verse five to the Lord Jesus Christ; and in verse six to God the Father. Putting these truths all together we can see how effective the Chris tian community can and should be. Instead of stepping on some one else's toes, trying to outdo one another, we should seek only to bring honor and glory to our Lord. Christians should never do something just because someone else is doing it, or because men urge us to respond. We are to be open to the leading of the Spirit. Beginning with verse seven we have a listing of some of these spe cific gifts. In all of these we must note how the Spirit gives as He so chooses (vrs. 4-11). As with us, the Corinthian Christians could desire a particular gift, but it was in the Spirit's province alone to make the bestowal. The next question is how these gifts are to be used. This is a brief overview which does not allow great detail. What we want to see is the broad overriding theme which is the edification of the whole body (vrs. 12-31). Each in dividual must, in his own special, spirit-directed way, benefit the whole Church. The fellowship at Corinth lacked any cohesive unity for the Lord. Some of the heathen worship showed even more con cern than did these selfish Chris tians. Where one person thinks he is better than another there are sad seeds of dissension and divi sion already sown. Verses 25 and 26 illustrate the need for this em phasis on unity. There is not to be any rift in the Body. We should have the same care one for anoth er that our human, physical beings experience. This is not only a gen eral emphasis upon unity but also Page 41
Today, as in that early hour of the Christian church, we need to meas ure our practice by the Word of God. It is sad to see these people so proud and aggressive that they falsely assumed they were of great value to Christianity. The same devilish dangers face us as well. Not everyone in the body of Christ receives exactly the same gift. Boasting, pride and self-sat isfaction have no place in the Christian life. Paul told the peo ple that they were abusing the gift of tongues. Its practice was to be controlled with ail things, done decently and in order. I be lieve the tongues of I Corinthians were foreign languages. What we see today is more a non-linguistic repetitious series of sounds. That it is a special annointing of the Holy Spirit is rather doubtful. The ultimate purpose is different from the desirable use of the gift in the first century of Christianity. The first thing we see in the 12th chapter is Paul teaching on the di versity of gifts, offices and tasks. Everyone cannot be expected to possess the same gifts (vs. 4). Al though one in our Cod and mem bers of the body of Christ, the Corinthians were to learn that each man had his own gift, his own office and his own task to fulfill. We have no Scriptural authority for stating that everyone is to do as we may do as far as spiritual stature and function is concerned. There is also diversity in the spe cific tasks which an individual is to accomplish (vs. 6). The interest ing thing about this variety of ser vices is that there is only one Cod who works through us all. It is sig nificant that in verse four we have reference to the Holy Spirit; in
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