Scripture Passage
Let love be your highest goal! But you should also desire the special abilities the Spirit gives… (1 Corinthians 14:1 NLT)
Observation
In 1 Corinthians 8 (as I suggested a couple of days ago), Paul elevates the priority of love over knowledge. In chapter 13, Paul describes love as the foundational value to be embraced by the body of Christ. In the opening verse of chapter 14, Paul declares, “Let love be your highest goal!” “But,” he says, “you should also desire the special abilities the Spirit gives…” (1 Corinthians 14:1 NLT) (“Special abilities,” of course, is the New Living Translation’s phrase for “spiritual gifts.”)
I’ve struggled to find the right words for expressing my heart on this, this morning. Here it is, best as I can say it, and much more “opinion” and personal reflection than it is “thus saith the Lord” for anyone else:
(1) Knowledge is simply too highly esteemed by some. Knowing Christ is not about engaging in philosophical reflection or winning religious debates over the interpretation of Scripture. It is about…well…knowing Christ. Intimately. Honestly. Submissively. (2) Dependence upon the Holy Spirit and the gifts He supplies is undervalued by most. Because of a predisposition towards “logic” and “reason,” American Christians (I’m convinced) lean away from genuinely engaging the spiritual realm. Our culture dismisses the spiritual dimension as unimportant (or non-existent) and so (unwittingly, perhaps) do we. (3) Both knowledge and spiritual gifts—to serve God’s purpose most fully—must function in an atmosphere of unadulterated love. (Read #3 again—it matters.) Here’s the kicker: (4) I don’t recall Paul exhorting the Corinthians to “also desire knowledge” but—alongside his exhortation to love—Paul does exhort the Corinthians to “also desire the special abilities the Spirit gives.”
Wanting to experience the activity of the Holy Spirit in my life is essential.
Knowledge is essential, as well. Many Scripture passages exhort the believer to pursue knowledge, so the fact that any such exhortation is missing here is, in some sense, inconsequential. Indeed, the “knowledge absent love” that Paul warns against in 1 Corinthians may not be legitimate knowledge at all, but rather a warning against an early form of Gnosticism (a heresy that threatened the early church). I’d be the first to acknowledge that everything I write here could be countered—and on any other day, I might be the guy offering the counterarguments.
But today, my heart is challenged that we not neglect the activity of the Spirit, and particularly those specific ways in which He empowers us for service in advancing God’s Kingdom. Indeed, that more than just not neglecting the Spirit, my heart is challenged that we invite, welcome, and want to see the activity of God’s Holy Spirit evident in and through us.
Let love be your highest goal! But you should also desire the special abilities the Spirit gives… (1 Corinthians 14:1 NLT)
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