The Gifted Church

I Corinthians 12-14

When these three chapters are read as a unit, the power of a united church and what holds her together becomes obvious. We know earlier that the fractured state of the Corinthian church was over personality (Paul or Apollos), worship, morality, and even the love feast. Now Paul brings another point of division, the use of spiritual gifts.

"The Big 9" (12:1-11)
Paul lists nine manifestations of the Spirit: the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, faith, gifts of healing, miracles, prophecy, discernment of spirits, speaking in tongues, and interpretation of tongues. In our spring semester on "Gifted for Ministry", we will study each of these "gifts" in detail, so I won't deal with them here. But the word "gifts" in this passage is not really accurate. A gift is something you recieve and share, where this is really where the presence of God works in and through us. Christians in ministry are called to make use of both their natural inherited and developed gifts as well as their spiritual gifts that emerge and develop through our walk with Christ. But these manifestations can happen through anyone at any time. It is the need of the one with whom we are doing ministry that determines how we are used. It is true that some of these manifestations may happen more often through us than others, but we are not limited to a certain one or set of these manifestations.

The other question to ask is if these nine are the only manifestations (an exhaustive list). I would say they are a guiding list and that they probably did describe the way the Holy Spirit was working in the Corinthian Church, but the Holy Spirit is not limited to any list. At the same time, it is important to bounce any manifestation off the teachings of Scripture. We are taught to "test the spirits," because not every spiritual insight or power we experience is true or holy. Our own biases and desires can and do get in the way. I find it interesting that the "discernment of spirits" is one of the big nine.

As varied as these manifestations are, they are from "the same Spirit." Paul hammers this phrase home throughout this passage. The diverse ways God works are not to be a source of division and competition. Each manifestation finds its purpose and function in the power of the Holy Spirit. This is still a powerful message for our day in differences are made into polarized divisions rather than as part of a greater whole.

"Body Language" (I Corinthians 12:12-31)
We have already covered this in our study of Ephesians earlier. We are an organic ministry in which each of us contributes who we are, what we have, and what we are becoming into a greater whole. We are not and can never be the total package of ministry. Our usefulness to God is directly related to our willingness to work with others, owning both our abilities and our limitations. This is a powerful corrective to the individualism in our society and the growing individualism in the Church. "Jesus and Me" is not a Christian theme.

Paul correct their competitive value system by noting that those that seem least important (some manifestations and ministries are more public than others, but not more valuable) may be what is needed the most. The other is that we succeed and fail, celebrate and hurt together as the body of Christ, and eventually we win as that same body. Jim Buskirk, retired pastor at First United Methodist Church in Tulsa said about his golf game, "I have learned to enjoy the game of golf. I do my best, but I know that God has called me to complete more than compete. There is real joy and freedom in that." Do I hear an Amen? What if we applied that to marriage and family, to relationships at work and in the church, to the work of churches of various denominations and specialities in our city, etc. Lord, help us discover the freedom and joy of completion and help us cast aside our unhealthy preoccupation with competition.

"Prophecy and Tongues" (I Corinthians 14)
Again, these will be handled in detail in our second semester. In Pentecostal and charismatic settings, there has been a revival of these gifts in worship. Prophecy is where a person will speak a word from the Lord to the people. Sometimes it is offered in the first person, like the Old Testament prophets did as they spoke for the LORD. You may even hear the phrase, "Thus saith the Lord," or a more contemporary version. Prophecy happens sometimes in my preaching and counsel with people, but I have never been comfortable speaking for God in the first person. I will say something like, "I think I may have a word from the Lord for you," or "God has really been speaking to me lately about this." This is not prophecy of future events. There is actually very little of that kind of prophecy in the Bible. The prophets of the Old Testament were not foretellers (predictors of the future) as much as they were forthtellers (speaking forth the word of God in Spirit and power). Prophecy here described in I Corinthians 14 is forthtelling.

Speaking in tongues is where God gives the message to a person in a tongue they have never learned. There seem to be two varieties of this that have operated in the history of the Church. The first is "ecstatic utterance," a form of spontaneous babbling, what Michael Green calls, a love language to the Lord. Others call it a prayer language. In charismatic or Pentecostal worship it is often spoken or sung. Musically, it tends to be ethereal sounding and variations off a single chord that can happen for several minutes. It can be quite beautiful. Often, because the purpose is worship, there is no interpreation of this kind of speaking or singing in tongues. Those who participate in this kind of worship also speak or sing in tongues in their personal devotional life.

When "speaking in tongues" is offered as a message for the people, it is the biblical standard that someone will give an interpretation of the message. Again, most of the time this is in an ecstatic utterance, but occassionally it will be in a language. I will never forget the high praise of a friend at Oral Roberts University that was spoken out in perfect church Latin. I asked him later if he had a Roman Catholic background or had learned the mass as a child. He said, "No." Then, I suddenly realized that the message he had spoken was for me, and I should have given the interpretation, because I was the only one who knew what he was saying (because of my extensive learning of church Latin in my musical background). In most cases, there is not such a direct correlation between words and interpretation. Once the interpretation is given, it forms the same function as prophecy, as a message of God for the people.

It is interesting that Paul says that the main function for speaking in tongues in the worship service is for the unbeliever. Like the "signs and wonders" of Jesus' ministry (as well as the early apostles), speaking in tongues is one of God's attention getters, to let the people of God and those who are aroud them know that He is present. The miracles were never meant to be an end to themselves. They pointed to the one who was doing them and the kingdom of God for which they stood. Speaking in tongues is meant to point people to the Holy Spirit, the source of our power to live our Christian lives and do ministry that changes the world.

The last section of this chapter is about how to share prophecy and tongues in an orderly manner in worship. Anyone that has been in a charismatic setting and witnessed these in operation know why there is this concern. If we are not careful, these very showy gifts of the Spirit can start to become a spectacle to themselves rather than as a means by which God speaks to His people. I have been blessed by those who have shared such gifts and in order and in the power of the Spirit, it can be very moving. But there have been times when I have seen this gift used improperly and unscripturally. I guess that will be true of anything we do, as long as fallible human beings share of themselves of the holy things of God. Again, we must find a balance of being as open to the Spirit as possible and being willing to test what is shared for its authenticity. Fortunately, God is gracious.

"The Ultimate Unifier" (I Corinthians 13)
I have discussed this chapter last to show its role in this passage and in the Church. This may well be the second most popular passage of scripture to "the Lord's Prayer". For those who get caught up in the drama and spectacle of spiritual gifts, Paul gives a centering word. You can be the most spiritually gifted person in the world and it is worthless unless there is love. The word here is "agape," that love which makes the other person the focus, without requiring that we feel common attraction or even will be loved in return. A friend shared recently that God is moving people from preference to deference, from what I want to what others need. I really like that. It is really a shift from religious self-centeredness to holy love.

We want to be popular. Paul says, "Be loving." We want to be significant. Paul says, "Be loving." We want to be heroic. Paul says,"Be loving." In the end, love is not as much about feelings, as it is about an attitude, a disposition, of way of being and doing. It is both theory (an understanding of our relationships with each other in light of our relationship with a loving God) and practice (in which we love becomes a verb not a noun). Verses 4-7 could be combined with the fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23 for a great study in what it means to be characteristically a loving disciple of Jesus Christ.

In the end, love is all we have and what we do in ministry. It is what made us disciples of Jesus Christ in the first place. It is what holds us together. And it is what will get us through to the fulness of our personal salvation and the salvation of the world. I find a great word here. Love in Christ is the center of who we are and what we are about, and we can only be Christian and do ministry well when that is at the center. I'm doing some checking about the places where the love of Christ may not be central for me. How about you?

See you in our great love feast at the Southwest Campus tomorrow.