Big Idea: Unless Christ’s loving character becomes evident in the use and application of any and all of the Spirit’s gifts, their practice becomes worthless for God’s kingdom and mere demonstration of Christian immaturity.

Understanding the Text

Although God grants his gifts as an act of grace and not on the basis of merit, there is a dynamic relationship between the effectiveness of the gift and the life of the Christian.1Paul treats this connection between spiritual gifts and the quality of the believer’s life most directly in this chapter. The abrupt insertion of this outburst on love in the midst of his discussion of spiritual gifts (chaps. 12 and 14) signals the intrinsic relatedness of life and gifting in Paul’s mind. Moreover, the unrelenting emphasis that the Christian is nothing…