As I have reviewed and meditated on the four areas of the Spirit's indispensable role in our lives, on truth, love, gifts and prayer, I am surprised to find how they are so interconnected. So before we move to spiritual gifts, I want to make their connection to love.
If you were to go to the four passages in the Bible where we can read about spiritual gifts, Ephesians 4, 1 Peter 4, Romans 12, and 1 Corinthians 12, you would find something said about love.
Ephesians
"But speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him, who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by that which every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love." (verses 15-16)
1 Peter
"Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins. Be hospitable to one another without complaint." (verses 8-9)
Romans
"Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor;" (verses 9-10)
1 Corinthians
"If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And 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 deliver my body to be burned, but do not have love, if profits me nothing." (1 Corinthians 13:1-3)
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