1 Corinthians 12:3

Wherefore I give you to understand (dio gnwrizw umin). Causative idea (only in Aeschylus in old Greek) in papyri (also in sense of recognize) and N.T., from root gnw in ginwskw, to know. Speaking in the Spirit of God (en pneumati qeou lalwn). Either sphere or instrumentality. No great distinction here between lalew (utter sounds) and legw (to say). Jesus is anathema (anaqema Ihsou). On distinction between anaqema (curse) and anaqhma (offering Luke 21:5 ) see discussion there. In LXX anaqhma means a thing devoted to God without being redeemed, doomed to destruction ( Leviticus 27:28 ; Joshua 6:17 ; Joshua 7:12 ). See 1 Corinthians 16:22 ; Galatians 1:8 ; Romans 9:3 . This blasphemous language against Jesus was mainly by the Jews ( Acts 13:45 ; Acts 18:6 ). It is even possible that Paul had once tried to make Christians say Anaqema Ihsou ( Acts 26:11 ). Jesus is Lord (Kurio Ihsou). The term Kurio, as we have seen, is common in the LXX for God. The Romans used it freely for the emperor in the emperor worship. "Most important of all is the early establishment of a polemical parallelism between the cult of Christ and the cult of Caesar in the application of the term Kurio, 'lord.' The new texts have here furnished quite astonishing revelations" (Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East, p. 349). Inscriptions, ostraca, papyri apply the term to Roman emperors, particularly to Nero when Paul wrote this very letter (ib., p. 353f.): "One with 'Nero Kurios' quite in the manner of a formula (without article, like the 'Kurios Jesus' in 1 Corinthians 12:3 ." "The battle-cries of the spirits of error and of truth contending at Corinth" (Findlay). One is reminded of the demand made by Polycarp that he say Kurio Caesar and how each time he replied Kurio Ihsou. He paid the penalty for his loyalty with his life. Lighthearted men today can say "Lord Jesus" in a flippant or even in an irreverent way, but no Jew or Gentile then said it who did not mean it.