{"id":17009,"date":"2021-07-30T21:56:13","date_gmt":"2021-07-31T04:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/1corinthians-12_28-13-3-copy\/"},"modified":"2021-07-30T21:56:13","modified_gmt":"2021-07-31T04:56:13","slug":"1corinthians-12_28-13-3-copy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/1corinthians-12_28-13-3-copy\/","title":{"rendered":"Serve with Your Gifts, Love with Your Heart Copy"},"content":{"rendered":"

1 Corinthians 12:28-13:3 \u00a0Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is 1 Corinthians 12:28-13:3. Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

1 Corinthians 12:28 (NIV)<\/em><\/strong>
\n28\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0And 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.<\/em><\/p>\n

On 12:28:\u00a0\u00a0Here Paul lists a number of roles and spiritual gifts that God has given various individuals in His Church.\u00a0\u00a0Looking at the first three that Paul mentions, an apostle is someone who is gifted and commissioned to start new churches and ventures and oversee their development.\u00a0\u00a0A prophet is someone who\u00a0senses when the Holy Spirit is giving a message to strengthen, encourage or comfort other people and communicates that message effectively to the people.\u00a0\u00a0A teacher is someone who teaches God\u2019s people by interpreting, explaining and applying the Bible in a way that causes them to learn.\u00a0\u00a0The teaching role can also involve the ability to equip and train other believers to serve God effectively.\u00a0\u00a0Truly it takes different types of individuals and different abilities and gifts to build God\u2019s church<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

1 Corinthians 12:29-30 (NIV)<\/em><\/strong>
\n29\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles?
\n30\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret?<\/em><\/p>\n

On 12:29-30:\u00a0\u00a0In verses 29-30 Paul asks rhetorically \u201care all apostles? Are all prophets?\u00a0\u00a0Are all teachers?…\u201d The obvious answer is no.\u00a0\u00a0Not everyone has the spiritual gift of being an apostle, a prophet, a teacher, etc. because God has a unique gift set for every person.\u00a0\u00a0As Paul established earlier in 1 Corinthians 12,\u00a0the Holy Spirit intentionally gives each of us different sets of gifts so that we can work together, leverage each other\u2019s strengths, cover each other\u2019s weaknesses, and rely on each other as God builds His church through us.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

1 Corinthians 12:31 (NIV)<\/em><\/strong>
\n31\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0But eagerly desire the greater gifts. And now I will show you the most excellent way.<\/em><\/p>\n

On 12:31:\u00a0\u00a0What are the \u201cgreater gifts\u201d that Paul is referring to?\u00a0\u00a0Remember that a major theme in 1 Corinthians is not seeking our own good but the good of others (1 Corinthians 10:24). Thus, it is safe to conclude that the greater gifts are those that help others and not just ourselves.<\/p>\n

Here Paul might be alluding to a problem which he will address in greater detail in 1 Corinthians 14, which is that the church of Corinth tended to overemphasize and over-glorify the gift of speaking in tongues above other spiritual gifts.\u00a0\u00a0Paul will clarify in 1 Corinthians 14 that the gift of speaking in tongues is a wonderful gift worth desiring, but it is a gift that is most commonly used to edify oneself rather than to help others.\u00a0\u00a0For this reason Paul would rather that the Christians in the church in Corinth desire more eagerly gifts that directly serve and help others.<\/p>\n

While it is true that the Holy Spirit is the one who determines what spiritual gifts we will have, the fact that Paul says \u201ceagerly desire the greater gifts\u201d suggests to me that\u00a0it is okay and in fact good to eagerly desire and ask the Holy Spirit for an increase in spiritual gifts, provided that your motive for asking is to help people and serve God more effectively<\/strong>.\u00a0\u00a0As Jesus says in Luke 11:13, \u201cIf you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!\u201d<\/p>\n

1 Corinthians 13:1-3 (NIV)<\/em><\/strong>
\n1\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
\n2\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
\n3\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.<\/em><\/p>\n

On 13:1-3:\u00a0\u00a0As important and useful as spiritual gifts are, Paul confirms in\u00a01\u00a0Corinthians\u00a013:1-3 that\u00a0how we love is far more important than what spiritual gifts we have<\/strong>.\u00a0 In fact, if I don’t learn to love, it doesn’t matter what I say (\u201cIf I\u00a0speak<\/em>\u00a0in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love\u201d \u2013 13:1), what I know (\u201cIf I have the gift of prophecy and can\u00a0fathom all mysteries and all knowledge<\/em>\u201d \u2013 13:2a), what I believe (\u201cif I have a faith<\/em>\u00a0that can move mountains<\/em>, but have not love\u201d \u2013 13:2b) or how much I give (\u201cIf I give all I possess to the poor<\/em>\u00a0and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love\u201d \u2013 13:3).\u00a0 None of it matters if I don\u2019t live a life of love. In the end it all comes down to love.\u00a0 That is why Paul calls love \u201cthe most excellent way\u201d (12:31).<\/p>\n

Heavenly Father, I pray for every person reading this GAME sharing, that we would excel<\/em>\u00a0in using our spiritual gifts, but even more may we excel in how we love You, love one another, and love those who are far from You.\u00a0 May we be people who excel in the most excellent way, which is love.\u00a0\u00a0In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is 1 Corinthians 12:28-13:3. Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

1 Corinthians 12:28 (NIV)
\n28\u00a0\u00a0And 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.<\/p>\n

On 12:28:\u00a0\u00a0Here Paul lists a number of roles and spiritual gifts that God has given various individuals in His Church.\u00a0\u00a0Looking at the first three that Paul mentions, an apostle is someone who is gifted and commissioned to start new churches and ventures and oversee their development.\u00a0\u00a0A prophet is someone who\u00a0senses when the Holy Spirit is giving a message to strengthen, encourage or comfort other people and communicates that message effectively to the people.\u00a0\u00a0A teacher is someone who teaches God\u2019s people by interpreting, explaining and applying the Bible in a way that causes them to learn.\u00a0\u00a0The teaching role can also involve the ability to equip and train other believers to serve God effectively.\u00a0\u00a0Truly it takes different types of individuals and different abilities and gifts to build God\u2019s church.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16987,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17009\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}