And there are diversities of workings, but it is the same God who works all in all.
Read Chapter 12
Ambrosiaster
AD 400
Paul is emphatic in asserting that the distribution of gifts is not to be attributed to human causes as if they were achievable by men. The varied gifts of the Holy Spirit and the grace of the Lord Jesus are the work of one and the same God. The grace and the gift cannot be divided according to the persons of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit but must be understood as constituting the one work of the undivided unity and nature of the Three. Commentary on Paul’s Epistles.
And there are diversities of operations, &c. Observe1. that the Apostle assigns gifts to the Holy Spirit, the fount of goodness; ministries to the Song of Solomon , as Lord; operations to the Father, as the first beginning of all things. So Theophylact and Anselm.
2. The gifts here spoken of are what are sometimes called "graces gratuitously given;" the ministries are the various offices in the Church, such as the diaconate, the Episcopate, and the care of the poor; the operations are miraculous powers, such as the exorcism of demons, the healing the sick, the raising the dead. The word operations is explained in ver10 by being expanded into "working of miracles," which is translated by Erasmus the "working of powers." The Greek δÏναμις is strictly power, might, ability, and ε̉νÎÏγεια, working ε̉νÎÏγημα, work.
But it will be more satisfactory to say that the Apostle calls all graces gratuitously given (1.) graces, because they are given gratuitously; (2.) min...
There is a fourfold meaning in the words that lie before us: There is the same Spirit in the varieties of the gifts. There is the same Lord in the varieties of ministries. There is the same God in these varieties. And there is a manifestation of the Spirit in the bestowal of what is profitable.
