“Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed. You know that when you were pagans you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led. Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says “Jesus is accursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit. Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.”
It also seems that the Corinthian Church had gone past was written concerning the exercise of spiritual gifts in corporate worship. The Apostle’s teaching at this point is two-fold. One, God is the sole granter and orchestrator of any gift. Two, the exercise of any gift is for the edifying of the body toward the glory of God and not the glorification of the individual. Paul’s purpose in saying these things seems to be a recognition that the body of Christ is comprised of many members all of whom have special, unique giftings that are to be used within the context of the corporate body of believers. To use one’s gift to somehow draw a differentiation between believers is not only unholy but rebellious before God Himself. God appoints who is at what level of maturity and leadership within His Church, not those who possess some sort of gifting. To set the standard of maturity in any other way than what God has mandated within His word is to go beyond what is written; something the Corinthian believers had begun to do probably as a result of their previous way of thinking. Paul then goes on to explain that such a self centered way of thinking; that is, one that would separate persons on the basis of giftedness is not only rebellious but very unloving. It is no accident that in the middle of this section on the problems of spiritual gifts Paul gives one of the greatest declarations of what genuine Christian love actually is. Let not the reader fall into the trap of divorcing any biblical text from its context. Here Paul is speaking not just to the nobility of Christian love (although this is certainly true), he is rather placing the exercise of God given gifts within the context of God’s design in which He expects any activity of the believer to be carried out. In short, it matters not what God has given, if it is not applied within the design God has ordained, it goes beyond what God has purposed. The gifting and the design must go together, hand-in-hand. Paul’s point affirms this idea as Paul repeated says if he does anything, even the greatest of things, without love, they are useless.
Older
Top
