THE KING’S BUSINESS
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below the one who loves, no matter how humble his gift may be (cf. 1 John 4:7, 8 ; James 2:8; John 13:35). t
speaks for God, who is so inspired of God that he reveals truth from Him. Being a prophet does not necessarily imply predic tion, though prediction was a large part of the work of the prophet. The third place is occupied by - the “teachers,” of whom there are many.. No man has a right to take this office upon himself unless -he is called of God. After teachers corné “work ers of miracles.” One may be both a teacher and a worker of miracles. Work ing of miracles is secondary to and subor dinate to the work of the teacher. Way down in the list comes “gifts of healings.” There were healers in the early church; there may be healers today. When one claims to be a healer and when he seems to demonstrate his power to heal he is greatly exalted by men, but from God’s point of view his vocation is a very subor dinate one. After the healer comes “helps,” “governments,” “divers kinds of tongues.” It is to be noted that the gift of tongues comes the very last in the long list of gifts, as the least important, the least to be desired. This is the uniform teaching of the Word. Not all are “apostles,” not all are “prophets,” not all are “teachers,” not all are “workers of miracles,” not all have “gifts of healing”, not all “speak with tongues.”. God says “No. Each believer and each Spirit baptized believer has his own gift which God has chosen for him.” Instead of seeking some gift that God has not seen fit to bestow upon us, as for example, the “gift of tongues,” it is' the part of each one of us to be content with the function which God has chosen for us. Nevertheless, we should “désire earnestly the greater gifts,” i.e., the gifts of proph ecy or of the teacher, rather than desir ing, as so many did in Corinth (see ch. 14) and as so many do today, the “gift of tongues.” Yet there is an exceedingly better way, a pre-eminent way, a way that goes beyond having even the best gifts. What that way is, the thirteenth chapter declares. When we study this chapter we shall see that this way is “love.”. Even the apostle and prophet is set forth as
Thursday, December 6 . I Corinthians 13 : 1 - 3 .
In the thirteenth Chapter Paul tells us what the exceedingly better and pre-emi nent way is; and that way is “love.” The chapter naturally divides itself into three parts: Part one—Love Contrasted, or the Absolute Indispensibility of Love, verses 1-3; Part two—Love Described, or the Every Day Manifestations of Love, verses 4-7; Part three—Love Exalted, or the Peerless Pre-eminence of Love, verses 8-13. In the verses immediately before us, verses 1-3, Paul contrasts love with the various gifts of the Spirit and shows how none of them will take its place, how Love is absolutely indispensible. He brings for ward in rapid succession five, things which were held in great esteem in Corinth and shows not only the pre-eminence of love above them all, but, furthermore, how not one of them nor all of them together will supply the lack of lov£ If love be lacking all these things count for “nothing.” The first of the gifts considered is the gift of tongues. This seems to have been put first because Paul is working toward a climax, beginning with the lowest and closr ing with the ^greatest. Furthermore, the saints in Corinth like a certain body of Christians today seemed to have put a high estimate on this gift. The saints in Cor inth seem; also to have been peculiarly gifted in this direction and to have been very proud of their gifts (ch. 14:2-23). Each was eager to outstrip the other in the display of this gift (ch. 14:23, 26, 27, 28). Paul tells them that - their much boasted gift amounts to little. He tells them that the grace of love is so far a “still more exceeding way” than the gift of tongues, that, if love be lacking, speaking with tongues not only of men but of angels would leave them only “sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.” How the world would admire and applaud a man who could speak with the “tongues of men
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