Let love be your highest goal!

Meditations in First Corinthians

June 15, 2022

Your Highest Goal 

Let love be your highest goal!

1 Corinthians 14:1a

Read: 1 Corinthians 14:1-5

Paul continues to deal with cultural mores and norms being carried over into the church in Corinth. I suspect most of us have not experienced such contentiousness in our churches, especially in striving over spiritual gifts, but there are important lessons for us in today’s passage.

Paul distinguishes between the speaking in tongues on the day of Pentecost and what the church in Corinth was experiencing. On Pentecost, God suspended the confusion of languages from Babel (see Genesis 11), and everyone could understand the proclamation of the Gospel. Apparently, some in Corinth, including Paul, spoke in something like a private language of love as they got caught up in their praise and adoration of God. Paul didn’t diminish this experience, rather he cautioned that only what strengthens others, encourages them, and comforts them should be included in public worship.

My Takeaway: Paul’s teaching reveals the importance he puts on private worship. We are called to worship God with the Body of Christ, the church. We are also called to practice our own personal times of worship. It has been my experience that the more time I spend in personal praise and worship, the more my public worship expresses reverence and awe for God.

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

 

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2022 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.