Good morning. We ended last time with Paul saying to desire
earnestly spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. Remember
though, you must operate spiritual gifts in love or you are not benefited, even
though the other person may have their need met. Why did he say “but especially
that you may prophesy”? For one who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men
but to God; for no one understands, but in his spirit he speaks mysteries. He’s
not talking about speaking in another “learned“ language, like French or
German. True, if one spoke in a foreign language that no one there spoke, it
would be a “mystery“. Only God would be able to understand what he or she said;
but the mysteries that Paul is talking about are not mysteries just because
people do not understand that language. They are mysteries because they are
spiritual things that are unknown to the people in the church. Not long after I
received the baptism in the Holy Spirit, I visited a church of a friend who was
Pentecostal. During the pastor’s sermon, someone started speaking out loud in
tongues. The Pastor kept preaching. Even though I was new to the experience, I
knew that that was not proper. It was not the gift of tongues, but merely the
person expressing themselves to God. As Paul will say later, in that situation,
people should speak to themselves and not out loud. Father go with the reader
and help him/her and his/her family to have many spiritual and physical
blessings today and every day.
Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me
Good morning. Paul then gives a list of a lot of things that he has gone through as an apostle. I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For if you were to have countless tutors in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. There could be many people that you listen to either in church or through the Internet or other means; but there was only one person (as a general rule it was a person) that lead you to Christ. Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me. He was saying that just like a child imitates his or her father, they were to imitate him. He says that again seven chapters later. Since it is easy to forget some things about people we have not seen in a while, Paul says that he sent Timothy to them to remind them of his ways which are in Christ, just as he taught everywhere in every church. Some have become arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. I shall find ou...
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