In my quest to train believers in the use of the weapons of
our warfare,[1]
our home church is moving on into the area of spiritual gifts.[2]
Spiritual gifts give us an advantage over our spiritual enemy because they
enable us to do things in the spiritual realm that the enemy cannot stop.
Sound important?
I love the way Paul begins introducing this to the
Corinthians:
1 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be
uninformed. (I Corinthians 12)
For starters, I was intrigued with Paul’s use of a
double-negative (not… uninformed).
Why not a definite positive instead (I
want you to be informed)?
First thought: being ignorant (uninformed) is a mark of our
old life. Paul wrote the Ephesians about those who were still living in their
sins: “They are darkened in their
understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is
in them, due to their hardness of heart.”[3]
When I read this, I noticed the connection between “alienated from the life of God” and “because of the ignorance that is in them”.
Paul did not treat ignorance as merely the absence of
knowledge (in the way that darkness is the absence of light, and cold is the
absence of heat). He treated ignorance is a real state of being, something like
the way being sick is not just the absence of good health, but a state of being
something that is very dangerous because of what it could do to us.
While the, “alienated
from the life of God” Paul spoke of in reference to our old life referred
to complete separation from our heavenly Father (spiritually dead),[4] he
treated the church like it could also be led astray, or alienated from God.
When Paul wrote the Galatians, he wrote them as a church
that had already turned away from the true gospel. He wrote, “I am astonished that you are so quickly
deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different
gospel”.[5]
In Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, he wrote: “But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived
Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure
devotion to Christ.”[6]
Whatever was happening in the Corinthian church (an attack
by the “super apostles” and their false gospel), Paul likened it to what the
serpent did to Eve in the Garden of Eden. “Thoughts”
that are “led astray from a sincere and
pure devotion to Christ”, leaves us in ignorance, and ignorance leaves us
easy prey to the roaring lion who is always prowling around looking for someone
to devour.[7]
All Paul’s letters were aimed at informing the church so we
would not be uninformed, because leaving us uninformed sets us up for
deception, and going astray from the best of relationship with God. When we see
the extent of his defense of his ministry in II Corinthians, we can see how
precisely he wants the church informed of truth so that we are not led astray
from our “sincere and pure devotion to
Christ”.
It is interesting that, when Paul dealt with the Ephesian church
uniting to use their distinctive places in the body of Christ to build up the
church,[8] he
clarified the negative side of why he was giving such clear teaching on the
matter. He stated the negative side of his purpose as: “so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves
and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in
deceitful schemes.”[9]
If the church would do things the way the apostles taught in
these letters, they would “no longer”
be like uninformed little children. We all know the way children can be led
astray by someone showing up with a little puppy, or kitten, or candy, or all
kinds of dishonest stories. The children are uninformed about the human
condition, and how bad people can be. Paul did not want a whole church to be
like that (although in a mature church we are always able to help the immature
and uninformed grow up in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ!).
What alternative does Paul propose to this characteristic of
childish ignorance?
Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into
him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held
together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working
properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.[10]
The, “rather,”
hinges on, “speaking the truth in love”.
With that (which is the way we are to read all the apostolic letters to the
churches), we can help the body “grow so
that it builds itself up in love”. Take that away (leaving us uninformed),
and Satan can lead us astray now just as he did with Eve in the garden.
Paul clearly did not want to leave the church uninformed
about our use of spiritual gifts. As we begin considering how these gifts help
us win the war the world, the flesh, and the devil, have leveled against the
church, we must start with this agreement with God’s word. Our heavenly Father
does not want us to be uninformed about spiritual gifts, so let’s tell him we
are eager and ready to be informed however his word teaches us in this regard,
and that we will gladly put into practice his good, acceptable, and perfect
will.[11]
© 2016 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517,
Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted,
Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)
[1]
II Corinthians 10:3-6
[2]
We have already looked at the advantage we have in our experience of the
gospel, the Holy Spirit, prayer, and faith.
[3]
Ephesians 4:18
[4]
Ephesians 2:1-3 explains this in painful detail.
[5]
Galatians 1:6
[6]
II Corinthians 11:3
[7]
I Peter 5:8
[8]
Ephesians 4:1-16
[9]
Ephesians 4:14
[10]
Ephesians 4:15-16
[11]
Romans 12:1-2
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