St.  Thomas On “No One Can Say Jesus Is Lord Except In The Holy Spirit”

St. Thomas Aquinas, Commentary On 1 Cor. 12:3: “And no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. But against this seems to be the fact that by the Holy Spirit man is introduced to the kingdom of heaven, as it says in Ps 143 (v. 10): ‘Your good spirit leads me along the right path.’ The Lord, however, says: ‘Not everyone who says, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven’ (Matt 7:21). Therefore, not everyone who says ‘Lord Jesus,’ says it in the Holy Spirit. The answer is that saying something in the Holy Spirit can be understood in two ways: in one way in the Holy Spirit moving but not possessed. For the Holy Spirit moves the hearts of certain men to speak, although He does not dwell in them, as it says in John (11:49) that in predicting the utility of the Lord’s death Caiaphas did not speak from himself but through the Spirit of prophecy. Balaam also predicted many true things, but moved by the Holy Spirit, as it says in Numbers (chaps. 23 & 24), although he did not possess Him. According to this, therefore, it must be understood that no one can say anything true, unless moved by the Holy Spirit, Who is the Spirit of truth, of Whom it is said in John (16:13): ‘When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth.’ Hence Ambrose says in a Gloss: ‘Every truth by whomsoever spoken is from the Holy Spirit.’ This applies especially to matters of faith, which are had by a special revelation of the Holy Spirit. Among these is the fact that Jesus is Lord of them all. Hence it says in Ac (2:36): ‘Let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.’ In another way someone speaks in the Holy Spirit moving and possessed. And according to this, what is said here can be verified, but in such a way that ‘to speak’ refers not only to the mouth but also to the heart and the deed. For something is said by the heart as in Ps 14 (v. 1): ‘The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’’ But something is said by deed, inasmuch as someone by an external work manifests his thought. No one, therefore, except by having the Holy Spirit can say: ‘Jesus is Lord,’ in such a way that he confesses this not only by the mouth but also with the heart reveres Him as Lord and in work obeys Him as Lord.”