. Let us not busy ourselves about what is not written. The Holy Spirit has authored the Scriptures. He has spoken of himself all that he wished, or all that we could grasp. Let us confine ourselves to what he has said, for it is reckless to do otherwise.
The universal medicine in which his consolation consists is that out of the same root, out of the same treasures, out of the same streams, they all receive. And accordingly, from time to time dwelling on this expression, he levels the apparent inequality, and consoles them. And above indeed he points out both the Spirit, and the Son, and the Father, as supplying the gifts, but here he was content to make the Spirit, that even hence again you may understand their dignity to be the same.
But what is the word of wisdom? That which Paul had, which John had, the son of thunder.
And what is the word of knowledge? That which most of the faithful had, possessing indeed knowledge, but not thereupon able to teach nor easily to convey to another what they knew.
And to another, faith: not meaning by this faith the faith of doctrines, but the faith of miracles; concerning which Christ says, If you have faith as a grain of mustard-seed, you shall say to this mountain, Remove, and it shall r...
The universal medicine of his consolation stems from the same root, from the same treasure, the same stream. Therefore Paul occasionally dwells on this expression so as to level out apparent inequalities and console them.
