1 Corinthians 14:12-14 Even so you, for as much as you are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that you may excel to the edifying of the church.… consists both in building up from first principles to their practical application, and of fitting each member of the society into the proper places which the growth and rise of the old building require. It is "development," not only in the sense of unfolding new truth, but of unfolding all the resources contained in the existing institution or body. Hence the stress laid on the excellence of "prophesying" as the special gift by which men were led to know themselves (vers. 24, 25), and by which (as through the prophets of the older dispensations) higher and more spiritual views of life were gradually revealed. Hence the repeated injunctions that all the gifts should have their proper honour (1 Corinthians 12:20-30); that those gifts should be most honoured by which not a few, but all, should benefit (vers. 1-23); that all who had the gift of prophecy should have the opportunity of exercising that gift (vers. 29-31); that all might have an equal chance of instruction and comfort for their own special cases (ver. 40). (Dean Stanley.) Parallel Verses KJV: Even so ye, forasmuch as ye are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the church. |
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