Eagerly Desire

 

DEVOTION

THE 1^ST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS

EAGERLY DESIRE

1 Cor 12:27-31

27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. 28 And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues. 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30 Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? 31 But eagerly desire the greater gifts.

And now I will show you the most excellent way.

NIV

As we have dealt fairly well with this speaking in tongues and interpretation, we should move on and ask the question which Paul is asking. Not everyone is given the same gift, although with as many people or believers there are we would have to believe there are many repeats. There are only, or at least it seems, only a few different gifts that can go around. From what we can gather there are about twelve gifts and then those four that are given to the church at large. So then if all the stores in town only had twelve items and there were, as an example, three hundred people in the family and all wanted to give someone a birthday gift, there would have to be repeats. Nevertheless, the fact remains the gifts are meant to be given and the Spirit gives to each as he determines and they all have the express reason for the common good. Therefore, there should be no pride in having or being gifted with any particular gift, as each should be for the common good, which is to serve the others. But what we have to consider is this statement that we are to eagerly desire the greater gifts. We should note at the conclusion of all this discussion of the gifts that there are those scholars, many of old, that is past scholars who have already gone, but are of a particular denominational persuasion, insist all these gifts have ceased. There were only intended for the early church during its formation and were never intended to be a permanent part of the church. We could not be any more in disagreement with them as we have witnessed many of the various manifestations of the Spirit in the church today and have been gifted at times with the discernment to know it was the Spirit giving a gift for the common good. In addition, if those scholars of old are so convinced the gifts have ceased, then they are the ones making that claim and are therefore determining there shall be no manifestation of any gifts by the Spirit, thus telling the Spirit that he is not welcome in the church. Who is man to inform God as to what he can do and cannot do in the church? The fact remains that if we insist one aspect of the scripture has no bearing in the church today, then who is to say any of the scripture does, or which part does and which part doesn’t. We might as well just throw it all out because we only want to believe some and not the rest. Maybe we can just start tearing certain pages out, maybe that would work, but then which ones would we choose. We need to move on to eagerly desire the greater gifts, and find this most excellent way. We know it, and we will explore various aspects of love when we get to these next passages. For now let us just consider we should desire the Spirit to have His way in our lives so that we the church function as we should, as one, the body of Christ. So we look forward to the most excellent way.