1 Corinthians 14

I've already done a post for Valentine's Day in 1 Corinthians 13 and a few weeks ago I did a pretty bland one on 1 Corinthians 12. But today, I'd like to do something I haven't really ever done before this past week. Read these three chapters as a whole unit.

Last Thursday I was driving to work and had a revelation. It was seriously the mental equivalent of walking out of a movie theater into daylight. I've been meditating and discussing 1 Corinthians 13 a lot because we're working on the February LifeKIDS.tv series and it's about God's love. I've been meditating and discussing 1 Corinthians 12 a lot because my pastor is doing a series on the Holy Spirit and I try to study whatever he's working on. Anyway, I know both of those two chapters well enough that I can sort of see them laid out in my head. And here's what I realized. All at once like a ton of bricks. A pretty elementary thought really.

All three of these chapters are on the same subject. There were no chapter breaks in Paul's letter. He told us in the first verse of 12 what he was going to explain. Spiritual gifts. And that's exactly what he did until he changed the subject at the beginning of 15.

It's easy to see that chapter 12 is all about spiritual gifts, which to me and defined as the power of the Holy Spirit flowing through you towards others. I mean, the power of the Holy Spirit can certainly work wonders in you, but that's for your benefit. When He works through you, in a big variety of ways, that's a gift. And you aren't necessarily the recipient of the gift, the body of Christ is.

It's also easy to see that chapter 14 is all about spiritual gifts. He lays out all the distinctions of how they benefit different groups of people and the way to keep a supernatural experience from introducing chaos into worship.

But it's 13 where the revelation came. Paul didn't change subjects. He wasn't writing a love chapter. It took me a while for that thought to sink in. Really though, when people call it the love chapter I've always thought that was sort of weird because really all people are talking about is verses 4-8. The beginning is still spiritual gifts and it ends up still about spiritual gifts.

So here's what I'm getting at. Paul lays out all kinds of spiritual gifts that are for individual situations and also those for individual callings. Those are what 12 is all about. But at the end, he says we should desire to have the best gifts. And he says, "Hang on tight because I'm going to show you an even more excellent way."

Then, he goes through how it doesn't matter if you have just the right gift in the right situation or a gift that places you in a high calling because there is one gift that eclipses all of the others. It is both the source and the outcome of the power of the Spirit. God's love. Think about it. You've probably heard it read at weddings more times than you've heard of it lived out. You may have seen it more often embroidered on pillows than you have in someone who consistently embodies it. And the times that you have? It's because that person is devoted to walking with the Spirit. Allowing His power to flow not just to them but through them.

God's love is the most excellent way, it is the greatest, it endures forever, it never fails all because it is a gift of the Holy Spirit, a manifestation of His power. The one that every single Christ-follower should exhibit every single day. Not just at the occasional revival or in some upper room. It is the Spirit-filled power to love those who are unlovable with a love that's impossible to achieve by human standards. Sure there are some great humanitarians who are kind and patient and considerate, but that's why he clarified what he was tlaking about with the whole list. Nobody's that selfless. Our sin nature won't allow it without the supernatural redemption and grace that it takes to free us from it and the infilling of the Holy Spirit that comes along with it.

When it all started to sink in, love being the greatest of all spiritual gifts, my mind started racing to other scriptures I knew. Like it always used to bother me in 1 John how he held up love at the litmus test of whether or not you were truly "saved" or not. "If you don't love others, then you don't know God." I mean, if you were really great at all the other things, it seemed like that was a silly loophole. But it's not. Because God is love. If you have His Spirit inside of you, it should be manifested in the form of love. Whether or not you ever have occasion to interpret tongues. Whether or not you're an apostle. You must love. And you require the power of the Holy Spirit in order to be able to pull it off.

Or what about Galatians 5 when Paul lists the evidence of the Spirit? The fruit, not fruits, the collective noun fruit of the spirit is love. And the whole rest of that list? Good luck living those out without it. Some of those like kindness and patience even show up as a part of the chapter 13 definition.

So, I'm not sure still what God's intentions are for showing me this angle of His love, but I know that in the immediate future I am seeking to invite it to flow through me towards my kids and my husband, my friends and my coworkers, my extended family and strangers. To be honest, I'm pretty tired of trying to live up to that "love is" list plaque with hearts and flowers on it that I have hanging on my laundry room wall.

I really don't imagine it to be as mind-blowing for you as it was for me. For one thing, it probably took you a long time it read this, and it hit me all within a few seconds. I also don't think no one else has ever throught of it. I feel like it's something people have always known and I just couldn't ever hear what that were saying because I was "looking through a glass dimly." Anyway, I've been mulling it over since Thursday morning and thought I'd take the time to write it down a little.

Now, don't just read chapter 14. Start where Paul opened the subject at the beginning of 12 and read it straight through. This also gives me an added bonus: I got to write on this chapter without addressing that pesky verse about women keeping quiet. :)