In2Freedom: February 2016

Monday, February 22, 2016

What God Shines in Our Hearts

This morning I moved into II Corinthians 4:1-7. As I read through the section a few times, seeking to understand the general picture, I was first drawn to this verse:

For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.[1]

What stood out first was the phrase, “has shone in our hearts”. Once again, I could see what gives so many Christians a lot of trouble. God wants to do his work “in our hearts”, and our self-protection wants to keep him out of there because the things in there already hurt too much.

This tells me that, in order to experience the work God’s Book describes, we need to expect a messy season, short or long (easy way or hard way), as God uses everything from heart-burn to heart-attack to make his way into our hearts.[2]

Why would he do that?

Because his love knows that seeing “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ,” will feel much better inside us than whatever the sark[3] is hiding out of shame, guilt, and fear.

Then, I was drawn to how Paul began the paragraph:

Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart.[4]

Any time we read a “therefore” we must find out what it is there for! So, I read the previous chapter and was reminded that Paul was giving a familiar contrast between the law and the Spirit, similar to Romans 7 and 8. This included the contrast between the veil that remained when the law of Moses was read, and how “when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.”[5]

So then, Paul writes,

And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.[6]

This tells us that our “being transformed into the same image (as Jesus Christ) from one degree of glory to another,” comes because “we all, with unveiled face,” are “beholding the glory of the Lord.”

Isn’t it interesting that our constant transformation into Christlikeness comes from beholding the glory of Jesus Christ with unveiled face, and our final glorification will come when we see Jesus as he is!

Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.[7]

Our transformation, both now and then, comes by looking into the face of Jesus Christ our Savior, and “beholding the glory of the Lord”.

So, right now, we must behold the glory of the Lord with “unveiled face,” meaning, through the Spirit, not the law, in order to grow up in Christ, knowing that one day we shall finally see Jesus “as he is,” and then “we shall be like him”.

Which brings us back to what Paul said as he moved into his next thought, “Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart.”[8]

It is the ministry of the Spirit that is received “by the mercy of God,” so that “we do not lose heart” as we share the “word of the cross”[9] with one another.

And that is what I need daily, a reason to not lose heart. Of course, that requires me to repent of the self-protection that guards my heart against God and his people, and welcome by faith what God wants to shine “in our hearts”, which is, “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

The question is obvious: Why would we want to protect ourselves against that?

[1] II Corinthians 4:6

[2] I was thinking metaphorically here, but I suppose he could use physical symptoms as well as emotional, psychological, and spiritual ones.

[3] The “flesh”.

[4] II Corinthians 4:1

[5] II Corinthians 3:16

[6] II Corinthians 3:18

[7] I John 3:2

[8] II Corinthians 4:1

[9] I Corinthians 1:18

Friday, February 19, 2016

God's Wisdom Reveals Man's Folly

As I have been continuing to enjoy what God’s Book is teaching me about how “the word of the cross… is the power of God” (I Corinthians 1:18), I have had to consider why so many people believe they are smarter than God.

Today, I got my answer:

“Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.” (I Corinthians 1:20-21)

I thought of all the wise men, and scribes, and religious leaders, and debaters, who tried to beat Jesus in a battle of wisdom, and left knowing that he once again made them look foolish.

I thought of others like the magicians of Egypt, and the Pharaoh who would not let God’s people go, and the mob that called for Jesus’ crucifixion, and the religious elite who tried to stop the church from growing, and even a man named Saul who tried his best to destroy the church. All were shown to be utterly foolish in their attempts to stand against the wisdom and the purposes of God.

So, it is one of these, Saul who became the apostle Paul, that God now records in his Book for all to read, that God has “made foolish the wisdom of the world.” Richard Dawkins’ attempt to deny God is proven as foolish. Bill Nye’s claim that the Church’s preaching of Jesus as the Christ, as Creator, as the crucified Savior, will be erased from future generations, is proven as foolish.

Why is this?

Because God did something in his wisdom that makes it impossible for Worldlings to know God through their wisdom. It pleased him to bring his message into the world through his Son’s birth of a virgin, his first bed a manger, his first witnesses shepherds, making disciples of fishermen, growing his kingdom in the hearts of prostitutes, and drunks, and tax collectors.

To this day, “through the folly of what we preach”, God continues to “save those who believe.” Where religions and governments seek to persecute the church into oblivion, people are turning to the “word of the cross” in growing numbers. Where scientific publications seek to stamp out belief in Jesus as Creator and Savior by denying equality to Jesus’ brothers, people are coming to Christ because they cannot escape “the word of the cross”.

And so, while the world says we are foolish to believe in a Savior who died for sins, God speaks the word of the cross into the hearts of the poor in spirit; he brings them to mourn the sinful condition of their souls; he leads them to meekly admit that they are unable to fix themselves, and so he graciously awakens in them a hunger and thirst for the righteousness they see in Jesus Christ, offered to them as the free gift of God.

As the poor in spirit see the power of God changing their hearts through the word of the cross, they come into the kingdom of heaven through repentance and faith; they are comforted in all the ways sin has broken and ruined them; they discover their adoption as sons, and co-heirs with Jesus Christ, and their hunger for the righteousness they long for is satisfied through their faith-relationship with Jesus Christ.

The bottom line is that, anyone who takes God on in a battle of wits and wisdom will be proven to be foolish. Anyone who repents of the foolishness of the sinful world, and turns to Jesus Christ in faith, will discover the joy of knowing God’s wit and wisdom forever. Who wouldn’t want a Father like that?

Thursday, February 18, 2016

Home Church Video - The Worth of the Children of God

One of the surprises in my ministry has been discovering how many Christians have a deep-seated belief that they are worthless, and they have given up any hope of that ever changing. They accept the doctrines of salvation on the outside, but are governed by these wrong beliefs on the inside.

In this video, we look at how the gospel is specially suited to minister to all the wrong beliefs we may carry inside us. The same gospel that raises us from death to life, also transforms us inwardly as we continue to welcome the good news into our innermost beings.

It is the work of the Holy Spirit to show us whether we still need to receive the gospel, or whether we need to let the truth of the gospel permeate our inner being. Either way, it is the gospel that provides all we need to be transformed into the same image as our Lord Jesus Christ "from one degree of glory to another" (II Corinthians 3:18).

Wednesday, February 17, 2016

The Seed is all we Need

I have been continuing to let this Scripture permeate my inner being:

20 For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power. (I Corinthians 4)

I am having quite a wonderful and encouraging experience of the work of God. There are times when I can hear what God is saying with my mind, but I know I have not yet experienced that particular truth in my inner being. In the past, this would trigger the good-boy malware, and I would feel desperate to figure out how to try to DO what God wants done.

In this last while, God has been graciously ministering things into my inner being, just as I have been praying.[1] The result is that I feel rest and peace in areas of life that once caused incredible turmoil in my efforts to do the right thing. Here’s how this went further today.

God is ministering to me a tremendous freedom in accepting that the kingdom of God “does not consist in talk but in power”. It is as though I am off the hook regarding the results. The kingdom is not mine, the power is not mine, the gospel is not mine, the word of the cross is not mine. It is all God’s, and it all has him and his power backing it up.

To get me to see (and know by experience) that the power of the kingdom is in “the word of the cross”,[2] God is showing me so many different ways of understanding that the power is actually in the word of God we are already given, and, therefore, no preacher needs to add any of his own power or ability to the picture.

As I continued in I Corinthians 2, a few other Scriptures came together to reinforce why Paul would not use “lofty speech or wisdom”, why he would only focus on “Jesus Christ and him crucified”, and why he would take such great pains to make sure that “your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God”.[3]

First, I was reminded of the parable of the sower and the seed.[4] This parable revolves around a sower sowing seed, the seed that is sown, and four types of soil that receive the seed.

When Jesus explained the parable to his disciples, the first thing he said was, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables…”[5] This means that, what Jesus taught in this parable is one of the “secrets of the kingdom of God” even though he had to explain it to them so they would “know” the secret.

Jesus then said that, “the seed is the word of God.”[6] This means that the metaphor of a sower sowing seed refers to God’s servants sowing the word of God. When we preach the word, teach the word, share the word, publish the word, share Scriptures on social media, we are sowers sowing the seed of the word of God.

The rest of the parable tells us that, although the word of God, the seed that is sown, is the same for everyone who hears the gospel, the difference in responses are comparable to differences in the soil. Some people are like hard ground that is unable to receive the word. Others are like rocky soil that causes people to get excited about what they hear, but wilt away as soon as things get hard. Still others receive the word like they are sincerely interested, but they can never break free of the choking weeds of the world. And then there are the ones who are like the good soil that receives the seed, and sees it germinate, put down roots, sprout up, and bear much fruit.

The point is that the seed is the word of God, and nothing has to be done to the seed to make it effective. The four soils are the hearts of the people, and it is the hearts of people that determine the effect the word of God has on their hearts.[7] The sower simply sows the seed in the soil. That’s it. Nothing extra required.

This reminded me of Paul telling Timothy to: “preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.”[8]

Since the seed is the word of God, all Timothy (and all preachers) needed to do was sow the word. It did not matter whether people’s hearts made hearing the word in season or out of season, all the sower ever does is sow the word.

But that led me to see what Paul said just before that:

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.[9]

That is such a beautiful explanation of why we do not need to tamper with the seed (this is why we reject all GMO versions of the gospel!). It is already breathed-out from God. How could any preacher think his preaching would rely on “lofty speech or wisdom”,[10] or, “plausible words of wisdom”[11] when we already have the breathed-out words of God in seed ready for sowing?

But then I saw what Paul said just before that:

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.[12]

What stands out here is Paul’s description of, “the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” That is the description of the seed. The seed, contained in the sacred writings, is fully “able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.”

If people have faith in Jesus Christ, they will be like good soil receiving the word. If their hearts are hard, rocky, or weed-choked, we cannot modify the seed to make it more “successful”. Only the seed that is the breathed-out word of God can give life to those whose hearts are like good soil.

All together, this has been a wonderful gift of freedom for me. All we need is a connection between the seed of the word, and the good soil of our hearts. The power is in the seed, the “word of the cross”,[13] and whatever happens in our hearts simply exposes whatever is in our hearts.

If we will accept whatever the word is telling us, and bring to God whatever happens in our hearts, the word of God is able to make us wise for salvation. We simply need to respond with “faith in Christ Jesus,” the means by which the perfect seed of the word finds good soil in our hearts.

[1] Particularly with a focus on Paul’s prayers in Ephesians 3:14-21, and Colossians 1:9-14.

[2] I Corinthians 1:18

[3] I Corinthians 2:1-5

[4] Luke 8:4-15

[5] Luke 8:10

[6] Luke 8:11

[7] I say this in terms of the parable, understanding that the fuller revelation of salvation shows that any responsiveness in our hearts is the gift of God’s grace bringing us to faith (Ephesians 2:8-9).

[8] II Timothy 4:2

[9] II Timothy 3:16-17

[10] I Corinthians 2:1

[11] I Corinthians 2:4

[12] II Timothy 3:14-15

[13] I Corinthians 1:18

Monday, February 15, 2016

The Word of the Cross is the Power of God

Yesterday in our home church, we looked at how we need the power of the gospel to reach into our inner beings. Many church-going people have an outer relationship with Christ that seems real enough, until they look inside and realize it hasn’t permeated to the core, so to speak. Any Christian who is struggling with inner feelings of worthlessness and hopelessness (often disguised as depression), needs to know the gospel in their inner being.

Today I found myself drawn to consider what God wants us to think about his power. If there is power in the gospel, how do we know that power? It keeps coming up in relation to the gospel, the Holy Spirit, and the kingdom of God. I have never been interested in the “power encounters” promoted by some groups, but neither am I the least bit impressed by the powerlessness of a significant part of my church experience.

What God keeps telling me is that, “the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power.”[1] Even though Paul clearly used “talk” in his letters and preaching, he was never presenting the kingdom of God as though it consisted in talk. Rather, his talk was such that the focus always remained on the power of God.

Earlier in I Corinthians, leading up to Paul’s expression that the kingdom of God consists in power, not talk, he had already addressed the power of God’s kingdom. Here are a couple of the passages that ministered to me this morning.

17 For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. (I Corinthians 1)

Observations:

1. Paul’s ministry was to “preach the gospel”.

2. Preaching “the gospel” keeps the cross full of “its power”.

3. “words of eloquent wisdom” can result in emptying the cross of its power.

4. The reason the “word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing” is not because the “word of the cross” is “emptied of its power”, but because the people are “perishing”.

5. The “gospel”, the “word of the cross”, is always going to be folly to “those who are perishing”, hence the need to never waste time on “words of eloquent wisdom”.

6. “to us who are being saved”, the “word of the cross,” is “the power of God”.

7. The “gospel”, the “word of the cross”, is always going to be the “power of God” to “us who are being saved”, hence the need to keep proclaiming the gospel.

In answer to my question about how the kingdom of God is about power instead of talk, God’s answer is:

“the word of the cross… is the power of God”.

Conclusion: we need the word of the cross to invade our inner beings with this power of God.

1 And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, 4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. (I Corinthians 2)

Observations:

1. It is a good thing when we see churches acknowledging our “weakness… fear and much trembling.”

2. It is also a good thing when people feel a stronger hunger for a “demonstration of the Spirit and of power” than we have ever felt before.

3. We must avoid anything that resembles faith that rests “in the wisdom of men.”

4. Because, “the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power”,[2] we want our faith to “rest… in the power of God.”

5. Paul’s example was that he did not speak to the churches with “lofty speech or wisdom” that would put the attention on him, for he was an ambassador of Jesus Christ.

6. What Paul presented, instead of lofty speech or wisdom, was “Jesus Christ and him crucified.” This is where the power of God resides. It takes lofty words to convince people they can experience the blessings of God through self-dependence. The power of the kingdom resides in what Jesus Christ has done for us through his crucifixion, and how his completed work transforms us into his image.

For a while, I have been sharing about the power of the kingdom of God. I have seen God’s work whenever people submit to God and seek him. When we are willing to have the Holy Spirit replace our self-protection, we will see the power of the work of God heal us, restore us, and forgive us.

Even when dealing with the perplexities of childhood trauma, the belief of worthlessness, and the corresponding feeling of hopelessness/depression, we need the gospel to permeate into our innermost being so that we can experience the power of God through the word of the cross.

The Word of the Cross is the Power of God

[1] I Corinthians 4:20

[2] I Corinthians 4:20

Friday, February 12, 2016

From the Power of Words to the Power of Prayer

Okay, so this morning’s time with God was an embarrassing and exhilarating combination of “slow learner” and “eureka, I get it!”

On the slow learner side, I am often blown away with how little I know about walking by faith. In short, my teenage modus operandi of relying on words to self-talk myself into thinking I wasn’t hurting, or to try stopping someone from hurting someone else, is part of the sark[1] that I now understand will be with me until I die, or Jesus comes.

The Romans 7 lesson about the sark doing what I do not want to do, and failing to do the good I do want to do, applies to me in this area, that my sark will keep trying to rely on its own words even though I don’t want to do that any longer, and it will keep failing to rely on the words of God even though that is what I desperately want to do all the time.[2]

On the eureka-I-get-it side, I was so excited yesterday as God reminded me once again that Paul’s prayers in Ephesians and Colossians are there to teach me to pray for people instead of relying on sarky “talk”. Paul had said that, “the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power”,[3] and I need to stop relying on talking to people, and pray for them instead.

However, that does not help me with my responsibilities in relation to the personal ministry relationships in our church. What our church has been looking at regarding spiritual gifts requires us to minister to each other. How do we do that without “talk”? I mean, Paul’s letters are all talk and words. When Paul was in person, he preached and talked so much that people were known to fall out of windows and die of tiredness, so to speak.[4] He told pastors to “preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching”,[5] which requires talk.

So, obviously, praying and talking must go together, but not as though the kingdom of God consists in talk. What does that look like?

The eureka-I-get-it lesson came from this Scripture:

“take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.”[6]

Paul’s “talk” was taking up “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God”. It was not Paul relying on words, but using the breathed-out words of God[7] that were filled with power because of the Holy Spirit. When Paul took up the sword of the Spirit, and he prayed at all times in the Spirit,[8] he modelled how we are to do the same.

The conclusion is that, I must constantly rely on the breathed-out words of God by taking up the sword of the Spirit, and I must pray at all times in the Spirit myself, combining the words of God and prayer into the best thing I can do for myself and the church.

However, today’s really eureka-I-get-it lesson was, I must lead others to take up the sword of the Spirit with me, and to pray at all times in the Spirit with me. Or, to say it from the other side, my ministry to others must be to help them take up the sword of the Spirit, and to pray in the Spirit, but in person with the body of Christ. In other words, together!

What will this look like? It will look like the church getting together, whether it be in our church gatherings, or smaller settings, opening the breathed-out words of God, and praying for the fullest possible experience of what God has written. This may include a group going through a book of the Bible together, or each person coming to prayer meeting with the Scriptures God has spoken into their hearts during the week, and praying back to God whatever words he has ministered to us.

Along the way, God will keep stomping on my youthful temptation to rely on words, and will keep reproving me in my dependence on talk, and will correct me into a ministry of helping others take up the sword of the Spirit and pray at all times in the Spirit, using the fellowship in the word and prayer to train us together in the righteousness that is by faith, and for faith.[9]

So, on a purely practical note, please pray for your pastors (me included, if you will), that we would all be men who take up “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication,”[10] and that we would do this ourselves, and with others, for the building up of all the saints.

At the same time, there is likely something you are getting out of the word of God right now that is what you need to take up as the sword of the Spirit for yourself and all those in your fellowship, and to pray in the Spirit as part of the intercession the rest of the church needs from you.

Then, let your pastors know what you are praying from the word for both them and the rest of the church. You can be sure it will be appreciated.

[1] A transliteration of “sarx”, the Greek word translated “flesh” (see Romans 7 for Paul’s description of the flesh, and Romans 8 for his description of life in the Spirit).

[2] Again, God’s children are not at the mercy of their sarks/flesh even though the sark/flesh will be with us until we die or Jesus returns. We just need to accept that the sark/flesh operates just as Paul describes in Romans 7, and our victory over the sark/flesh comes by setting our minds on the Spirit the way Paul describes in Romans 8.

[3] I Corinthians 4:20

[4] Acts 20:9 (context ~ Acts 20:7-12). Don’t forget, Jesus’ disciples fell asleep on him while he was praying in Gethsemane. Sometimes we just can’t help it that, “The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41).

[5] II Timothy 4:2

[6] Ephesians 6:17-18

[7] II Timothy 3:16-17

[8] As his recorded prayers reveal.

[9] Romans 1:16-17

[10] Ephesians 6:17-18

Tuesday, February 9, 2016

The Wise in Love and Desire

Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.

(I Corinthians 14:1)

Paul’s summary exhortations are characteristically precise and clear. Here is a teaching telling us to DO three things. Those who are wise will hear these words of Jesus and put them into practice, while those who are unwise will hear these words of Jesus and not put them into practice.

However, while discussions of spiritual gifts have tended to divide the church into the haves and the have-nots, it is not because God’s word is unclear in revealing God’s will. Rather, the divisiveness is characterized by Satan’s work of pushing the church into pendulum extremes that keep us from truly living by the plumbline of God’s word and will, and the sark’s[1] work of pursuing its self-centered, self-protective philosophy of life. Both the devil and the flesh are determined to keep churches from putting Jesus’ words into practice as precisely and faithfully as his words require.

With the context of Scripture telling us clearly how to respond to this instruction, and the context of church history testifying to how easily the church divides over this issue, here are some additional bits of information that should draw us to settle on both the knowing and doing of God’s will.

1. This instruction to “pursue love” is in the New Testament letter that contains the beautiful teaching about love in what is often called, “the love chapter” of I Corinthians 13. In fact, the command to pursue love comes immediately after this love chapter, particularly after Paul just said, “So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”[2]If the church accepts that “the greatest of these is love,” the response of obedient faith is, “pursue love”. Response: Yes, Lord!

2. The exhortation to “earnestly desire the spiritual gifts” is prefaced by I Corinthians 12 in which Paul gives an in-depth teaching on this subject. In that chapter Paul has taught us what to think about spiritual gifts, how they are distributed among the members of Jesus’ body, and how we are to show no favoritism or partiality in how we think of them. If we wonder how obedient faith is to respond to such teaching, Paul is very clear, “earnestly desire the spiritual gifts.” Response: Yes, Lord!

3. The elaboration to “especially” earnestly desire “that you may prophesy” is followed by I Corinthians 14 in which Paul shows why prophecy is as supreme in the gifts of the Spirit as love is in the fruit of the Spirit. While we may need to meditate on all the Scriptures about prophecy in the New Testament to be sure we understand this gift, we do not need to wait until we have full understanding to agree that God is calling us to “earnestly desire that you may prophesy,” in whatever he means by prophecy. Response: Yes, Lord!

4. This teaching is so clear that it will quickly distinguish those who say yes to their heavenly Father by pursuing love as taught in I Corinthians 13, earnestly desiring spiritual gifts as taught in I Corinthians 12, and especially earnestly desiring the gift of prophesy as taught in I Corinthians 14, and those who say no to this instruction by either refusing to pursue love, or refusing to earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, or refusing to especially earnestly desire that their church may prophecy, or refusing all of the above.

When Jesus reached the conclusion of his Sermon on the Mount,[3] he told us about the only two ways we can respond to his teaching, wherever we find it in God’s word. He wrote,

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”[4]

We must be those who hear Jesus’ words as given through the apostles, and put them into practice with the same clarity of obedient faith as God has given us in the clarity of his words. Response: Yes, Lord!

5. Before Paul got to these three beautiful chapters on love and spiritual gifts, he had already made a foundational exhortation regarding how we relate to what the apostles had written. He wrote:

“I have applied all these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brothers, that you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up in favor of one against another.”[5]

Anyone who tries to exaggerate what Paul says about love and spiritual gifts (pendulum right), or to dissuade us from obeying what Paul wrote about love and spiritual gifts (pendulum left), is going beyond what is written (plumbline), and puffing themselves up so people will favor them instead of another teacher.

We must respond to Paul’s teaching (what is “written”) by refusing to go beyond what is written in either exaggerating or denying these Scriptures. Response: Yes, Lord!

6. By the time we come to I Corinthians 12-14, and find something that is clearly written, we ought to have the mindset that we will treat this as the God-breathed Scriptures that are “profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work,”[6] and that we will not be those who “’live by bread alone,” but will be those who live “by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”[7] Response: Yes, Lord!

7. I do not write this as someone who is especially experienced in the use of spiritual gifts. Rather, even though I detest what churches force on people by exaggerating spiritual gifts far beyond what is written, and am deeply disappointed in churches that deny select portions of Paul’s teaching on spiritual gifts because a favorite teacher has told them to do so, I must be one of those who “received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so,”[8] and, “accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.”[9] Response: Yes, Lord!

It is interesting that, after Paul explains to the church why prophecy should be pursued “especially” earnestly, he says, “Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature.”[10] Our thinking about spiritual gifts should be led by the mature.

Why?

Because infants and children can only think of themselves, hence the focus on the gifts that would tend to be self-beneficial, or using spiritual gifts in self-benefiting ways. On the other hand, the mature have learned to think of others in the way the apostles taught, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.”[11] The immature tend towards selfish ambition and conceit, while the mature have learned the humility that thinks more highly of others than the immature can imagine.

With the mature leading the way, the church can put Paul’s instruction into practice with conscious desire and effort to minister to people “for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation,”[12] and to do what, “builds up the church,”[13] in fact, to “strive to excel in building up the church.”[14]

Because the command of Scripture to pastors is, “preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching,”[15] every pastor must preach what the apostles teach us about spiritual gifts, reprove the wrong beliefs and practices surrounding spiritual gifts (people on both pendulum extremes going beyond what is written), rebuke the wrong beliefs and practices of those who continue pursuing what is disobedient to God’s word, exhort everyone to hear all Jesus’ words and put them all into practice, and to keep doing so with “complete patience and teaching” even when he feels outflanked on one side by the exaggerators, and on the other side by the detractors. Paul clearly had to do that in his day,[16] and we who follow his example must expect to do so in our day.[17]

The conclusion is simple: “Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.”

[1] I often prefer the sound of “sark” as a transliteration of the Greek word translated “flesh” in the New Testament.

[2] I Corinthians 13:13

[3] Matthew 5-7

[4] Matthew 7:24-27

[5] I Corinthians 4:6

[6] II Timothy 3:16-17

[7] Matthew 4:4

[8] Acts 17:11

[9] I Thessalonians 2:13

[10] I Corinthians 14:20

[11] Philippians 2:3

[12] I Corinthians 14:3

[13] I Corinthians 14:4

[14] I Corinthians 14:12

[15] II Timothy 4:2

[16] In both I and II Corinthians, Paul testified to the problem of false teachers and “super apostles” (II Corinthians 11:5; 12:11) working to lead the church “astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ” (II Corinthians 11:3).

[17] Especially when Paul followed up his exhortation to pastors to preach the word by saying, “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths” (II Timothy 4:3-4). Both pendulum extremes are “myths”.

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