Sermon Tone Analysis
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Imagine this box contained the gift you were to others, what would we find inside it?
Why not think of a few words that help to express the gifts God has given you that you can share with others.
If you find it hard to reflect on yourself this way, try asking - what would I want others to say about me and my gifts when I’m not around?
Top tip: this is more about who you are as a person, than material things you might be able to provide others like money or possessions…
Some Background
Since chapter 8:1 through to 10:22, Paul has been addressing the topic of worship.
The main thing to keep in mind when we consider what the Apostle Paul says in Corinthians is that he is responding to issues raised in an earlier letter from Corinth.
That letter doesn’t exist, that we know of, but what ever it contained, Paul is seeking to be ‘corrective’ in writing back to them - not instructional or informational.
When we get to chapter 12, it is clear that Paul is still speaking about corporate worship - what the church does together when it meets as a gathered congregation.
The trigger for what Paul writes is still the main issue at hand:
The abuse within this congregation of Corinth around the use of tongues.
More specifically, what the Corinthians are saying about how the gift of tongues is directly related to whether someone is spiritual or not.
And so Paul writes...
I should say that the translation spiritual gifts could just as easily be rendered spiritual people - it’s hard to determine from the original greek - but I don’t think it changes anything that follows...
Do you see what Paul is seeking to do here?
Paul is trying to alert them to the fact that it wasn’t that long ago they were the people who would have been saying the same things about how to be a good pagan.
Don’t make the same mistake with this “we’ve got it all covered, thank you very much”, Paul says: you’ve gone down that road before - remember!
You don’t get to determine what is spiritual, who are spiritual and what constitutes a spiritual gift.
Paul’s overall criterion of genuineness in this matter of spirituality:
The burning desire of the Holy Spirit to glorify Jesus.
The ultimate criterion of the Spirit’s activity is the exaltation of Jesus as Lord.
Whatever takes away from that, even if they be legitimate expressions of the Spirit, begins to move away from Christ to a more pagan fascination with spiritual activity as an end in itself.
Gordon Fee, God’s empowering presence, p158
Of course, Jesus himself said quite a bit about the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
Just an observation, but it seems strange to me that we often bypass what our Lord Jesus says and go straight for 1 Corinthians.
Back to Paul - and notice how he seeks to correct his brothers and sisters in Corinth:
charismata, ie grace (charis)
The variety of God’s grace is not a matter of earning his favour or attention: out of His love God gives to everyone in His church.
service, diakoniai = deacons, servants of others
Attitude of mind - the church is not an arena for demonstrating their own talents and prowess.
Our essential calling is to serve 1. God and 2. Others
energenata, ie God’s energy going to work within His people
The operation of the Holy Spirit is not just theory.
The Holy Spirit produces results, varied but noticeable: changed lives, transformed relationships, increasing congregations, effective testimony, released talents for the kingdom.
How then does the Spirit of God underwrite and spell out the fundamental fact that Jesus is Lord?
By enabling the church to embody His presence in the world.
Through each individual member, but always as they point to Jesus as Lord.
Again and again, Paul seeks to bring the Corinthians back to the good of the community, not the personal whims of the individual.
Individual Christians are intended to demonstrate that they have the Spirit of God within them.
The emphasis Paul gives to
‘each one’
runs through this chapter as a theme that is meant to highlight that the operation of the Holy Spirit is completely unrelated to spiritual maturity.
It may be that as we grow spiritually we are better able to to discern and give thanks more readily to what God has already done.
Perhaps as we grow, we are become more clear on what it is that God is calling us to do.
But the main point, Paul wants to make here to the Corinthians and to us is that the entire Christian Community of believers is the community of the Holy Spirit, of the living God.
That our God is a richly diverse God, who shows no distinctions among His people.
And that every single believer contributes to this living diversity, as a witness to our Living Lord.
Having said all that - just a couple of important points to make:
Our preoccupation with LISTS
Not meant to be exhaustative
Not meant to apply every last person has his or her gift - may or may not be true - it just isn’t what Paul is concerned with here.
Paul refers to spiritual gifts in a number of places:
Here’s a thought - no where does Paul suggest that his list is meant to be the complete A-Z of spiritual gifts.
How did you go with your discussion around gifting and how others might see you?
Receive responses...
We need to be careful that we don’t reduce Spiritual gifts to talents - things we are good or proficient at.
It may be God has gifted us in that way - but remember the key things Paul wants the Corinthians to understand:
Lifting up Jesus as Lord
Building up of the church/ for the common good.
How are you using your God-given gift?
Charismata - not talents
Did you notice how Paul has this incredible ability to hold growth into maturity on the part of the local church as a means to fulfil the inbuilt potential of each individual disciple of Jesus -
and a persons individual growth, as part of church growth as a body with many parts.
No appeal is made from Paul about the desire of an individual for personal fulfilment.
What about you and me?
I wonder where we might fall on a scale with individual fulfilment on one end and our part in the growth of the church and demonstrating the Lordship of Jesus through using our gifts on the other?
I’ll leave that with you to ponder some more...
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