Word for the day by Christian Education Forum
The Gifts of the Spirits
“And
now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”
(13)
While Apostle
Paul recognizes the importance of spiritual gifts in Christian life, he tells
that there is something superior to these spiritual gifts. Without love all
other gifts are of little importance. Paul is known as the Apostle of the
gentiles and in fact not an Apostle appointed by Jesus Christ. He is proclaimed
himself as an Apostle especially among the gentiles, since his ministry was
mostly among the gentiles. The Corinthian church was both charismatic and
carnal. They had all the gifts, yet they were immature in their life situations
and evidenced a lack of love in their dealings. The gifts, which the
Corinthians considered most highly was the gift of the tongues. They were
referred as lesser gifts by Paul. When the Corinthian church overflowed with
charisma, it was void of the kind of Christian character which led them to
immorality. Spirituality, Paul reiterated, cannot be measured by the presence
of any spiritual gifts by itself, including the gift of the tongues. According
to Paul, spirituality should be measured by the depth of the love shown between
the people.
1 Corinthians
Chapter 13 tells us the present church that just as the Corinthians were wrong
for placing the more spectacular gifts above the others, so they were wrong in
placing excessive emphasis on gifts in general. They were more concerned in
manifesting outward appearance than the inner character. Paul showed that love
was the preeminent virtue because it enhances the value of spiritual gifts, it
enhances the unity and relationships of the saints, and it endures for all
eternity, in contrast to the temporary nature of all gifts, which we consider
as valuable. This appears to be true in the case of present church and its
members. We value structures and administration and physical aspects more than
the spiritual aspects. We do not even welcome people from other cultures to our
parishes. We do not try to accommodate the less fortunate, the marginalized or
the troubled one in to our midst. We value the importance of worshipping
centered on our culture more than anything else. We forget to love each other,
much less love our neighbors.
We are
celebrating the 66th Independence Day of our mother land, India on August 15,
2013. It appears that some of the people in India think that they have the
freedom to everything including raping women and sexually abusing children and
then murdering them. The people in India are also considered as very religious
too like the Corinthian church. But freedom is not to do anything we want to
do, but to be used wisely for the safely and benefit of those around us and to
protect the society as a whole.
Prayer: Lord, set our minds to achieve the
goals that you value the most important, especially your teaching to love your
neighbor as yourself. Lord, make us instruments of love so that we can share
our resources with the less fortunate and marginalized and the troubled ones
among us.
Thought for
the day: A person who
is gifted sees the essential point and leaves the rest as surplus. – Thomas
Carlyle
Theme of the Week: The gifts of the
Spirit.
Lal Varghese, Dallas