12:29,30
Paul has just listed various gifts and now asks, rhetorically, if all have these gifts, expecting the answer no. Few would argue with this answer, the only one that some might argue with is “do all speak in tongues”. There are some who say this is an essential sign of being filled with the Holy Spirit, or baptised in the Spirit, though I think this view is far less prevalent than it used to be. There is no Biblical warrant for saying that speaking in tongues is a necessary sign of being filled with the Spirit. However, the point that Paul is making is that no one has all the gifts nor fulfills all the ministries, nor are we meant to! God has created the church as a body, with many parts, fulfilling different functions, but all are part of the same body, and all need each other.
12:31
We are now about to enter perhaps the most popular chapter in the New Testament, certainly the most popular in 1 Corinthians, the chapter on love, but we need to note that this is all part of the same argument from Paul. Paul’s teaching has not been so much on what the gifts do, though he will focus more on this in chapter 14, but on appreciating the God who is the giver of the gifts, and the attitude we are to have towards them. Chapter 13 is all part of that argument.
However, first note v31, “eagerly desire the greater gifts”. I really don’t see how cessationists get round verses like this. We are commanded to desire the gifts, the greater gifts. But this is not a desiring the gift in order to enhance our egos! He will now talk about the nature of love, and this is to be the underpinning characteristic of all that we do.
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