The Occasion of Paul's Description and Enforcement of Christian Charity

The credibility of the Gospel, as a revelation from heaven, was attested by miracles, as had been predicted by the prophet Joel. “And it shall come to pass afterwards, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions; and also upon the servants and the handmaidens in those days, I will pour out my Spirit.” This prophecy began to receive its accomplishment when our Lord entered upon his public ministry, — but was yet more remarkably fulfilled, according to the testimony of Peter, on the day of Pentecost, when the disciples “were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance;” and still continued to be fulfilled till the power of working miracles was withdrawn from the Church. Our Lord Jesus Christ ceased not, during his continuance on earth, to prove, by these splendid achievements, the truth of his claims as the Son of God; and constantly appealed to them in his controversy with the Jews, as the reasons and the grounds of faith in his communications. By him the power of workingmiracles was cenferred on his apostles, who, in the exercise of this extraordinary gift, cast out demons, and “healed all manner of sickness, and all manner of disease.” Christ also assured them that, under the dispensation of the Spirit, which was to commence after his decease, their miraculous powers should be so much enlarged and multiplied, as to exceed those which had been exercised by himself This took place on the day of Pentecost, when the ability to speak all languages without previous study was conferred upon them. The apostles, as the ambassadors and messengers of their risen Lord, were authorized and enabled to invest others with the high distinction; for, to confer the power of working miracles, was a prerogative confined to the apostolic office. This is evident from many parts of the New Testament. But while apostles only could communicate this power, any one, not excepting the most obscure and illiterate member of the churches, could receive it; as it was not confined to Church officers, whether ordinary or extraordinary. It is probable that these gifts were sometimes distributed among all the original members of a church: as the society increased, they were confined to a more limited number, and granted only to such as were more eminent among the brethren, till at length they were probably confined to the elders; thus being as gradually withdrawn from the Church as they had been communicated.

These miraculous powers were of various kinds, which are enumerated at length in the epistle to the Romans. “Having then gifts, differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion (analogy) of faith; or ministry, let us wait on our ministering: or he that teacheth, on teaching; or he that exhorteth, on exhortation; or he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that showeth mercy, with cheerfulness.” They are set forth still more at length, in the twelfth chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians. “Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same. Spirit. And there are differences of administration, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal: for to one is given by the Spirit, the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; to another, faith by the same Spirit; to another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues.”

It is not necessary that we should here explain the nature, and trace the distinction, of these endowments — a task which has been acknowledged by all expositors to be difficult, and which is thought by some to be impossible. But vague and general as is the idea of them which we possess, we can form some conception of the strange and novel spectacle presented by a society in which they were in full operation. They constituted the light which fell from heaven upon the Church, and to which she appealed, as the proofs of her divine origin. It is not easy for us to conceive of any thing so striking and impressive, as a community of men thus remarkably endowed. We may entertain a general, though not an adequate, idea of the spiritual glory which shone upon an assembly, where one member would pour forth, in strains of inspired eloquence, the profoundest views of the divine economy, and would be succeeded by another, who, in the exercise of the gift of knowledge, would explain the mysteries of truth, concealed under the symbols of the Jewish dispensation; — where one, known perhaps to be illiterate, would rise, and in a language which he had never studied, descant, without hesitation and without embarrassment, on the sublimest topics of revealed truth; and would be followed by another, who, in the capacity of an interpreter, would render into the vernacular tongue all that had been spoken; — where one would heal the most inveterate diseases of the body with a word, and another discern by a glance the secrets of the mind, and disclose the hypocrisy which lurked un der the veil of the most specious exterior. What seeming confusion, and yet what real grandeur, must have attended such a scene ] What were the disputations of the schools, the eloquence of the forum, or the martial pomp, the accumulating wealth, the literary renown of the Augustan age of the Roman Empire to this extraordinary spectacle? Yea, what was the gorgeous splendour of the temple of Solomon, in the zenith of its beauty, compared with this? Here were the tokens and displays of a present though invisible Deity; a glory altogether unearthly and inimitable, and on that account the more remarkable.

For the possession and exercise of these gifts, the Church at Corinth was eminently distinguished. Thus evident from the testimony of Paul, — “I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Christ Jesus; that in everything ye are enriched by him in all utterance, and in all knowledge; even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you: so that ye come behind in no gift: and in another place he asks them — “What is it, wherein ye were inferior to other Churches 1” It is, indeed, both a humiliating and an admonitory consideration, that the Church which, of all those planted by the Apostles, was the most distinguished for its gifts, should have been the least eminent for its graces; for this was the case with the Christian Society at Corinth. What a scandalous abuse and profanation of the Lord’s Supper had crept in! What a schismatical spirit prevailed! What a connivance at sin existed! What resistance to apostolic authority was set up!

To account for this, it should be recollected, that the possession of miraculous gifts by no means implied the existence and influence of sanctifying grace. Those extraordinary powers were entirely distinct from the qualities which are essential to the character of a real Christian. They were powers conferred not at all, or in a very subordinate degree, for the benefit of the individual himself, but were distributed according to the sovereignty of the Divine will, for the edification of believers, and the conviction of unbelievers. Hence saith the apostle, — “Tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not: but prophesying serveth not for them that believe not, but for them which believe. Our Lord has informed us, that miraculous endowments were not necessarily connected with, but were often disconnected from, personal piety. “Many will say unto me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you; depart from me ye workers of iniquity.” Paul supposes the same thing in the commencement of this chapter, where he says, — “Though I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mys- ^teries and all knowledge; — and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.” This hypothetical mode of speech certainly implies, that gifts and grace are not necessarily connected.

This is a very awful consideration, and, by showing how far self-deception may be carried, ought to be felt as a solemn admonition to all professing Christians, to be very careful and diligent in the great business of self-examination.

It is evident, both from the nature of things, and from the reasoning of the Apostle, that some of the miraculous powers were more admired, and therefore more popular, than others. The gift of tongues, as is plain from the reasoning in the fourteenth chapter, appears to have been most coveted, because eloquence was so much cultivated by the Greeks: to reason and declaim in public, as a talent, was much admired, and, as a practice, was exceedingly common: schools were established to teach the art, and places of public resort were frequented to display it. Hence, in the Church of Christ, and especially with those whose hearts were unsanctified by Divine grace, and who converted miraculous operations into a means of personal ambition, the gift of tongues was the most admired of all these extraordinary powers. A desire after conformity to the envied distinctions of the world, has ever been the snare and the reproach of many of the members of the Christian community.

Where distinctions exist, many evils will be sure to follow, as long as human nature is in an imperfect state. Talents, or the power of fixing attention and raising admiration, will be valued above virtues; and the more popular talents will occupy, in the estimate of ambition, a higher rank than those that are useful. Consequently, we must expect, wherever opportunities present themselves, to see on the one hand, pride, vanity, arrogance, love of display, boasting, selfishness, conscious superiority, and a susceptibility of offence; while on the other, we shall witness an equally offensive exhibition of envy, suspicion, imputation of evil, exultation over failures, and a disposition to magnify and report offences. Such passions are not entirely excluded from the Church of God, at least during its militant state; and they were most abundantly exhibited among the Christians at Corinth. Those who had gifts, were too apt to exult over those that had none; while the latter indulged in envy, and ill-will toward the former: those who were favoured with the most distinguished endowments, vaunted of their achievements over those who attained only to the humbler powers; and all the train of the irascible passions was indulged to such a degree, as well nigh to banish Christian love from the fellowship of the faithful. This unhappy state of things the Apostle found it necessary to correct, which he did by a series of most conclusive arguments; such, for instance, as that all these gifts are the bestowments of the Spirit, who in distributing them exercises a wise but irresponsible sovereignty — that they are all bestowed for mutual advantage, and not for personal glory — that this variety is essential to general edification — that the useful ones are to be more valued than those of a dazzling nature — that they are dependent on each other for their efficiency; and he then concludes his expostulation and representation, by introducing to their notice that heavenly virtue which he so beautifully describes in the chapter under consideration, and which he exalts in value and importance above the most coveted miraculous powers. “Now, ye earnestly desire (for the words should be rendered indicatively, and not imperatively,) the best gifts, but yet I show unto you a more excellent way.” “Ye are ambitious to obtain those endowments which shall cause you to be esteemed as the most honourable and distinguished persons in the Church; but, notwithstanding your high notions of the respect due to those who excel in miracles, I now point out to you a way to still greater honour, by a road open to you all, and in which your success will neither produce pride in yourselves, nor excite envy in others. Follow after Charity, for the possession and exercise of this grace is infinitely to be preferred to the most splendid gift.”

Admirable encomium — exalted eulogium on Charity! What more could be said, or be said more properly, to raise it in our esteem, and to impress it upon our heart 1 The age of miracles is past; the signs, and the tokens, and the powers which accompanied it, and which, like brilliant lights from heaven, hung in bright effulgence over the Church, are vanished. No longer can the members or ministers of Christ confound the mighty, perplex the wise, or guide the simple inquirer after truth, by the demonstration of the Spirit, and of power: the control of the laws of nature, and of the spirits of darkness, is no longer intrusted to us; but that which is more excellent and more heavenly remains: that which is more valuable in itself, and less liable to abuse, continues; and that is. Charity. Miracles were but the credentials of Christianity, but Charity is its essence; miracles but its witnesses, which, having ushered it into the world, and borne their testimony, retired for ever; — but Charity is its very soul, which, when disencumbered of all that is earthly, shall ascend to its native seat — the paradise and the presence of the eternal God.