Let’s take a look at the start of 1 Corinthians 13, which is sometimes called the “love chapter” of the Bible. As it turns out, this chapter doesn’t start by describing love, but rather illustrating some examples of using spiritual gifts without love.
If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
1 Corinthians 13:1-3 NIV
Specific opinions about speaking in tongues today vary among Christian traditions. However, I think that we can agree that it’s impressive when God gifts someone like this. Whether this gift is meant to be speaking in other human languages (like the apostles at Pentecost), or speaking in a supernatural language, either one is pretty amazing. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if Paul is talking about both of these forms of languages in verse 1. And, given that I struggle with other spoken languages, this is even more impressive to me, personally!
However, having this supernatural gift and being able to speak in either of these ways isn’t just “less effective” or “not as good” without love, it’s noise. The Lookout (cited below) compares it to a car alarm going off in the neighbor’s driveway.
In the same way, we might put someone with the gift of prophecy up on a pedestal, or be impressed by someone’s faith who is so strong that it can move mountains (whether literally or even just metaphorically). This passage says that having those gifts without having love makes someone “nothing”!
Today, we might know people who have sold what they have to minister, whether this is a family (from the local congregation where I attend) downsizing to serve in Haiti, another family from the church who sold their house and bought a smaller one so that they would have more money to share, or my sister’s family selling off much of what they owned so that my brother-in-law could become an Army chaplain (which requires them to move around a lot, so having a lot of possessions would create more work every time).
We probably also know about martyrs who gave up their lives for their faith. While I think that these examples of real-life faith in action are positive inspirational examples, we find here that even doing these impressive things without love causes someone to “gain nothing” (NIV) or it does them no good (ref. NASB).
At least some in the Corinthian church seem to have looked at these gifts as goals unto themselves. If they had a gift from the Holy Spirit – the ability to pass along an attribute of God Himself to other people – and if they used that gift in the church, this was apparently good enough to them. Paul’s point here is that the gifts are not the goal. Instead, love is the goal, and gifts just help us to show love – not only our love, but the love of God – to others.
In summary, there’s nothing to brag about when we use gifts from God outside of His love for others.
Imagine me teaching a Sunday School class along with one of my sisters who plays the piano well. (All four of us siblings had to take piano lessons, but only two of us had the gift of music!)
If she were to pitch in and supplement what I’m saying with background music, stepping it up when I am making a big point, and fading back as I’m moving off to the next point, she could complement my teaching and help the class know when to pay extra attention, for instance. Then, if there was a good song that fit into the lesson, I might just let her play and allow the class to ponder lyrics and music that complemented the message, while I remained silent and listened along.
However, if she decided to have a recital, and just play whatever she had learned recently, ramping up the volume whenever she wanted, and playing out of sync with my lesson, that wouldn’t be very loving. In fact, it would hurt both of us, because you wouldn’t be able to hear my lesson as well (if you wanted to) or, if you wanted to listen to her instead, it would be annoying to have me talking while she was playing.
In my mind, this is kind of how love should impact the use of our gifts. If we use them to our own benefit, we don’t help other parts of the body. In fact, we may actually interfere with others using their gifts. If, however, we love each member of the body (and, by extension, others outside of the church) like we love ourselves, then we will want to use our gifts to work with them, to help them, to serve them, and to bless them. With that, we can make beautiful music together…even if our gift isn’t in the musical arts!
From Sunday School lesson prepared for April 21, 2024
References:
- The Lookout, April 14, 2024, © 2024 Christian Standard Media.
- Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
- Scripture quotations taken from the NASB. Copyright by The Lockman Foundation.
- The College Press NIV Commentary – 1 Corinthians, by Richard E. Oster, Jr. © 1995 College Press Publishing Co.
Those Who Sin Differently 