Spiritual growth is a good thing. We like progress. It reassures us that we’re heading in the right direction.

There is, however, a danger. Something can creep in. It’s a sense of spiritual superiority. “I can’t believe so-and-so didn’t know what book of the Bible that story was from.” “That person should have done such-and-such if they were a true follower of Jesus.”

There is most certainly a place and a time for speaking the truth in love. And there is also a place and a time for correcting someone’s behaviour. But if we aren’t thinking, speaking or acting from a place of love, we’re missing something critical.

The church in Corinth was experiencing a lot of problems. Some people felt as if they were spiritually superior. One of the reasons Paul wrote to them was to correct their thinking. His words have become very famous, even though we often forget the original context.

“If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal… If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:1,3).

In other words, if you have amazing spiritual gifts but don’t have love, you still have a lot of work to do because you’re missing what matters most.

He continues by pointing out what love is like—things, we should add, that some of the Corinthians were most certainly lacking: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails” (verses 4-8).

As you move forward in spiritual growth, remain humble and keep love at the centre. As Jeff Medders writes: “We may love rejoicing in the truth, but if we are unkind, our pants are on fire.”*

Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.

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Notes:

–Sermon: “Spiritual Gifts 101.” Click here.

–*Jeff Medders: Humble Calvinism (The Good Book Company, 2019), 25.

–Bible quotes are from the NIV.