1 Corinthians 12:1-3

1 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant:

² You know that you were Gentiles, carried away to these dumb idols, however you were led.

³ Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.

I make known to you (v.3) — When they were heathens, the Corinthians knew nothing of spiritual things and were easily led into the worship of idols (and the satanic power behind them), but now that Paul has instructed them, they have a basis for discernment.

Jesus accursed (v.3) — It is by no means unlikely that the Jews would make those who had been friendly toward the Christians either pronounce this curse or be thrown out of the synagogue as is recorded in John 9:22. Paul said to Agrippa when testifying of his former persecution of Christians, “I often punished them in every synagogue and forced them to blaspheme” (Acts 26:11).

Bible history and Bible antiquity tell us that in Paul’s day when the saints were gathered for worship and the gospel was being preached, many times unbelievers or hostile persons would gain admission into the synagogue, and in the midst of the message these men would suddenly spring to their feet and shout out, “Anathema Jesus!” Historians also tell us that the Gnostics demanded that anyone who joined them shout out these words. — Laurin, page 389.

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It has often been asked why miraculous signs basically associated with Pentecost and Israel, should now be found among the Gentiles. Our answer is that these signs were bestowed largely though, not only, for the sake of the Jews.

 Acts 18 relates how the Corinthian church got started in a Jewish synagogue, but Paul’s ministry there did not last long, for soon there was a division over Christ, and Paul and the believers had to continue their meetings in the house of a Gentile named Justus. From this point on the church grew by leaps and bounds until now as Paul writes to them they are a large, apparently a very large, church, composed mostly of Gentile believers.

But 1 Corinthians is largely a letter of rebuke for the loose, indifferent lives they lived. What a poor testimony to the Jews, who surely had their eyes on them now!

However, God gave the Jews unimpeachable evidence that the message about Christ, which the Corinthians saints proclaimed, was true: these miraculous signs the Jews must accept (1 Corinthians 1:22) — Stam, page 201