Advancing Toward Maturity

I don’t mean to throw a curveball
at you, but if you would take your Bibles and turn to the book
of Ephesians first, Ephesians chapter four. We’ll be there
for just a moment. And as you’re turning, I might ask you, are you perfect? And you don’t even need me to
answer that, do you? I’ll answer it for you. If you’re sitting
here and you’re alive and breathing, you don’t even need to ask your
spouse. I can tell you on biblical authority,
you are not perfect. You are not yet spiritually mature. And so the crucial question really
is, are you heading in the right direction? Are you growing in
grace? Are you making progress toward
spiritual maturity? That’s the crucial question. I’d like to open with where we
left off last week in Ephesians chapter four. And if you just
scroll there down to verse 11, we’ll kind of shorten the reading
a little bit this morning. And glance down at that passage
once again, where Paul tells us that God has given gifts to
his church, verse 11. apostles and prophets and evangelists
and pastors and teachers. God has given gifts to his church.
And he has given them, as Paul tells us in verse 12, for the
equipping of the saints for the work of service. They’re given
for you. They’re given to equip the saints
to be able to serve Christ in the church. with the end goal
of being the building up of the body of Christ. How long? Verse 13 tells us, until we all
attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son
of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which
belongs to the fullness of Christ. And as I’ve said it before, in
other words, we have a long, long way to go, don’t we? I’d
like to draw attention to that phrase near the middle of verse
13, to a mature man. That’s the goal. We consider
this passage last week because there is that word that occurs
both here and in, here in Ephesians 4 and in 1 Corinthians 13, it’s
that word perfect or mature. That’s why I asked if you were
perfect. Both translations of that word are possible, but the
reference has more to do with maturity than it does with anything
close to moral perfection. In both passages, the reference
is to spiritual maturity. As I pointed out last week, Ephesians
4 has often been used to support the position that The perfect,
as used in 1 Corinthians 13 10, refers to the mature church.
That point in time when the church will be perfect, fully mature. Well, we were able to quickly
set that position aside because 1 Corinthians 13 is not talking
about the church as a whole. It’s talking about individual
believers. Paul isn’t speaking of the church becoming mature
or perfect. He’s speaking about individuals
maturing. Spiritual maturity is the believer’s
great goal. The view, as we saw, that made
the most sense is that 1 Corinthians 13 10, the perfect refers to
our glorified state in eternity. When we arrive in heaven, there
will be no more need of study, there will be no more need of
partial revelation, no more need of prophecy or tongues or book
learning knowledge. We will not miss those gifts
because we will see and be with Jesus himself. And that brings
us back to the idea expressed in Ephesians 4, the goal to a
mature man. That’s the goal. Back, if you
would please, to 1 Corinthians 13. 1 Corinthians 13. And I don’t even
know who has the iPad, but I’m a little hot up here. In 1 Corinthians 13, the goal,
the finish line, to state it simply, is to a mature man. Maturity, spiritual maturity,
is the goal, and all we can do in this earthly life is labor
toward that goal. We will never be perfect, that
is, mature on this side of heaven, and so maturity is the ultimate
goal of the believer. But the question is, how do we
know if we’re making any progress at all? How do we know if we’re
even heading in the right direction? That is what Paul discusses in
the closing verses of this chapter. We come again to chapter 13,
the chapter of love, and we’ll take it again in full. If I speak with the tongues of
men and of angels, but do not have love, I become a noisy gong
or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy
and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all
faith so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions
to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do
not have love, it profits me nothing. Love is patient. Love is kind and is not jealous.
Love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly. It does not seek its own. It
is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered,
does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth,
bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures
all things. Love never fails, but if there
are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away. If there are tongues,
they will cease. If there is knowledge, it will
be done away. For we know in part and we prophesy
in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done
away. When I was a child, I used to
speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child. When I became a man, I did away
with childish things. For now we see in a mirror dimly,
but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then
I will know fully, just as I also have been fully known. But now
faith, hope, love abide these three, but the greatest of these
is love. And so maturity is the goal,
that is the direction for the Christian. And as believers in
Christ, we are, as we ought to be, advancing toward maturity. And in the final three verses
of this wonderful chapter, Paul provides some gauges, some means
of measuring the process that one is making toward that maturity. what I have called indexes of
our growth in godliness. Indexes in our growth in godliness,
and I see three. The first one we see in verse
11. And it is simple, it is this,
that spiritual maturity will eradicate children’s things. Spiritual maturity will eradicate
children’s things. When I was a child, I used to
speak like a child and think like a child, reason like a child. When I became a man, I did away
with childish things. Spiritual maturity, just like
physical maturity, is a process. We don’t just go to sleep one
night and wake up the next morning fully grown. There’s a natural
progression. It’s a process. We grow slowly, we develop over
time. And this certainly seems to be
Paul’s point regarding our spiritual status. It happens over time. There’s a progression. And in
the verses before us, Paul presents himself as an example in this
process. But before we go too far here,
I want you to notice something. Here in verse 11, Paul exclusively
uses the first person singular, I. When I was a child, I used
to. When I became a man, I did away
and so on. But I want you to look at verse
12. In verse 12, he makes an abrupt change. Look at it if
you would, there he employs the first person plural, we. We see,
and you might say, what is the big deal? Why am I calling attention
to Paul’s grammar here? Because it means that all of
Paul’s I statements are equally true of us. We could easily step
back in verse 11 and say, when we were children, the passage
is about us, all of us as believers, And here in verse 11, Paul presents
an illustration of the spiritual maturation process taken from
the realm of physical maturation. And he uses himself as an example.
When I was a child, he opens. He has carefully selected the
word that he uses here for child. And he uses the word five times
in this sentence, as we’ll see. But literally translated, the last one is a little bit
obscured. You might not even catch it.
You think it’s childish as if the word is entirely different.
It’s not. It’s literally the things of
the child. The Greek word here used five times is napios, and
it can be used to refer generally to children. Many times, however,
when this word is translated, it is translated as infants,
young children. And we gain a lot of perspective
about this word when we see how Paul uses this term. And it ranges
from infants to the more general children. Listen just to a few.
Romans 2.20, you are a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of
the immature, very general. First Corinthians 3.1, the same
epistle. And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual
men, but as to men of flesh, to infants in Christ. Ephesians 4, which chapter we
just visited. Ephesians 4.14, as a result,
we are no longer to be children tossed here and there by waves,
carried about by every wind of doctrine. First Thessalonians
2.7, we prove to be gentle among you as a nursing mother tenderly
cares for her own children, nursing children. And then if you think
Paul wrote Hebrews, this one’s for you. Hebrews 5.13, everyone
who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of
righteousness for he is an infant. So the word tends to be used
to speak of younger children. And so let’s not try to split
hairs here. Paul is speaking of a child,
possibly as young as a nursing infant, and he hearkens back
to his own childhood. Now probably his memory is aided
here by his mother’s recollections, together with a bit of creative
memory. And he acknowledges that as a
child, his speech, his thinking, his ability to think logically
were all impacted by his lack of maturity. We can scarcely
remember some of these episodes in our own life, if at all. But from observing other infants,
we know that these shortcomings were true of us as well, don’t
we? No matter how erudite and articulate we are now, our ability
to speak began with goo-goo, ga-ga. These sounds are apt descriptions
of our thought process as well, aren’t they? It wasn’t an impressive
display. But for Paul, as for most children,
things began to change slowly. Words were learned, then phrases,
then entire sentences and paragraphs. Thoughts became clearer and more
refined. An actual thought. We began to
put actual thought into some of the choices that we were making.
There’s hope, parents. We began learning lessons, sometimes
very painful lessons. We began making sense of things
in the world. We began applying those lessons
to our life and to our choices. We were reasoning. Most of us,
we were maturing, but it was a process. And Paul points out
that part of this process was that he, like all children, began
to make choices. He began to set aside foolish
things, childish things, pain-producing things. I did away with childish
things, he says. And it is just as crucial that
we pause and note the word that Paul uses here. I did away with
these things, Paul says. The word is again, kadargeo. We saw it last week. We came
across this word last week in verses 8 and 10. Done away with
was the translation there. It’s one of Paul’s favorite words,
as we saw, nullify, passing away, abolished. All are good translations
of the word. Well, in that previous passage,
8 and 10, Paul said that some of the sign gifts were passing
away. They would be abolished. But
Paul also uses that word here again regarding childish things. It was a process, but I did away
with the pacifier. I nullified the diapers. I got
rid of the baby rattles and the teething rings. And in time,
other things came and went as well. Make-believe, pretending,
children’s games, hide-and-seek, and the like. I did away with
childish things. And I want you to note in this
passage, verse 11, the temporal clause, when I became a man. It was a process, but when he
got there, it was a completed process. It’s better even to
translate it there, since, since I became a man. Now that I’m
mature. And the form of the verb there
indicates that this change of condition continued, it endured. He’s not going back to his childish
ways, not anytime. He grew up, he matured, it’s
a permanent condition. Now that I’m grown, he says.
And what Paul is doing here, not so subtly, is connecting
his own treatment of childish things with God’s treatment of
some of his temporal gifts. Little by little, Paul was eradicating
childish things from his life, and it is the same way with God’s
sign gifts. They too will be eradicated. Paul said it plainly. So one
of the indexes for spiritual maturity is that of having set
aside childish things. And I want to plead with you
to hear me. Paul is not saying that the exercise of these gifts,
tongues or prophecy, is a sign of immaturity. Don’t run to your
charismatic friends and bring that and tell them that that’s
what Frasco said. Those gifts are God-given to
the church, and for a season in the church, they serve, or
depending on your perspective, served, they served God’s purposes. But these things were given to
the church in her spiritual infancy. They were not there for perpetuity. And so equally true is the fact
that when we are mature, once we are fully grown, when we are,
to use Paul’s variously translated word, when we are perfect, it
will be certain that we no longer depend on these signed gifts. They were there for a purpose,
but the purpose no longer exists. There’s a second index that we
can use on testing our maturity. Not only will spiritual maturity
eradicate childish children’s things, spiritual maturity will
enjoy a divine perspective. And we see that in verse 12. There are two elements to this.
The first one is heavenly vision, and the second one is heavenly
knowledge. We will see and we will know in a mature way. Look at verse 12. Now we see
in a mirror dimly. but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then
I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. The spiritually mature believer
will also enjoy a different perspective than that which they had in their
immature state. When a Christian comes to full
maturity, they will enjoy a divine perspective of things, God’s
perspective. And the spiritually mature person
will enjoy two distinct aspects of that, as I said, mature vision
and mature knowledge. Please glance at the first part
of verse 12 and notice what Paul does to compare our current condition
with our future state. At present, now, he says, we
see in a mirror dimly. Before we can even grasp what
Paul is talking about here, we have to understand the quality
of the mirrors in Paul’s day. They did not have these pristine
glass mirrors of our present day. What they did have was a
rudimentary version made of polished metal. And in Corinth, Corinth
was actually one of the big producers of these mirrors, but these things
were very unrefined. They had to be constantly cleaned
and polished, but you could get a basic view of your image. You could tell if your hair was
out of whack, but it was a very rough image. And at this point
in my life, I wouldn’t mind going back to that less than perfect
mirror, From what I gather, it would be like glancing at your
image in a car window. We get this. Paul says that at
present, our perspective of these heavenly spiritual things is
like looking in a crude mirror. We see an image, we have some
understanding, but it’s a murky image. He says it this way, we
see in a mirror dimly. And I hope you’re ready for this.
The word dimly, it seeks to capture this imperfect
reflection provided by these simple reflecting devices. And
the word translated as dimly is enigma. We know the word as
enigma, which used to refer to a dark saying, a riddle. We get
glimpses and hints, and I’ll suggest to you that most commentators
wondered whether Paul was drawing perhaps on a passage from Numbers
12. There in Numbers 12, God is rebuking
Aaron and Miriam for criticizing Moses, and he says this. Hear
now my words, if there is a prophet among you, a little bit of mockery
there, I, the Lord, shall make myself known to him in a vision.
I shall speak to him in a dream. Are you ready, he says. Not so
with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my household. With him I speak mouth to mouth,
even openly, and not in dark sayings. I don’t have to speak to Moses
in riddles and enigmas, God says. Paul’s simple point here is that
all we really see now is a very imperfect glimpse of spiritual
things. I know in part, Paul says in
the middle of verse 12. Peter echoed that thought, didn’t
he? In the opening chapter of 1 Peter, he speaks of the prophets
who prophesied the deep things of God in the gospel, things
so deep that angels long to look. Angels long to understand those
deep things of God. Even the clearest truths are
mysterious to us in this world until we can see face to face. Even Paul and by the way, even
after he was saved, even after he was enlightened, even after
he was filled with the Holy Spirit, said this in 2 Corinthians 3,
we all with an unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the
glory of the Lord. We see, but it’s not a perfect
vision. We know that we’re being changed.
We know that we can catch a glimpse of these things, But it’s an
imperfect image, it’s as if in a mirror. But it won’t always
be that way. When we are mature, when we enjoy
heavenly glory, when we have a much clearer perspective, Paul
says, we will see then face to face. We’ll see things as they
really are. When the perfect comes, as he
said in verse 10, when we are in our glorified condition in
eternity, everything will be exceedingly clear. Paul uses
a second reference for this heavenly perspective. The present, Paul
says right there in the middle of verse 12, I know in part,
I have an understanding, I have an idea of spiritual things. In this life though, everything
that we know, or everything that we think that we know about God
and heaven and spiritual things is distorted and it’s piecemeal. We don’t know everything. We
know in part. How well can we really know the
deep things of God while we are bound to a limited body and an
even more limited mind? Even after we’re saved. Even
after the Holy Spirit enters and illumines our hearts and
the Holy Spirit like never before, still we capture only glimpses
of divine glory. We develop some understanding
after great effort, but our knowledge remains murky, doesn’t it? We
can make observations about the world we live in. We can determine
something by scientific method. We can read and study and come
to some level of understanding, but at the end of the day, our
perspective is extremely limited. It’s fragmentary. It’s just a
wavy, grainy, imperfect image. Our bank of knowledge is an enigma,
a riddle, a basket full of clues, hints and illusions with no clarity. There’s a subtlety in the Greek
verbs that are used here that is completely lost in our translations. Can I point it out to you? There
in the middle of verse 12, it just says, I know in part. And
then in the very next clause, but then I will know fully. And it sounds to our ears like
the same exact verb, perhaps with a different tense. I know
and I will know. But the verbs are different.
The first verb is gnosco, to know. One of the first verbs
you learn in seminary. Gnosco. And it implies effort
and progress in order to gain this knowledge. But the second
verb is epignosco. And that preposition at the beginning
of that verb intensifies it. Now I really know. I know now
as never before. Everything is clear. I knew in
part then, but now I know well. Not only will we see as if we
are face to face, but the fourth clause there of verse 12, Paul
says that one day we will know fully. One day we will enjoy
a divine perspective in this knowledge. There is coming a
day when we are glorified and with Christ that what we previously
saw dimly, we will then fully know. Job
caught a glimpse of this, didn’t he? At the end of his epic spiritual
excursion, he said, I have heard of you by the hearing of the
ear, but now my eye sees you. I get it, God. Everything was
clear. He knew everything more fully,
and that will be the discovery of every child of God. That’s
what the Apostle John tells us. 1 John 3,2, Beloved, now we are
children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will
be. We don’t get it. We see partially, dimly, enigmatically. We know that when he appears,
we will be like him because we will see him just as he is. What an incredible thought. There
is coming the day that in glory, when the perfect comes, that
I will know fully. So not only will our vision be
clarified, so will our knowledge of spiritual things, even of
God himself. What a fantastic hope this imparts. that as dull as our understanding
is now, one day our knowledge will be beyond the most genius
professors, the most learned scholars, the most capable theologians. We will excel them all. Paul
adds at the end of verse 12, get this, that he will know just
as, that is to the same degree as, I also have been fully known. I want you to ponder that deep
thought for a moment. It is the grandest possible contrast. We have this murky idea now,
but one day we’re gonna know just like God has known us. And
all we have to do to begin to grasp the richness of that contrast
is say, well, how well does God know us? Do you really wanna
know the answer to that question? The Bible gives us some hints. Luke 12, seven says that the
very hairs of your head are numbered by God. For me, getting easier
and easier every day. Psalm 103, four says, 14, he
himself knows our frame. that we are but dust. God knows
us. God knows our weaknesses. God knows all of our misgivings,
all of our sin, all of our foibles. God knows. The writer of Hebrews, he says
there of God that he is able to judge the thoughts and intentions
of our heart. That ought to make all of our
knees clack together. He knows exactly not only what
you’re doing, what you’re thinking, but even what your motive is
for doing what you’re doing. Get this, Psalm 139, you know
when I sit down and when I rise up, you understand my thought
from afar. You scrutinize my path and my
lying down. and are intimately acquainted
with all my ways. Even before there is a word on
my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it all. 2 Chronicles tells us some frightening
things. The eyes of the Lord, right? That’s all you have to hear and
already you begin to shudder. The eyes of the Lord move to
and fro throughout the earth that he may strongly support
those whose heart is completely his. He’s looking, he’s watching. There’s an echo of this in Proverbs.
Proverbs 521, the ways of the man, the ways of the man are
before the eyes of the Lord and he watches all his paths. He
watches over you. Proverbs 15, three, the eyes
of the Lord are in every place, watching the evil and the good. May I give you a note of comfort
here as well? What else does God know? He not
only knows your deeds. 2 Timothy 2, 19 says, the Lord
knows those who are his. Is that a comfort to you? It
should be. God sees. God knows. And one day in glory, we will
know as we have been known. Our knowledge of God will never
be perfect, never be complete. It will always be growing, as
we’ll detail in a moment, but it will be extensively increased. It’ll be superlative compared
to what we know now. It’ll be infinitely better than
the murky view of God that we currently possess. One day when
the tears dissipate from our eyes, we will see our Savior
face to face, and we will know as we’ve never known before,
just as the dark night slowly gives way to the dawning sun,
we will know as we have been known. The implication of Paul’s
words here is that now, even these fantastic gifts, prophecy
and tongues and knowledge, Their knowledge, our knowledge, is
still terrifically incomplete. But even more astounding is the
fact that one day, even without those sign gifts, our knowledge
will be made full. We will know fully, as we have
been fully known. There’s a third index. For evaluating our growth and
godliness, Not only will spiritual maturity eradicate children’s
things, spiritual maturity will enjoy a divine perspective, and
thirdly, verse 13, spiritual maturity will exercise the greatest
of graces. Verse 13, but now faith, hope,
love abide these three, but the greatest of these is love. The
spiritually mature individual will eradicate childish things.
They will enjoy a different perspective than that which they had in their
immature state. And they will exercise the greatest
of graces. We refer to this over and over
again as the love chapter. And over and over the sweet grace
of love is mentioned or alluded to in these 13 verses. And so
it’s only fitting that in a chapter about love, not only is the final
sentence, but the very last word in this chapter is love. Paul,
by now, has made his point regarding the excellence of love, and so
this verse really serves as a capstone for the entire chapter. For Paul,
Christianity is the divine blend of faith, hope, and love. That’s
Paul’s perspective. He acknowledged this work of
God in the lives of the Thessalonian believers. In chapter one, verse
three of his first letter to that church, he noted their work
of faith, labor of love, and steadfastness of hope. That’s
Christianity. Paul strings these three graces
together again when he writes to the Galatians. By faith, we
are waiting for the hope of righteousness, noting that it was faith working
through love. It’s Christianity. In a slightly
altered order, he strings these three graces together again in
the opening verses to the Colossians. When he calls to mind their faith
in Jesus Christ and the love which they have because of the
hope laid up for them in heaven. It’s Christianity. To Paul, these
three graces, faith, hope, and love, are the unmistakable marks
of the Christian. When Paul opens the sentence
with, but now, he’s not talking about now in the sense that faith
and hope and love are active only in this present moment,
first century Christianity. Rather, he’s contrasting these
durable graces with the passing gifts mentioned earlier, prophecy
and tongues as such. This is his strong and dramatic
conclusion of this whole discussion. Having established the fact that
some gifts are passing away, faith, hope, and love will remain
eternally. This is what Paul means when
he says that these graces abide. That word is used about 120 times
in the New Testament, translated variously as remain, stay, abide,
endure, continue. The word speaks of a continuity
in existence so that these graces are seen stretching from the
present into the future perpetually. They are imperishable. They are,
in a sense, immortal. This is the opposite of what
Paul said about temporal gifts. Those will be, he says, abolished,
but faith and hope and love endure, they remain, they last. And with that, it’s almost like
a photo finish in a race. This is a remarkable picture. Faith and hope and love racing
toward the finish line, but the photo is in and the tie is broken.
And the winner is declared in the final clause, the greatest
of these is love, the winner. But a question has to be inevitably
asked and answered. How is it that faith and hope
are enduring graces? We know well how greatly we need
these graces in this life, faith, the assurance of things hoped
for, the convictions of things not seen. This is how we understand
that the worlds were made, that there is a God, that Christ has
come and he’s atoned for our sin, and that he offers us full
salvation by faith. Scripture certainly seems to
suggest that faith will give way to sight in heaven. How is it that we will employ
faith eternally? and this hope. And I would remind you that this
biblical hope is not the hope of the world, the cross your
fingers, wishful thinking kind of hope. It is a confident expectation
in the perfect fulfillment of God’s promises. If in heaven
We are enjoying that for which we have hoped in this world,
our Savior, our salvation realized, heaven itself, eternal glory. For what will we yet hope? Romans 8 24 says it, in hope
we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope. If we see the glories of heaven,
what need do we have of hope? How will we need faith and hope
in heaven? That’s the question. The best
explanation I can provide is that for all eternity, we will be
learning more and more and more about our incredible God. Paul
declares the profoundness of God’s nature and wisdom in Romans
11. Oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge
of God. How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable
His ways. For who has known the mind of
the Lord or who became His counselor? Who first has given to Him that
it might be paid back to Him again? For from Him and through
Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever.
That doesn’t sound like a God that you can figure out in a
weekend seminar. We cannot conceive of ever fully
comprehending God. The words to Amazing Grace seem
to proclaim that, don’t they? When we’ve been there 10,000
years, bright shining as the sun, we’ve known less days to
sing God’s praise than when we first begun. Our eternal communion
with God will be yet a matter of trust and trusting submission
Just as faith has an eternal role in our relationship with
God, so also does hope. If, as we believe, God’s glories
are inexhaustible, then hope will abide as the eager anticipation
of God’s unfolding revelation of these glories to us in eternity. There will be new things for
which to trust. new things for which to hope. Every day will
be a new discovery of God’s magnificence. Faith is not only the convictions
of things not seen, it is also a settled trust, a confident
hope. But Paul does say, now faith,
hope, and love abide these three, but the greatest of these is
love. Faith and hope have their place,
but through all eternity, believers will employ the greatest of these
graces, that of love. Verse 13, as I said, is a summary
sentence, a restatement of all that Paul has said in this chapter.
It is a particular adornment of what was said in verse seven,
that love believes all things and hopes all things. Further
though, faith, And hope, if you think of it, faith and hope are
bound up in the individual believer. But as we’ve seen, love begins
with God, pours into and flows out from the believer to the
entire body of Christ. There’s yet an additional proof
that these three graces, faith, hope and love, love is the greatest.
Listen to this, God is faithful, but he is never called to exercise
his faith. Did you realize that? God instills
hope, but he himself is not hopeful.
But with regard to love, it is declared of him in scripture
that he is a God of love, And in that sense, faith, hope, they’re
human experiences. Love, however, begins and ends
with God. God is love, 1 John 4, 16. Love is one of God’s chief attributes. One author referred to love as
the sustaining principle or the root of the graces of faith and
hope. They would cease to exist without
love. And so as faith blossoms and
flourishes, it bears the sweet fruit of love in the church and
into all eternity. As hope looks forward with confident
expectation, love is the inevitable product. Paul said it so simply
in three words in verse eight, love never fails. And with this
single sentence, Paul corrects the errant attitudes and conduct
of this wayward church. This church in Corinth, not only
were they overemphasizing the temporal gifts, prophecy, tongues,
and knowledge, they were downplaying God’s eternal graces of faith,
hope, and especially that of love. Would you examine your
heart before the King of Kings? Let’s pray.