
Originally Posted by
DanV
SPIRITUAL GIFTS AND LOVE - 1 CORINTHIANS 12, 13
Before the New Testament was completed, while it was in the process of being written, in certain places, and at certain times, God gave special Miraculous Manifestations of the Holy Spirit to help the Churches guide themselves in the Truth.
This was necessary, because the Apostles were few, the Churches far apart, the means of transportation and communication slow, no railroads, telegraphs or radios. Ideas could travel no faster than people could travel, the Churches everywhere overrun with false teachers making all kinds of false claims, and Churches had no written records as to actual facts.
Apparently there had recently been a brilliant display of Gifts of the Holy Spirit in Corinth. One of these gifts was that of Speaking in Tongues, that is, in a Foreign Language, probably, as the Apostles did on the day of Pentecost - Acts 2:8.
1 Corinthians 12:
This gift, whatever it was, was very popular with the Corinthians. They all wanted it. If a brother could get up in a meeting, and speak right out in a language that his neighbor knew he had never studied, that would be plain evidence that he was under direct control of the Holy Spirit. And they would look up to him. Then, as now, some people went to Church for the honor they could get out of it for themselves.
The various gifts of the Spirit, enumerated in 1 Corinthians 12:8-10, were Wisdom, Knowledge, Faith, Healings, Miracles, Prophecy, Tongues, Interpretating of Tongues. It is in a discussion of the Relative Value of these various gifts that the Love chapter is set.
1 Corinthians 13:
Love, the Premier Teaching of Christianity. An undying expression of Jesus' doctrine of Heavenly Love. More potent for the building of the Church than any, or all, of the various mainifestations of God's Power.
Love, the Church's most effective weapon. Love, without which all of the various Gifts of the Spirit are of no avail. Love, the Essence of God's Nature. Love, the Perfection of Human Character. Love, the most Powerful Ultimate Force in the Universe.
Even if I bestow all my goods to Feed the Poor, even if I give my body to be burned, if I Have Not Love, it Profits me Nothing - 1 Corinthians 13:3. What a thought-provoking passage!
The Gift of Speaking like an Angel, of Prophesying, of having All Knowledge, of Faith that Moves Mountains, of Charity to the last dollar, even Martyrdom, all of no use unless we have the Spirit of Christian LOVE. A call to Self-Examination.
God Bless,
Dan