I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and I have all faith

I did not list 1 Corinthians 13 as a reference for this quote because it is in part, incomplete. The reason I quoted it incomplete is because of what it truly says and means in context. If you do not have what is missing in the quote, so what!!!

I have sat under some really good teachers, gifted in delivering the word. I could not get next to them, I could not connect with them.

I have been trained up in the spiritual gifts. I’ve operated in those gifts, but they happened by the will of God and I had no personal connection with the objects of God’s blessings.

I’ve given prophecy to men I do not know and impacted their decisions without understanding what they were going through.

I have seen things I cannot explain and have no one to share those things with.

Chapter thirteen of first Corinthians is the love chapter. It teaches about the quality and characteristics of love, what it does and what it does not. Reading through that chapter this morning I noticed something was missing, something that you might expect to see but it is not there.

Grace.

2 Corinthians 8:7 Therefore, as ye abound in every thing, in faith, and utterance, and knowledge, and in all diligence, and in your love to us, see that ye abound in this grace also.

Love is and needs not an object to exist. While love desires to be shared it is none the less for what it is without being received. Grace on the other hand has to be received, it requires an object to rest upon, to focus on, to shower.

Grace was missing in my spiritual gifts. May grace abound in the relationships I am building in Christ.

2 Thessalonians 1:3b the charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth;

Ever heard the expression “Charity begins at home.”? I used to hear it all the time. I heard it every week when I wrote a check for tithing. It was a weak plea not to tithe. This came from someone who did not understand that a tithe is not charity.

Properly rendered this verse should say that the love of every one of you all towards each other abounds. The essence of charity is love not money. While the easiest expression of loving support seems to be financial, may I suggest that it isn’t the most loving.

Which is more loving in your mind, to give a gift card to a restaurant or to take a friend to a restaurant and pick up the check? Money has no attachment, no emotional connection. It is there and then it is gone. A look, a conversation, a moment spent in developing relations is far more giving of self than offering money.

I do not want to minimize the importance of charitable giving. For some endeavors financial support is needed more than personal commitment. I just want us to lose sight of all the ways we can be charitable without using money. Time well spent is as much a part of being a good steward as finances.

Matthew 23:23 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.

May I suggest that part of this verse might better read as; “and have omitted the weightier matters of the heart.”