A number of Corinthian Christians had evidently been empowered with supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit, that is, capacities to know and do things that would not otherwise be possible. God gives these gifts to us so that we might build others up and so that God might be known and glorified through his church. But human beings have an irrepressible tendency to make idols out of God’s gifts. We see this in the history of Israel, and we see it here again in the Corinthian church. The gifts of the Spirit were being used to create a kind of personality cult. People were wearing these gifts like badges of superior spirituality, building themselves up rather than others. This was exactly the kind of pagan cultism that God had saved them from. Since the beginning of the 20th century the church has seen a revival of these gifts of the Spirit. This has been wonderful in many ways, but it has inevitably brought with it the same problems faced by the Corinthians. People now are not so different to people then. Personality cults have abounded, and the gifts have been used as markers of superior spirituality. Christians have also become preoccupied with gifts and manifestations of the Spirit rather than the simple pursuit of God himself. We should ask God to equip us with the gifts of the Spirit, but we should then be wary of what our pride will do with them. God gives you gifts to enlighten others, not to overshadow them. You are being equipped, not to rise up, but to stoop down in humility and raise up.
Ask God to equip you for service to others and also to keep you humble.
Read 1 Corinthians 12:1-11
