The primary purpose of spiritual gifts is the building up of the church. We must demonstrate love in serving one another, desiring to exhort and to encourage one another with God's clear truth.

Love is greatest because it is permanent, complete, mature, direct, and full. Spiritual gifts serve the church in this age, but we look forward to that time when we stand complete in Christ.

This portrait of love celebrates the actions of God to us and therefore how we can show love to each other. Love is the proper basis and context for the gifts to operate in the church.

Spirituality, orthodoxy, and even self-sacrifice yield nothing if these do not find their basis and context in love.

By His good and perfect will God has appointed a diversity of gifts for the establishment and advancement of His church in this age.

By His good and purposeful design, God has equipped each individual believer to serve in His church. Without pride or embarrassment we each fulfill our role for the benefit of the body of Christ.

Our Lord Jesus suffered unto death and then entered into His glory. As His ambassadors in this age, we too will suffer for the gospel but also share in the glory of our risen Lord. Be faithful to the end and trust that His word will accomplish its good work.

The church as the body of Christ contains many members—all of whom benefit the life of the body through the common gift of the Holy Spirit. We have no cause for pride or embarrassment over the gifts He has given to each one, but we must work together to advance His gracious purposes in this age.

Through good works Christians display the light of God in the world. We must take care not to take the glory to ourselves but to direct praise to God who gifts good gifts to His children for unhypocritical service to one another.

We must use the variety of gifts the Holy Spirit gives to the church so that the church grows. We have no cause for pride, shame, envy, or condescension as we see how the Spirit has deliberately gifted each one. Let us serve one another in love.