Spiritual Gifts

Suppose Christ attended your church next Sabbath.
Not to preach.
Not to perform a miracle.
Simply to observe.
He watches the platform.
He listens to the music.
He hears the prayers.
He observes the sermon.
He notices every department, every leader, every member.
Then, as the service ends, He asks just one question:
"Which part of what happened today required the Holy Spirit?"

How would we answer?
Would He see people depending on their gifts...
or depending on Him?
That question lies at the heart of this week's lesson.
When we hear the words "spiritual gifts," we usually begin asking:
"What is my gift?"
"Do I have the gift of teaching?"
"Can I preach?"
"Can I sing?"
"Do I have the gift of prophecy?"

Paul begins somewhere entirely different.
He asks,
"What are gifts for?"
That may sound like the same question.
It isn't.
Because once we lose sight of their purpose, God's greatest blessings can become our greatest distractions.

The Corinthians were a gifted church.
Few churches could match them.
Yet they argued.
Competed.
Divided into groups.
Turned public worship into confusion.
And somehow, in the middle of all that giftedness, they were forgetting love.
That should make every church pause.
Because activity is not the same as spirituality.
Talent is not the same as transformation.
Ability is not the same as Christlikeness.

A church can have outstanding preaching...
excellent music...
strong leadership...
busy departments...
and still miss the very reason God gave spiritual gifts.
God never distributed gifts so that some Christians could shine brighter than others.
He distributed gifts so that together the church would reveal Christ.

Perhaps that is why Paul interrupts his discussion of gifts with the greatest chapter on love ever written.
He is quietly telling us something we easily forget:
The greatest miracle in the church is not gifted people.
It is gifted people who love one another enough to use their gifts for someone else's good.

As we begin this week's journey, let us not ask first,
"What gift has God given me?"
Instead, let us ask,
"If God has entrusted me with a gift, whose life is meant to be changed because I have it?"
For that question takes us to the very heart of Paul's message.