Now Concerning Spiritual Gifts

Now Concerning Spiritual Gifts.  Except for one vague commendation, “[You] maintain the traditions” (1 Cor. 11:2), Paul rebuked the church at Corinth in many specific ways. Often marked by the phrase, “Now concerning,” Paul listed ten errant practices in the church. They were: [1] forming political factions (1:12), [2] suing each other (4:3), [3] failing to exercise church discipline (5:11), [4] engaging in unbiblical divorce practices (7:1), [5] steamrolling over other Christians’ consciences regarding eating meat sacrificed to idols (8:1), [6] disregarding gender roles (11:2), [7] abusing the Lord’s Supper (11:20), [8] misusing the spiritual gifts (12:1), [9] marginalizing the resurrection (15:1), and [10] waffling on their commitment to donate money for the persecuted saints struggling in Jerusalem (16:1). 

In terms of word count, the largest problem that Paul addressed at Corinth was their practice of spiritual gifts (12:1-14:40). In a nutshell, they were using the spiritual gifts to compete with one another instead of serving one another. In a word, they lacked love. The famous Love Chapter in the Bible (13:1-13) intentionally bridged the disconnect at Corinth from God’s overall concept of spiritual gifts in the body of Christ (12:1-31) with their exercise of spiritual gifts in the worship assembly (14:1-40). Paul urged them to follow “a more excellent way” (12:31) by abandoning their demonstrable immaturity (13:11): “Pursue love and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy” (14:1). Love governs spiritual gifts. 

The issue at Corinth was their faulty prioritization of the gifts. What was emphasized at Corinth for its wow-factor was the individual’s use of the gift of tongues (think: performing). But what should have been emphasized at Corinth for its growth-factor was the gift of prophecy (think: teaching). “The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but the one who prophesies builds up the church” (14:3). Building up oneself seems to be high-level satire by Paul, an oxymoron, since edification, by definition, is collective. By comparison, if not self-contradictory, edifying self is an immature motive for the assembled church where the explicit purpose for gathering is to edify one another (14:5). If not entirely sarcastic, “speaking into the air” (14:9) is definitively less valuable in the church than “speaking to people” (14:3).

Both were good gifts given by Christ, but prophecy was better for inside the Christian gathering than tongues. Tongues were better for outside the assembly in evangelism and missions because the gift of languages catalyzed the proclamation of the gospel among the nations. Prophecy offered everyone in the congregation increased clarity about God’s character and his will, without depending upon an interpreter (14:27). The gift of tongues got the people into the church through conversion. The gift of prophecy grew the people up in the church through discipleship. Such is the force behind Paul’s evaluation: “Nevertheless, in church I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others, than ten thousand words in a tongue” (14:19). “Let all things be done for building up” (14:26).

And He Gave the Apostles

And He Gave the Apostles.  Running the gauntlet of the four major passages about spiritual gifts (Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12-14, Ephesians 4, and 1 Peter 4), one can find many common details: each Christian has been given a spiritual gift at the moment of conversion, no individual has all the spiritual gifts, although certain gifts are more visible no individual gift is more valuable than the other spiritual gifts, the gifts are given by Christ’s grace instead of by popular demand, the gifts are special empowerments given for the purpose of serving others. That said, the major passages each emphasizes unique aspects of spiritual gifts. 

More than the gift itself, Ephesians 4 uniquely emphasizes the person who has the gift. “But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift … and he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers” (Eph. 4:7, 11). In that sense, Christ gave the church more than “the signs of a true apostle” (2 Cor. 12:12), which were counterfeited from their earliest appearance (2 Cor. 11:13), he gave the apostles. The person with the gift is the treasure to the whole church. More than prophecy itself, he gave the prophets. More than the evangelistic, shepherding, and teaching gifts, he gave the evangelists, pastors and teachers. These officers in the church, representative of all offices in the church, are grouped: the apostles, the prophets, etc. They are definite and recognized. From God’s point of view, they are a closed group. He gave these people to his church.

Taken as a whole, crossing time and language and culture, the church has been given its specific people with such generosity that we can sing along with David, “my cup overflows” (Psa. 23:5). Christ has given us the people we need to accomplish the ministry assigned to us. We may lack musicians, but not worshipers. We may lack nursery workers, but not servants. If we lack the people needed for a softball team, then we don’t need a softball team during this season. The people in the church are Christ’s gifts to the church. When we grow, then what we do will grow. But we are not stalling for the right people to show up before starting to make disciples “for such a time as this” (Est. 4:14). We are not waiting for a better tomorrow, for God said, “Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:2).

The spiritual gifts are meant to direct our attention to the Giver. Conceivably, Christ could have sent the angels or written his gospel in sky-letters, but instead he gave the people!

Let Us Use Them

Let Us Use Them.  Largely unrecognized, a pattern develops in the front half of the four main passages about the genius utility governing the spiritual gifts (1 Pet. 4:10-11, Rom. 12:3-8, Eph. 4:7-16, and 1 Cor. 12:1-14:40). The gifts, themselves, are never the focus but the means which God gives the church to empower our focused purpose till every last one of us finishes his or her course. Our focus is Jesus. Our purpose is helping others focus upon Jesus, too.

Peter addresses the individual about using his gift: “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another” (1 Pet. 4:10a). Paul addresses the group about using their gifts: “Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them” (Rom 12:6b). Peter categorizes the gifts into two kinds: speaking gifts and supporting gifts. Paul categorizes the gifts into seven kinds: ”If prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness” (Rom 12:6c-8). However, the aspect that stands out in Romans 12 about spiritual gifts is not their number or category, but their correspondence to God’s distribution of grace. “For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. (Rom. 12:3). God gives grace to see Jesus, and through Jesus, to see all.

Competition is nowhere in the church, only correspondence to the task entrusted to the church by Christ. In other words, we aren’t meant to measure ourselves by ourselves because we aren’t the standard of godliness in the universe (2 Cor. 10:12). Christ is the standard! If our focus in the church is anywhere other than on him, then we get blurry about him, and all else.

On the surface, such an observation seems simplistic: look to Jesus. But digging down beneath the surface, how many books in Christian bookstores or songs on Christian radio match that standard? By some counts, we write books and sing songs mainly about us: our heroes, our grievances, our spiritual giftedness. The church mainly looks to the church, but by grace the spiritual gifts enable us to look to Jesus. By Jesus’ grace-gifts can we see him clearly. Having seen him clearly, we see others dearly. “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb. 12:1-2).

Use It to Serve One Another

Use It to Serve One Another.  “Use it or lose it,” we sometimes say when speaking about vacation days that will not roll over into the next year, or when older folks give unsolicited advice to younger folks about the fleeting nature of youth, or when physical therapists urge joint replacement patients to get out of bed after surgery and start walking again. But our idiom does not directly transfer into the realm of spiritual gifts. We can’t rightly conclude that if we don’t use a spiritual gift, then we will lose that spiritual gift. What is more accurate and more supportable in the four key spiritual gift passages (Rom. 12:3-8; 1 Cor. 12:1-14:40; Eph. 4:7-16; 1 Pet. 4:10-11) is this: use it or you might forfeit a blessing. The spiritual gift remains even through its non-use, but God’s plan could be accomplished through another means, blessing a different individual than the one who has but does not use his or her spiritual gift.

The intended goal and overall purpose of the spiritual gifts are tremendously important in understanding their role in the church. In 1 Peter 4:10-11, though it is the briefest passage about spiritual gifts, both the goal and the purpose of spiritual gifts are clear, which forms the mode of their application. The intended goal is service, answering the question: Why have we been given spiritual gifts? “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace” (vs. 10). The overall purpose is glory, answering the question: To what end have we been given spiritual gifts? “In order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen” (vs. 11b).

The goal and the purpose functionally paint-in the lane in which spiritual gifts proceed. What remains in this short passage is the mode of application, answering the question: How should we use spiritual gifts? “Whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies” (vs. 11a). Meant for service to others and aimed at glory to God, we should use spiritual gifts entirely: full throttle with full understanding. All spiritual gifts come from God (not self) as grace-gifts (not awards). All spiritual gifts are assigned by God (not committee). All spiritual gifts return to God in glory having been amplified by the gracious participation of the church. All spiritual gifts are either speaking or supporting gifts. All spiritual gifts are blessed opportunities for us and divine empowerments to us to join God in his work. “We are God’s fellow workers” (1 Cor. 3:9).

Form and Function

Form and Function.  Today is traditionally known as Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, a holiday which seeks to emphasize repentance during the 40 days (not including Sundays) leading up to Easter with fasting and prayer. Historically, participants would fast from one meal per day through Lent until Easter’s sunset as an act of penance. On Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, worshipers abstain from meat in addition to the Lenten fast, as a form of sacrifice. Some extend the Good Friday rule to the whole year, abstaining from meat (but not fish) every Friday, a Catholic tradition but not a Catholic dogma. Modern forms of the Lenten fast abstain from something that is considered special to re-orient the soul to Christ. From the burned palm fronds which were distributed on last year’s Palm Sunday, priests or deacons use the ashes to mark the heads of worshipers, reminding them of their mortality and their need to make reconciliation with God while there is still time: “Repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15), “[Remember] you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Gen. 3:19).

All in all, disregarding the baggage of cultural expectations and the crippling flaw that doing penance earns merit with God, Ash Wednesday and Lent contain good ideas, especially considering that these traditions formed in times when illiteracy was much more common than literacy. Meaningful motions and vibrant object lessons annually reinforced memorable elements of the life and death of Christ for the population as teaching tools. The function of Ash Wednesday was undoubtedly for religious education of the masses, even those who were not church folks. But as often happens over time, form overshadows function.

Function is intangible, whereas form is enforceable. Function deals with the heart, which is hidden. Form deals with behavior, which is public. Form ultimately wins the day by smothering original function. Ash Wednesday went from being something we do to something we must do. Regulations heaped up over the years about whether the ashes were made from only last year’s palms, whether the ashes were mixed with holy water, whether the ashes were blessed with the correct words by the correct priests in the correct places, whether the ashes were placed as a dot, a smear, or a cross on the forehead, or the hand, or strewn all over the participant. Ash Wednesday crushed under its own weight. The value of ritual rests solely in what it signifies, not in how it signifies. It’s not ritual but Jesus who saves.

Blessed Are Those Who Are Persecuted

Blessed Are Those Who Are Persecuted.  It is enlightening to observe those whom the world considers lucky. Vegas bookmakers determine the odds of various outcomes of luck in sports, which sounds like the wolf setting the menu for the sheep. An anecdote for professional poker players says that a life-long gambler is considered lucky to break even playing his last hand. Many (½ to ¾) large-dollar lottery winners ironically yet consistently lose all their prize money, if not file for bankrupt, within 3-5 years after winning. But luck is fickle, impersonal, and stupid to chase. Far better than luck, chance, fate, karma, etc., is grace. Because grace is an attribute of God, who never changes his essence though he holds the prerogative to change his methodology, then grace is entirely consistent, highly personal, and wise. Those who receive the grace of God are called blessed, which can be translated as happy.

But blessed is not the word that comes to mind when I read last week about the 70 Christians beheaded in their church building by ISIS-aligned militiamen in eastern Congo. Happy is not the description reported yesterday on Voice of the Martyrs of a man in Afghanistan, poisoned by his brother for becoming a Christian, and his widow who went into hiding. But Jesus does! 

In the cataclysmic introduction of his famous Sermon on the Mount, Jesus takes several examples of people considered highly unlucky by the world, if not accursed of God, and calls them blessed, happy. It was shocking then. It still is shocking now! The end of his list of the blessed ones, which often signifies an emphasis, Jesus says, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:10). As if anticipating the crowd’s disbelief at his statement, Jesus doubles down, saying it again, making it personal instead of general, “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matt. 5:11-12). 

How can persecution be a mark of blessing? Because blessing hinges on Jesus’ phrase, “for righteousness’ sake,” which he further clarifies, “on my account.” Faithful association with Jesus, even if it is met with a bloody and unjust reaction, is friendship with God, which can only be called happy in the long view. The Church Father, Tertullian, said it well in his Apologeticus (197 A.D.), “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church … we are not a new philosophy but a divine revelation.” It is not the presence but the absence of persecution that is abnormal when one envisions the entire, historic, global church at once. Persecution is not an ancient phenomenon. Today, in over 60 countries, having and sharing the Christian faith is illegal and unwanted. The mistreatment of Christians seems to occur with impunity. 

Tomorrow

Tomorrow.  When my baseball teammates would debate the merits of practicing today when the forecast for tomorrow’s game shows 100% chance of rain, my coach would say, “You can’t live your life based on forecasts.” Forecasts are helpful but never binding upon tomorrow.

Tomorrow is an interesting subject biblically (used 55x in the Bible). God, who does not exist on the timeline, often communicates to his creatures who are bound to it in terms of the timeline. In a sense, tomorrow is our word of limitation, but God condescends to use it. God knows that we are finite, so he speaks in a way that prioritizes our understanding of his infinity. For instance, Moses repeatedly told Pharaoh of a plague coming tomorrow: “Tomorrow this sign will happen” (Exo. 8:23; 9:5, 18; 10:4). Could God not have brought this plague today? Of course, but God wanted understanding in Egypt and the world that he is the Eternal God.

Mostly, tomorrow is a simple time marker in the Bible, a reference point: “about this time tomorrow” (1 Sam. 9:16). Yet a few times, tomorrow is a sophisticated metaphor. “Do not say to your neighbor, ‘Go, and come again, tomorrow I will give it’—when you have it with you” (Prov. 3:28). “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring” (Prov. 27:1). “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die” (Isa. 22:13; 1 Cor. 15:32). “Tomorrow will be like this day, great beyond measure” (Isa. 56:12). In a way, the Scriptures confront us to ask the question: what is my relationship to the concept of tomorrow?

In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus uses tomorrow in a figurative sense signifying all that exists outside of our direct control, “Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble” (Matt. 6:34). Like Jesus, James again challenges us to investigate our relationship to the concept of tomorrow. “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit’—yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that’” (James 4:13-15). 

Then our question—What is my relationship to the concept of tomorrow?—stands merely as a prelude to a better question: What is God’s relationship to the concept of tomorrow? Just as Jesus reasoned about the sabbath, “The Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath” (Mark 2:28), so also his principle applies to the concept of tomorrow. Jesus is not the servant of time; he is the Lord even of time. Therefore, tomorrow is Jesus’ servant, not his master.