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Introduction
Introduction
Introduction
When we come to the end of an all church fellowship and people begin to clean up, what is your natural inclination, help clean up or continue the conversation in which you are immersed?
For those of you who tend to get up and start breaking down tables and folding up chairs, do you ever struggle with the people just sitting there and talking?
Do you ever wonder why they sit and talk while others are doing all the work?
How about those who are sitting and talking?
When others get up and start cleaning up do you sense a little bit of annoyance that they can’t just sit down and fellowship with one another?
Do you tend to see your depth of fellowship as more spiritual than those “Martha’s” who don’t want to just sit and grow in their relationships?
How many of you view this scenario and see within it the beautiful display of diversity within the body of Christ?
If we were all task oriented instead of people oriented, a lot might get done but probably at the expense of relationships.
On the other hand, if we were all people oriented, we may have to conduct our fellowship amidst the clutter of an unkempt building.
Having diversity within the church family allows us to accomplish so much more.
The person with the gift of administration oversees that all the tables and chairs are placed in their proper spot.
Those with the gifts of helps jump in to lend a hand.
Those with the gift of service run and get the vacuum cleaner.
Those with the gift of encouragement sit and talk with others and uplift them.
Within this simple scenario we see a beautiful truth that is intricately and beautifully unfolded for us over the course of the next three chapters in 1 Corinthians.
Purpose Statement.
Every believer is united in Christ and is uniquely gifted by the Spirit to serve the church.
[Read Passage.]
“Now concerning spiritual gifts.”
And with that Paul leads us into a new discussion, a discussion that takes the next three chapters to complete.
It is with those same few words that we come to our first important clarification.
All the translations that I looked at translated this word, pneumatikon, as “spiritual gifts.”
The word primarily refers to those things “pertaining to the spirit” and can be translated as “spiritual person” or as “spiritual things or matters.”
[1] We see this same root word used in .
“Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts” ( ESV).
But near the end of the same chapter we read, “If anyone thinks that he is a prophet, or spiritual” ( ESV).
In the first case it is understood to be spiritual gifts and in the second, spiritual people.
You may remember back in when he tells them that he couldn’t address them as spiritual people.
So then, which is it?
To answer that we look to the rest of the chapter.
It is within the next three chapters and even more specifically the next few verses that the context seems to indicate that this section is talking about gifts.
Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; ( ESV).
to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, ( ESV).
And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues.
( ESV).
Do all possess gifts of healing?
Do all speak with tongues?
Do all interpret?
31 But earnestly desire the higher gifts.
And I will show you a still more excellent way.
( ESV).
We’ll look more at the word “gifts,” but for now let’s move forward with the understanding that Paul wants to address some confusion with the Corinthian believers over their understanding of the spiritual gifts.
Just another area of confusion and division.
The Corinthians would likely have immediately known that Paul was addressing one of the topics on which they had written him.
Do you remember some of the topics that Paul has addressed with them?
Some of them were passed on to him by Chloe and others were questions that had been asked in a letter the Corinthian church had written to him.
They had divided over cults and cliques within the church.
They had manifested sexual perversion, in the form of incest and adultery, within the people of the church.
They had been suing one another.
They had rejected apostolic authority.
There was a great deal of marital conflict.
There had been confusion concerning gender distinctions within the formal worship of the church.
They had divided over the elitism shown by some of the richer members as they displayed their wealth in their fashions.
They had divided as the rich became drunk at the Lord’s Supper while the poor looked on with nothing.
And Paul adds another area of division to the list.
They had been ill informed about spiritual gifts and their use of them in the church.
Their perception of them and use of them had as well caused a great deal of division.
While we can’t know the specific questions or confusion that the Corinthians had, these three chapters do seem to answer quite a few questions.
Are gifts important?
How many gifts does one person have?
What gifts are the most important?
Should everyone have the gift of speaking in tongues?
What is the primary purpose of the spiritual gifts?
How long will gifts last?
Are all gifts still in operation?
How do I know who is really truly spiritual?
And it is this question that Paul first addresses with the Corinthians.
Unity in Christ (1-3).
Paul, first addresses what it is that marks a believer.
It seems that some of the Corinthian believers had drawn some faulty conclusions.
Due to the fact that Paul primarily deals with prophecy and tongues in these three chapters, these two areas of spiritual giftedness were likely the areas of concern.
In similar fashion as to today, some had likely boasted in their gifts.
Maybe they thought their gift of tongues or prophecy identified them as more spiritual than others within the church.
Maybe they thought, like some do today, that every believer should have the gift of tongues.
One modern day charismatic wrote the following.
SCHOENHEIT.
Speaking in tongues is the only absolute proof a Christian has that he is born again and guaranteed a parking place in Paradise . . .
Speaking in tongues is the only valid external, tangible evidence in the senses realm that the internal, intangible gift of holy spirit was shed abroad in one’s heart at the moment of his new birth.[2]
Whether it was elitism or the forcing of specific gifts on other believers, division had occurred within the church.
As a result, Paul desires to inform them on the topic of spiritual gifts.
What is the mark of a Christian?
So then, if tongues or some other gift isn’t the visible sign of a true Christian, how are we to determine who is really a believer?
This seems to be the question that Paul first answers.
In so doing he offers a verse that has caused a great deal of consternation by many believers.
Paul often reminds them of their past life as he leads believers to better understand their present position in Christ.
Still, this verse seems a little out of place for the topic.
Why does Paul bring up their having been led astray to mute idols?
ESV).
Paul often reminds them of their past life as he leads believers to better understand their present position in Christ.
Still, this verse seems a little out of place for the topic.
Why does Paul bring up their having been led astray to mute idols?
Several pagan practices were especially influential in the church at Corinth.
Perhaps the most important, and certainly the most obvious, was that of ecstasy, considered to be the highest expression of religious experience.
Because it seemed supernatural and because it was dramatic and often bizarre, the practice strongly appealed to the natural man.
And because the Holy Spirit had performed many miraculous works in that apostolic age, some Corinthian Christians confused those true wonders with the false wonders counterfeited in the ecstasies of paganism.[3]
Paul acknowledges that their former lives were characterized by idol worship.
That idol worship was characterized by ecstatic, enthusiastic, and energetic expressions – some of those similar to modern day expressions of tongue speakers.
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