1-3Go after a life of love as if your life depended on it—because it does. Give yourselves to the gifts God gives you. Most of all, try to proclaim his truth. If you praise him in the private language of tongues, God understands you but no one else does, for you are sharing intimacies just between you and him. But when you proclaim his truth in everyday speech, you're letting others in on the truth so that they can grow and be strong and experience his presence with you. (The Message)
Chapter 13 is often read disconnected from the rest of 1 Corinthians and when that happens the power and possibilities elude us for living out the life Paul invites us to share. The invitation to love extravagantly is connected to the way we use our gifts within the community of faith. That same invitation is given to loving God both personally and publicly. Some people receive the gift of speaking in tongues as a way of praying. That gift is given by God so that the personal faith can be strengthened. It is also a gift that can be shared in the appropriate times and places so that the corporate faith might grow as well. The key here seems to be the connection between love and the use of our gifts. We love most extravagantly when we use what God has given us for others to the fullest extent. Wen we choose not to use our gifts or allow them to go undeveloped we short change the community of faith and the building up of the Kingdom of God. Those gifts that we are to develop include not just the public gifts of teaching etc. but also the private gifts of prayer. When we allow our gifts to become fully developed and we express them with a desire to love others we will find that God's presence will come very close and we too will experience the Kingdom of God breaking in around us.
Some thoughts to ponder and share with others:
- What do you think Paul might think about the way we disconnect chapter 13 with the rest of 1 Corinthians?
- What have you been taught about speaking in tongues?
- What God given gifts are you actively working at developing these days?
- Where would the community of faith suffer the most if those around you refused to use their gifts?
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