1 Corinthians 12:6 · World English Bible
1 Corinthians 12:6 Meaning There Are Various Kinds of Workings
There are various kinds of workings, but the same God, who works all things in all.
What does 1 Corinthians 12:6 mean?
Tawḥīd al-afʿāl: Seeing one doer behind every act Sufis use the phrase for tracing every action back to a single source. When people work side by side, the differences between them turn into a ranking almost on their own.
From the Sufism reading below.
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Tawḥīd al-afʿāl: Seeing one doer behind every act Sufis use the phrase for tracing every action back to a single source. When people work side by side, the differences between them turn into a ranking almost on their own. Following each ability back past the person holding it takes that ranking apart, since the same hand stands behind all of them.
No power and no strength except by God: ability is on loan A saying of the Prophet, repeated many times a day. Anyone good at something starts to feel the ability as personal property, earned and owned, and then gets anxious about keeping it. Repeating the words hands it back to where it came from, which lifts a weight off the person without taking the work away.
Istiʿdād: The capacity a person brings Ibn Arabi's word for how much a given person is ready to hold. The same giving lands differently in different people, and the difference sits in the receiver rather than in the gift. Someone steady gets steady work and someone quick gets quick work, and neither one was handed a smaller share.
Al-Asmāʾ al-Ḥusnā: The beautiful names of God God is called by many names, and Ibn Arabi taught that each person stands under one of them in particular. One person's work comes out as mercy, another's as firmness, and both are the same God under a different name. Two people can look like opposites from the outside and still be carrying the same thing.
Ikhlāṣ: Acting for God alone Al-Ghazali writes at length about work done with only one audience in mind. Abilities curdle the moment they become a bid for attention, and the person doing the work is usually the last to catch it. Keeping the aim on God alone leaves the work steady whether anyone claps or not.
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Live 1 Corinthians 12:6 today
- Name one thing you are good at, then say to yourself that it was handed to you. Feel how much lighter it is to carry something you do not have to defend.
- Today, say out loud to someone what they are good at, especially if their strength is the opposite of yours. Say it as a difference, not a ranking.
- When your work goes unnoticed or someone else gets the credit, do the next piece of it with the same care. That is the only real test of who you were working for.
Whose ability have you been quietly ranking below your own?
The same truth in other traditions
Bhagavad Gita 3
All actions are carried out by the forces of nature, and the person who thinks "I did this" has misread what happened. The doing goes on; the ownership was imagined.
Tao Te Ching 2
The wise act and do not claim the result. Having done the work, they do not stand on it, and so nothing is taken from them.
Stoicism · Epictetus
Your talents, your body, your reputation are things lent to you, not things you own. Use them well and hand them back without complaint when asked.
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