The gathering of believers should reflect the peace and order that reflects God’s character, benefits the common good, and brings unity to the church. Also, this passage of scripture does not contain a universal command for women to be silent in church; rather, Paul is addressing disruptive women as one of the issues bringing chaos to the Corinthian church services.

The apostle Paul uses the spiritual phenomena of speaking in unlearned languages and prophecy to illustrate the superiority of exercising those “gifts” of the Spirit that build up the whole community, rather than those things that simply build up the individual.

Jesus defines love on the cross as a sacrificial willingness to do anything for the good of another. This “way of love” is meant to motivate everything we do followers of Jesus.

After finishing up with the last four items from “the list,” we examine Paul’s body analogy offered in the 2nd half of the chapter. God’s people are designed for a unified, mutually dependent and supportive existence together as each member of the body fills the essential and unique role they have been given by God.

The Apostle Paul provides a list that exemplifies the way the Holy Spirit is manifest in the communal life of the church. If our definitions of these “Spirituals” are to do us any good, they must harmonize with the totality of scripture as well as take the form of concepts we can experience in our daily lives. We break down the first 5 items on Paul’s list with a brief definition, a biblical example, and an experiential example from more recent times.

On the day of Pentecost, God poured out his spirit on all people for the common good of all humanity. The Lord desires to empower His people to preach the message of Christ’s resurrection as He fills them with His Holy Spirit.

Different church traditions have widely varying opinions on “Spiritual Gifts”. Scripture highlights the person of the Holy Spirit as the true “Gift” from the Father and warns against a number of pitfalls that result from thinking of manifestations of the Holy Spirit’s power as gifts that individuals can possess with an ownership mentality.

The root of human-on-human violence is found in the dividing wall of hostility that was created by sin. Jesus came to tear down this wall and reunite all of humanity under his banner of self-sacrificing love. His followers have a mandate to carry on Jesus’ message of reconciliation.

In the second half if 1 Corinthians, Paul uses the concept of communion to highlight the need for Christian gatherings to center on opportunities for individuals to be guided by self-sacrificing love for others rather, than slavery to their own appetites.

The beginning of the Biblical story starts with creation, where we have unity and oneness with God, with one another, with the animal kingdom, and the earth. When sin enters the world, so does the desire to rule over one another, but the end of the Biblical story ends with new creation, where unity and oneness are once again restored. We currently live in the midst of restoring that oneness.