Ep 287 – 1 Corinthians 14:1-25

What's your purpose? Why are you here? For the believer, the answer to these two questions should be quite simple: To love and build up the body of Christ. As we begin 1 Corinthians 14, looking at verses 1-25, we'll be looking on as Paul continues to admonish and encourage the believers at Corinth to get their spiritual act together. Pride was everywhere, but love was in short supply. Well, they had plenty of self-love, but that's not what Paul was looking for. He was wanting to see each and every believer in the church there take their focus off themselves and begin to think about how they might strengthen the local body of Christ. To do that, they were going to have to let go of their own self-centered agendas and over-the-top concern for their own personal well-being. They were members of the body of Christ. They had been gifted by the Spirit of God in order to minister to the body of Christ. But they were too busy trying to impress one another with their particular spiritual gifts to actually worry about loving one another. Spirituality had become a competition. Personal status in the local congregation was more important to them than the overall health of the church in the community. So, once again, Paul is forced to take them to task.