Like the rain that falls on the just and the unjust, God has showered gifts upon the righteous and the unrighteous alike.
Amazingly, God allows his myriad of gifts—talents, abilities, resources, and opportunities—to be used or abused according to the will of the recipient.
But the Christian always seeks to utilise the gifts of his generous God as tools for fellowship with God and man alike.
Jesus did not leave us without example and instruction.
Jesus gifted the apostles with three years of hands-on mentoring. He taught them the Words and Work of the Church to come, and, as he had foretold, he offered himself as the Lamb of God who took away the sins of the world.
Later, he confounded them as The Risen Christ. Such was their confusion that right up to his ascension they struggled to understand the full nature of the church-kingdom.
It was only, as promised, the sending of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost that brought everything together. The apostles were empowered to perform miracles as proof that the gospel was of God.
Henceforth, congregations were planted wherever the gospel was preached. Within those congregations were brethren who, by the laying on of the apostle’s hands, received various miraculous gifts to aid with the development of the fledgling church of Christ.
But as important as those miraculous gifts were, they were designed to be but a temporary help to the Lord’s church. Yes, temporary, but vital in the preaching of the Gospel, and in the inspired writing of the New Testament.
It is “love” that always has been, and always will be, at the centre of God’s dealings with man. And it is our response to God’s gift of love—Jesus Christ—that will make our gifts useful for eternity.
The first Christians who had miraculous gifts did not lack zeal in either their desire to have them or to use them. But Paul, knowing that something so powerful for universal good was eager to make sure it was not used for personal harm. He told them plainly:
“So also you, since you are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek to abound for the edification of the church” (1Cor.14:12).
The gifted passionately work to uplift the church.
John Staiger
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