The Gifts of the Spirit and the Grace of Love
“Covet earnestly the best gifts. And yet show I unto you a more excellent way.’’ I Cor. xii:3i.
“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not love, I am become as sounding brass of a tinkling cymbal.” I Cor. xii.i.
/T^UCH attention is being given at this time to the supernatural gifts of the Spirit. No Bible Christian can for a moment question the value and permanency of these gifts which the apostle describes so fully in the twelfth chapter of First Corinthians. There is every reason to believe that all these gifts were meant to be in operation in the Church of Christ until the end of the age and there is an apparent revival of several of them at the present time.
But along with this we sometimes hear the teaching of the extreme view that these supernatural gifts, and especially the one most in evidence of late, the gift of tongues, are essential evidences of the baptism of the Holy Spirit’ This is most unscriptural.
In the first place the teaching referred to is sure to lead people to seek for manifestations and peculiar experiences rather than for God Himself, and thus decentralise and distract the heart from its supreme goal. In the next place such teaching is directly contrary to the emphatic statement of the apostle that the Holy Spirit exercises His sovereignty in bestowing these gifts on whomsoever He will. He knows the particular forms of divine enduement that are best suited for our different ministries and qualifications. More important still such a view would place undue emphasis on the gifts of power rather than the spirit of love and turn us aside from the practical and useful to the sensational.
The true Scriptural attitude is to make the Lord Jesus Himself the central object of our thought and affection, to seek to be filled with His Spirit, for His service and glory, to cultivate the disposition of love and the graces that tend to make us a blessing to others and to trust Him to give to us and to others whatever special gifts He sees to be best suited in His great plan for each of our lives.
The exercise of these supernatural gifts in Christian work and worship is carefully regulated by the apostle in the fourteenth chapter of First Corinthians. Certain principles are clearly laid down which should control the worship of the assembly. The first of these is edification. Nothing should be encouraged that does not tend to promote the spiritual good of the largest number. The second is order. All confusion, extravagance and exaggerated emotion should be avoided. The third is self control. ‘‘The spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets.’’ Even the Holy Spirit does not take away our mental poise or expect us to surrender our common sense and will or yield ourselves to any hypnotic influence. But above all else we are exhorted to seek for the grace of love. Not only is it the highest end to be pursued but it is the surest means of accomplishing the very end that many are pursuing, a deeper filling of the Spirit. The apostle says, “I show unto you a more excellent way,” that is a better way for obtaining the blessing you seek. That way is to forget yourself in a spirit of love and the purpose of being a blessing to others. The poet Lowell has given a fine illustration of this thought.
In the beautiful poem of Sir Launfal, a Christian knight had gone forth with holy zeal in quest of that which represented in that age the most glorious gift of God. It was the Holy Grail, the identical cup from which the Lord Jesus and His disciples had drunk the sacred draught “on that night in which Hie was betrayed.” As he passed out from the palace gate, a loath3ome leper stretched out his festering hands for help, and begged him to take the filthy cup that was lying beside him, and bring him a drink of water from the flowing brook. But the knight waved him aside and swept on, for he was after higher things.
Years passed by, as he pursued in vain his weary quest over many lands and under scorching suns. His body was worn, his hair was gray, his heart was broken, his hopes had almost died. A worn-out wreck, he was slowly returning to his home with a crushed and disappointed heart, when once again a leper met him on the way and stretched out the same festering hands for the same loving ministry. Swiftly the knight leaped from his horse, picked up the repulsive vessel, and hastening to the stream, with profoundest courtesy and tenderest sympathy he handed to the suflferer the drink he had requested. In a moment the scene was changed, and the transfigured leper had become none other than the Son of Man Himself. The light of heaven shone around Him and the filthy cup became transformed into a shining vessel of silver; and as the Master handed it back to him it was indeed the ‘’Holy Grail!’’ Yes, he had found the more excellent way. So may we seek and find.