1 Corinthians 14:1
It is love, then, that you should strive for. Set your hearts on spiritual gifts, especially the gift of proclaiming God's message. GNB
Pursue love, and desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. NKJV
I’ve always had a sneaking admiration for Christians who are brilliant speakers of God’s word, or who are filled with faith, or are awesomely consistently reliably helpful in a myriad of ways. And that is still the case, its good to be like them as they are like Jesus. Have a look at the whole passage from 1 Corinthians 12 to 14.
But its possible for some to think negatively about the gifts the Lord does through them. I’m just an ear, or a hand or a big toe and I want to be an eye. Don’t go there with your thinking, all are necessary. All Christians are in the body of Christ. All are given something to do and are equipped for by the Holy Spirit as He sees best.
Also, if we have a look at Paul’s teaching, it is possible to have big gifting and be destructive with those gifts. For example to speak in tongues but be a clanging symbol, or even to give huge amounts of money away, to no good effect. Its better to have a great character than great gifts alone.
The key is to grow into maturity, or to grow up in Christ, which is to grow in love, real practical love. Love which puts God’s kingdom, the way of living heaven on earth, not just as the icing on the cake, but worked through the whole cake. A love that puts others first, or in more drastic terms found in Isaiah 58, to have the love of God so motivate us that we fast from our own things in order to have the space and time to pour ourselves out for others.
And this applies to earnestly desiring the Spiritual Gifts too. Paul is writing to the whole church. So rather than say just desiring that the Holy Spirit gives me gifts of healing (no bad thing) its probably better to earnestly desire that the Holy Spirit gives those gifts to the church – to anybody in the body. I reckon that is a good way of avoiding the danger of pride. God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble – and these are gifts of grace.
A church running after the Lord like that is itself a proclamation of God’s message. ‘By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, that you have love, one for another’.
None of this is to say we are not a loving church, its just a reminder to keep on being like it and growing more and more into the full stature of Christ.
It is love, then, that you should strive for. Set your hearts on spiritual gifts, especially the gift of proclaiming God's message. GNB
Pursue love, and desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. NKJV
I’ve always had a sneaking admiration for Christians who are brilliant speakers of God’s word, or who are filled with faith, or are awesomely consistently reliably helpful in a myriad of ways. And that is still the case, its good to be like them as they are like Jesus. Have a look at the whole passage from 1 Corinthians 12 to 14.
But its possible for some to think negatively about the gifts the Lord does through them. I’m just an ear, or a hand or a big toe and I want to be an eye. Don’t go there with your thinking, all are necessary. All Christians are in the body of Christ. All are given something to do and are equipped for by the Holy Spirit as He sees best.
Also, if we have a look at Paul’s teaching, it is possible to have big gifting and be destructive with those gifts. For example to speak in tongues but be a clanging symbol, or even to give huge amounts of money away, to no good effect. Its better to have a great character than great gifts alone.
The key is to grow into maturity, or to grow up in Christ, which is to grow in love, real practical love. Love which puts God’s kingdom, the way of living heaven on earth, not just as the icing on the cake, but worked through the whole cake. A love that puts others first, or in more drastic terms found in Isaiah 58, to have the love of God so motivate us that we fast from our own things in order to have the space and time to pour ourselves out for others.
And this applies to earnestly desiring the Spiritual Gifts too. Paul is writing to the whole church. So rather than say just desiring that the Holy Spirit gives me gifts of healing (no bad thing) its probably better to earnestly desire that the Holy Spirit gives those gifts to the church – to anybody in the body. I reckon that is a good way of avoiding the danger of pride. God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble – and these are gifts of grace.
A church running after the Lord like that is itself a proclamation of God’s message. ‘By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, that you have love, one for another’.
None of this is to say we are not a loving church, its just a reminder to keep on being like it and growing more and more into the full stature of Christ.
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