Thursday 22 May 2008
- Bible Book:
- 1 Corinthians
"Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good." (v.4-7)
Background
Here Paul is writing very specifically about the community ofbelievers, emphasising that the Spirit at work in each Christian isfor the common good, the objective being to build up the community,not merely in numbers but in depth of Christian insight and life.While this is the 'correct' answer to the question "What is theHoly Spirit for?", it does tend to suggest that the work of theHoly Spirit is in some way confined to the Church. But God can't beconfined to human institutions or structures in that way andneither can the Spirit's creativity within us be limited (
Paul writes of the "variety of gifts". His purpose is to counter animpression, current among the Corinthian Christians, that the morenoisy and spectacular gifts of the Spirit are more important. Thiswas giving rise to some tension in the Corinthian community.
Given a broad understanding of the way in which the Spirit awakenswithin us all sorts of creative abilities, we can perhaps see thedanger, in our own church communities, of people feeling jealous ofone another. People might envy one person's ability to thinkquickly 'on their feet' and maintain a gracious calm in the face ofdisagreement, or that person's wonderful sensitivity in leadingprayer, or someone else's gift for seeing what everyone can offerto our life together, and persuading them to let their lightshine.
The idea of God as Trinity draws us back to the essential unity ofall things - and here, the unity of all creative gifts, simplybecause they are all given by the same Spirit.
To Ponder
How should we truly value the gifts God has givento us, without inflating our own sense of self-importance?
As we learn to see Christ in others, so too wemight learn to see the Spirit at work in others. As you remember achurch friend in your prayers, why not focus on the gifts theSpirit has given to them, that make their presence in the communityso important, and thank God for them.
It has been said that the job of the Church is todiscern, celebrate and support the work of the Holy Spirit in theworld. How can that become part of the agenda in our churchmeetings?