Every Tongue Will Confess

Q. 1 Corinthians 12:3 states that no one can say that Jesus is Lord with out the Holy Spirit. Now I’m sure there is some explanation but how does that fit with Philippians 2: 10-11?

“that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,  to the glory of God the Father.”

A. In Corinth, believers who didn’t have the gift of tongues had started a rumor that those who did were actually cursing Jesus. Paul told them that no one who is speaking by the Spirit can curse Jesus, and no one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Spirit.  (1 Cor. 12:3) In effect he was telling them that since their brothers claimed Jesus as their Lord, they couldn’t be cursing Him in their strange languages.

Philippians 2:10-11 is a statement meant for the End of the Age when the Lord returns.  By then there will be no doubt as to who is Lord.  Paul even invented a new word to describe the extent of this awareness, literally saying that from above the heavens to below the earth, every tongue would agree.  This of course includes the lost as well as the saved, and the demons as well as the angels.  Not even Satan will be excluded.  Sadly many who refused to accept Him as their Savior will be in this group and will be forced by the events they’ve witnessed to admit that Jesus is Lord even as they’re being led away to begin their punishment.