Wednesday in the Word

Love is not a sentimental extra in the Christian life; it is the essential thing God is doing in us, more important than any gift, role, or achievement. 

In this episode on 1 Corinthians 13:1–13, Krisan Marotta situates the “love chapter” inside Paul’s larger argument about spiritual gifts, showing that he is not pausing for wedding poetry but confronting a church that is obsessed with tongues and status while failing to love one another. 

In this week’s episode, we explore:

• How 1 Corinthians 13 fits between chapters 12 and 14, and why Paul interrupts his discussion of “greater gifts” to show the Corinthians “a still more excellent way” 
• Why spiritual gifts are roles and opportunities to serve rather than fixed “superpowers,” and how that perspective reframes the Corinthians’ obsession with tongues
• Paul’s stark claim that even the most impressive ministries—tongues of angels, perfect knowledge, mountain-moving faith, radical generosity, even martyrdom—are worthless without love
• How the famous list in verses 4–7 exposes the Corinthians’ failures: envy, arrogance, rudeness, self-seeking, thin skin, and score-keeping instead of patient, kind, truth-loving care for one another
• What Paul means when he says “love never fails,” in contrast to prophecy, tongues, and knowledge that will all pass away when “the perfect comes” and partial understanding is swallowed up in fullness 
• The child/adult and mirror/face-to-face analogies: why our gifts belong to the “childhood” stage of knowing God, and how their importance fades when we reach the maturity of seeing Christ clearly
• How faith, hope, and love “abide” now—like breathing and an umbilical cord in this age of growth—and why love is greatest: it matters both now and forever as the very character God is forming in his people
• The searching implication: if we are not interested in becoming loving people, we are not actually interested in what the gospel promises, no matter how gifted or “spiritual” we appear

After listening, you’ll see 1 Corinthians 13 as a bracing reorientation of what really matters—not a diversion from the spiritual gifts discussion, but its heart. You’ll be invited to stop measuring yourself or others by visible ministry, comparison, or dramatic experiences, and instead to become zealous for faith, hope, and especially love: trusting God’s promises in the fog of this life, hoping for the day when we will see clearly, and letting the Spirit slowly turn you into the kind of person who genuinely cares for others as you care for yourself. 

Series: 1 Corinthians: Pride & Prejudice in the church

Real love is not sentimental feeling or vague niceness; it is a hard-won, Spirit-shaped way of treating other people as just as important as ourselves. 

In this episode on 1 Corinthians 13:4–7, Krisan Marotta walks slowly through Paul’s famous list of love’s attributes, showing how each one confronts the Corinthians’ pride over tongues and spiritual status—and exposes our own deep tendency toward selfishness, envy, and arrogance. 

In this week’s episode, we explore:

• Why this beloved “love passage” sits in the middle of Paul’s argument about tongues and spirituality, and how that context changes the way we read it
• How love for God and love for neighbor differ—and why 1 Corinthians 13 is focused on the second great commandment: seeking our neighbor’s good as we naturally seek our own 
• Two deep motivations for love: our shared dignity as image-bearers of God, and our special bond with fellow believers as people who will share eternity together
• What it means that love is patient and kind: not thin politeness, but longsuffering, active goodness toward people who may be immature, difficult, or even hurtful
• Why love is not jealous, boastful, or arrogant, and how those three attitudes were tearing the Corinthian church apart as some used tongues to feel superior to others
• How love “does not act unbecomingly,” does not insist on its own way, is not easily provoked, and does not keep a record of wrongs—refusing both to shame others and to nurse grudges or seek revenge 
• The contrast between rejoicing in unrighteousness versus rejoicing with the truth: caring more about the advance of the gospel than about our own side “winning”
• A careful look at “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” as a summary: whatever comes, love continues to trust God’s promises, hope in the gospel, and persevere in faith and costly care for others 
• How this list is meant not to crush us with impossible demands, but to reveal our need for grace and point us to the Spirit’s ongoing work to make us people who truly love

After listening, you’ll see 1 Corinthians 13:4–7 not as abstract poetry or wedding décor, but as a searching mirror held up to a church tempted by pride—and to our own hearts. You’ll be invited to admit how far you fall short, to rest in the hope that God intends to make you into this kind of person, and to keep believing, hoping, and enduring in the messy, daily work of loving your brothers and sisters as fellow travelers in the grace of Christ. 

Series: 1 Corinthians: Pride & Prejudice in the church

The Holy Spirit’s most important work is not giving us dramatic experiences or spectacular gifts—it is creating one people who share one faith in Jesus. 

In this episode on 1 Corinthians 12:11–13, Krisan Marotta explores Paul’s body metaphor and his language of being “baptized in one Spirit” and “made to drink of one Spirit,” showing why these verses cannot support the idea that every truly spiritual Christian must speak in tongues. 

In this week’s episode, we explore:

• How chapters 12–14 respond to a real problem in Corinth: a group grading other believers’ spirituality by whether they speak in tongues 
• Why Paul insists that the mark of the Spirit’s work is not an ecstatic experience, but genuinely saying and meaning, “Jesus is Lord”
• The heart of Paul’s point in 12:11–13: one and the same Spirit intentionally gives different roles and manifestations to different people
• Paul’s body metaphor as a picture of unity in diversity: one coherent body made up of many members with different functions, all necessary and all by design 
• What it means to be “baptized in one Spirit” and “made to drink of one Spirit,” and why these are metaphors for the Spirit’s inward cleansing and life-giving work, not a second-blessing experience only some believers receive
• How John the Baptist’s promise of Spirit baptism and Jesus’ “living water” imagery shed light on Paul’s language here
• The crucial distinction between what the Spirit does the same in all believers (granting faith, new hearts, perseverance) and what the Spirit does differently (assigning various roles and opportunities to serve)
• Why it is inappropriate to treat any one gift—especially tongues—as something every Christian must have, and how that mindset misunderstands God’s good design for diversity in the church 
• A thoughtful, non-combative perspective on the charismatic / non-charismatic divide, and how both sides can honor what Paul clearly emphasizes

After listening, you’ll have a clearer grasp of why Paul uses the language of one body and one Spirit, and how that answers the question, “Should everyone speak in tongues?” You’ll be encouraged to see your local church as a room full of miracles—not because everyone has the same dramatic experience, but because the same Spirit is quietly turning rebels into people who love and trust Jesus, and giving each one a different, meaningful role in the story of God’s people. 

Series: 1 Corinthians: Pride & Prejudice in the Church

Spiritual gifts are not spiritual “superpowers” that prove how advanced we are—they are gracious ways the Spirit uses ordinary people to serve one another. 

In this episode on 1 Corinthians 12:4–11, Krisan Marotta explores Paul’s teaching on unity and diversity in the body of Christ, showing that the same Spirit gives a wide variety of manifestations on purpose—for the common good, not for personal status. 

In this week’s episode, we explore:

• How Paul’s contrast between “varieties” and “the same” (gifts, ministries, effects; Spirit, Lord, God) sets up his theme of one God working through many different roles 
• Why it matters that every believer has the same Spirit—and why that truth undercuts the Corinthian habit of treating tongues (or any visible gift) as the mark of a truly spiritual person
• What Paul means by “manifestation of the Spirit for the common good,” and how that reshapes our assumptions about why God gives any gift in the first place
• A careful walk through Paul’s examples—words of wisdom and knowledge, faith, healings, miracles, prophecy, discerning spirits, tongues, and interpretation and why these are sample manifestations, not an exhaustive catalog 
• A distinction between saving faith (given to all believers) and the unusual “mountain-moving” faith given to some who face extraordinary trials or callings
• A thoughtful approach to gifts like healing and miracles that avoids both skepticism and sensationalism, while recognizing that God can choose when and how to work in obviously supernatural ways
• Paul’s central insistence in verse 11: the Spirit distributes these roles “just as He wills,” meaning diversity in the church is not a flaw but God’s deliberate design
• A critique of popular “spiritual gifts” models that treat gifts as fixed, supernatural talents and limit what believers may do, and an alternative vision of gifts as God-given opportunities, roles, and responsibilities that may change over a lifetime 
• How this perspective challenges a consumer mindset toward church and invites every believer to see themselves as a needed contributor to the life and growth of God’s people

After listening, you’ll have a clearer, more freeing understanding of spiritual gifts as the many ways the one Spirit works through very different people to bring real benefit to the church. You’ll be encouraged to stop hunting for a spiritual “superpower” and instead ask, “Where has God placed me, and how can I serve?”—trusting that whatever role he gives you, whether ordinary or obviously supernatural, is a meaningful part of his gracious plan for his people. 

Series: 1 Corinthians: Pride & Prejudice in the Church