Spiritual Gifts

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1 Corinthians 12:21-27
“The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” …But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.”

Even by pagan standards, the city of Corinth was viewed as morally corrupt in every fashion. It was a city unable to divorce itself from the culture at hand. There were some, in Corinth, that were complaining about not having “showy” spiritual gifts. To make it worse, those who did possess ostentatious talents were almost mocking those with less-than prominent ones.

Paul tells them that one could never be more important than the rest, for all areas of spiritual gifts are considerable blessings. In other words, the eye, hand, head and feet are all vital parts of humanity and one would be worse off even without the least of these.

How often I find myself wishing for more prominent and mature spiritual gifts. I wish I could address crowds like my husband. I wish I had the nerve to evangelize as I see students do. I wish my scripture memory was more comprehensive. I wish I had this, or that, position in church leadership. As you can imagine, the list of spiritual desires is extensive.

In comparison with others, it becomes easy to ignore the gifts that God has trusted to us. Perhaps we are strong in prayer. Perhaps we are strong in morality.

Regardless, gratitude is almost impossible to muster for something that we take for granted.