As we examine the rest of this chapter of 1 Corinthians12, we’re going to see what God wants for His children in regard to spiritual gifts—we will get a clear picture of His desire for us as we interact with one another as members of this New Testament church. We learned last week that each of these descriptive words in 1 Corinthians 12, though different, have the same purpose and that purpose is articulated in verse 7. The Bible tells us that spiritual gifts are for the common good of the body of Christ—not for the one through whom the Holy Spirit is working but for everyone else around them. Verses 12-31 of this chapter, go into great detail about how this is to be done.

These verses also focus on the attitude that followers of Christ should have toward their spiritual giftedness—or more precisely, the ways in which God chooses to use them for His purposes and His pleasure. Unfortunately, there are some believers who are constantly putting themselves down and selling themselves short when it comes to serving God in the church. On the flip side of that are those who think they are somehow better than others because their spiritual gifts are considered more prominent and prestigious. We’ll take a hard look at what the Bible has to say about these things.