Classic Sermon #6051: A Balanced Church

I want to go back to chapter twelve: we took two weeks to talk about the baptism of the Holy Spirit and to put a few touches on that concept, which we believe if not explicitly contained in that chapter twelve, is certainly understood. We cannot understand these passages from First Corinthians if we do not understand them in the context of a Church that moved fully in the gifts. Although unfortunately not in other areas that the Apostle Paul wanted to balance.

"But these chapters cannot be understood unless it is in that context of a fully charismatic Church and that is why all this reference to the gifts and how they are used in their correct context and now what we want is to reanalyze the text on that understanding of what the Baptism of the Holy Spirit is, we are going to dive right into some of the ideas that the Apostle Paul traces through this Chapter 12.

Let's start again with Verse 1 says: “I do not want brothers that you ignore about the Spiritual gifts. You know that when you were Gentiles, you went astray, leading as you were led to mute idols. Therefore I let you know that no one who speaks by the Spirit of God calls Jesus anathema and no one can call Jesus Lord, except by the Holy Spirit. Now there are diversity of gifts, but the Spirit is the same and there are diversity of ministries, but the Lord is the same and there are diversity of operations, but God who does all things in all is the same.

"But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for profit, because to this one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge according to the same spirit, to another Faith by the same Spirit and to another gifts of healing by the same Spirit, to others the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of Spirits, to another divers kinds of tongue, and to others interpretation of tongues.

"But all these things are made by one and the same Spirit, distributing to each one in particular as he wishes, for just as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of the body, being many, are one body, so also Christ . For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, and we were all given the same Spirit to drink.

“Furthermore, the body is not a single member but many, if the foot were to say: because I am not a hand I am not of the body, is that why it will not be of the body? and if I said the ear because I am not an eye I am not of the body, why would it not be of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where would the ear be? And if everything was heard, where would the smell be?

But now God has placed the members each one of them in the body as He wanted, because if they were all one member, where would the body be? But now there are many members but the body is one, not even the eye can say to the hand that I don't need you, nor can the head to the feet say that I don't need you.

"Rather, the members of the body that seem weaker are the most necessary, those of the body that seem less worthy to us we dress more worthily and those that in us are less decent are treated with more decorum, because those in us are more decorous, they have no need.

“But God ordered the body, giving more abundant honor to the one that lacked, so that there is no disagreement in the body, but that the members all care for one another, so that if one member suffers, all the members hurt with him and if a member receives honor all the members rejoice with him. You, then, are the body of Christ and members, each one in particular, and God placed some in the Church, first Apostles, then Prophets, thirdly Teachers, then those who perform Miracles, then those who heal, those who help, those who administer, the who have the gift of tongues, are they all Apostles? Are they all prophets? All teachers? Do they all work miracles? Do they all have gifts of healing? Do they all speak tongues? Do they all interpret? Seek then the best gifts, but I show you an even more excellent way ". The Lord bless His word.

I want to just run through a few verses as the Lord leads us and make some observations about what the Apostle Paul is saying to the Corinthian Church and also to our own congregation. We have said that these passages, twelve thirteen and fourteen, these Chapters are part of a conceptual unity in the mind of the Apostle Paul.

We have to understand them in the context of a divided Church, a superficial Church in a certain sense, in certain spiritual aspects, a Church in which some brothers are considered super spiritual compared to others. There is spiritual arrogance, in that context of the Church. There is division in that congregation as we have seen in several previous chapters. There is a superficial idea that tongues are above all other gifts, there is an overemphasis on tongues apparently, it is not said so explicitly, but the reading itself suggests why it is a concern that comes up over and over again.

It is the idea that the congregation has fixed, fixed in the literal sense of the word, on tongues and as if all its emphasis, all its energy is being given to the cultivation of that gift, at the expense of the riches of gifts that it has. the Holy Spirit to give. There is also perhaps in this context if a little bit of what the exegetes say can be applied, a kind of highly developed eschatology; meaning, there is too strong an emphasis on the fact that Christ has already come, that the Kingdom of God is among us and not enough emphasis on the fact that although the Kingdom is already here on earth, it has not been fully realized. yet, but it will come in the future time when Jesus Christ is manifested and revealed in all his Glory his second coming.

And some brothers are living prematurely and the Theological implications of that wrong conclusion have not been left to wait in terms of the life of the Congregation. I believe that there is also - and what the Apostle Paul tries to correct in chapter 13 in his Hymn to love, his poem to love - is an emphasis on what is more important, the gifts or the fruit of the Spirit? I believe that these brothers have placed too much emphasis on the gifts of the Spirit, the supernatural or spectacular aspects of the power of God and have not given enough emphasis to the other dimension than that fruit of the Spirit, that love, that peace, that kindness. , that tolerance of one another etc., which are also part of the evidence of the filling of the Spirit in the life of the believer.

And so, that is to say, there is a balance, there is an overemphasis in areas that must be taken into a much more adequate balance and so this Chapter 12 and 14 and 13 also in another sense, are designed not to tell the Church of Corinth as it has been interpreted, that the gifts are not important and that what matters is love or the fruit of the Spirit, but to put them in a proper relationship.

To administer the gifts in an adequate way, to govern the use of the gifts of the Holy Spirit in a legitimate manner and in accordance with what God has established and that is why the Apostle Paul has begun by saying that he does not want them to be ignorant about the gifts or the matters of the Spirit and we saw the implications of that in terms of the baptism of the Holy Spirit for example.

Now we are going to move on to Verse 4, 5 and 6, the Apostle Paul says: "There are different gifts but the same spirit, there are different Ministries but the same Lord, there are different operations but God who does all things in all are the same”. The Apostle Paul is once again directing the gaze of the Corinthians towards that fact that there are different gifts, he is beginning, there is a game in his thought between the unity that there should be between the different gifts that move in the ambit of the Church, unity and diversity, both.

The gifts are many but there is only one Spirit, and there is only one Spirit but the gifts of that Spirit are very diverse and we have to maintain that balance on both sides, so the Apostle Paul uses three expressions, Gifts, Ministries and Operations and says that Although all three are different and varied in their outward appearance, what is behind them is the same. The word he uses for Gifts is "charismaton" which means gifts evidence of God's Grace, God has given the Gifts in a free way to the Church for its enrichment, for its edification and for its operation.

And the origin of all these gifts is the same, it is the Holy Spirit who gives those gifts, he uses the word Ministries, in the original Greek it is "diachodion", where the word Deacons comes from, it is the idea of services. There are different ways in which service is manifested in the Church, those gifts are manifested in concrete things, in the form of serving the congregation and the outside world.

But The Lord who is the owner and The Lord the giver and the ultimate administrator of those Ministries is only one who is Christ Jesus and finally he speaks of Operations which in the original Greek is "energematon" and there is a lot of diversity in how that concept is interpreted and how it translates In Spanish it has been translated Operations, in English it says workings.

The idea is that there are many different effects, there are many different results, many different works that this spirit does and I also understand that in that word energematon, there is also the word energy, from where our word energy comes and I think that more refers to the Apostle Paul to the idea that the Power of the Spirit is manifested in different quantities and in different degrees of intensity, but the one behind it is the same, for example Billy Graham is one of the greats or perhaps the greatest evangelist who has had the twentieth century.

Literally millions of people have been converted through the Billy Graham Ministry. But there are other evangelists, there are hundreds of evangelists, thousands of evangelists that God has raised up throughout history and throughout this century. They may not have the level of anointing, or power, or authority that God has given a Billy Graham to proclaim the gospel, but they are evangelists. There are different levels, the Apostle Paul says that according to what we have received, according to the degree of Faith that is in us, that we use it.

God assigns his Gifts but gives different degrees of authority and magnitude in the use of those gifts. But the Apostle Paul emphasizes in Verse 7 that what we have to remember is that despite this diversity, each one is given that manifestation of the Spirit, for their benefit.

I think the idea is also here to direct our gaze that the gifts are not something that we simply use for display or for our own benefit. There it does not say for the benefit of the one who has them, for example, but that the gifts are given for the benefit of the whole Church, for the blessing of the whole Church, for the strengthening of the kingdom of God.

Despite all these manifestations, Operations, Ministries, everything is given by the Spirit with a single purpose, a single spirit gives it and with a single purpose, which is building, strengthening the Church of Jesus Christ. Then he adds: "because it gives to some" -here he enters rather into a kind of enumeration that is rather a spontaneous enumeration- many people have misinterpreted this passage and believe that only these are all the gifts that God has given and it speaks of nine gifts and that is all.

But actually the gifts that God gives, there are several lists that the Apostle Paul has of gifts. In some, some of these that appear here appear, but in others others appear that do not appear. In the same Chapter 12 towards the end, in verses 28 above all, Verse 28, you see that there are other gifts: “God put some in the Church, Apostles, then Prophets, third Teachers, then those who do miracles, the that heal, help, administer.”

I have heard a lot about the gift of Tongues, I have heard a lot about the professed gift of healing, I don't hear many brothers say God has given me the Gift of helping, because that doesn't sound very sensational, it doesn't it sounds like standing up before large crowds and making dramatic statements.

How many of us hear out there I have the gift of Managing. Perhaps today there is a lot of emphasis on that because being a steward has a certain "cache", but in reality, they are not gifts that seem like very spectacular but they are part of the gifts. And I believe that God has provided perhaps thousands of gifts to his people according to the needs that arise: the gift of counseling is such a necessary gift in a divided and neurotic society like the one we live in. The Church needs counselors and I believe that God has provided people who have that gift to advise and to listen to needs and give an appropriate word.

Then the Apostle Paul says: “here the word is wisdom, the word that is used in the Greek is “sophia”, where Philosophy comes from: love towards wisdom, which is what I believe and nobody is sure because there is not enough information about it. What was in Paul's mind about these gifts, conjectures are made and certain phenomena are observed in the life of the Charismatic People and certain things are concluded from there. But actually Biblically we don't have strong words to say this is this gift and that's it.

But I understand by word of wisdom, that is, and look at the way he puts it, "word of wisdom" is a message that comes from God on specific occasions to an individual who has that gift to, I believe, provide a solution to issues. I see the practical wisdom of solving problems, of giving practical answers, of giving actionable answers to life's dilemmas and issues.

The person who has that gift, that word of wisdom, is a person who, in moments of crisis of need, knows what word to say or what advice to give or what decision to make, etc. We cannot dwell on all of this for too long, but that is more or less the idea, the difference from that other gift that is the word of science.

The Apostle Paul uses in Greek "gnosis", where knowledge or cognitive comes from and due to the very context of other passages in which Paul uses this concept of science, it is the idea of knowledge, of mysterious matters, of revelation of prophecy, it is knowledge of those hidden matters that come to the person who has that gift at times a revelation of something that is going to happen or that is happening or of something that is not accessible by normal rational means.

He also mentions the gift of Faith, we see something interesting and that is that every Christian brother has faith, yes or no? Because to each one I have given a measure of faith says the Apostle Paul. If we did not have faith we would not be believers. The very expression believers implies FAITH, but there are individuals -it is the implication of this and this helps us to understand other things that come later- there are people who have apparently been endowed with a special portion of FAITH that allows them to move with a certain security perhaps , or enter certain areas of the Christian life with special power and authority or perhaps be conduits of God's power, in very striking and very powerful ways because they have that FAITH to believe and to move in the name of the Lord.

I believe that when David hit that stone at the giant's forehead, he had a special portion of FAITH that the other members of the community of Israel and the Israelite army did not have. God provided him with that FAITH so that at that moment he could do such a great feat and so there are people who have that level of FAITH to commit great things in the name of the Lord. And notice that the Apostle Paul is continually emphasizing, by the Spirit, according to the same Spirit, Faith by the same Spirit and continuous "gifts of healings," another gift that he mentions here.

Every Christian can at some point lay hands and pray for someone and that person be healed, yes or no? We believe that. Now "there are individuals" says the word that "have received that as a special portion as a special calling" a Yiye Ávila.

I believe that he moves in that area and it is not possible to deny the gift that God has given this man without closing his eyes to a reality that has been supported through decades of Ministry of this man God has given him a special gift to him and he moves in that gift and has developed it in a very impressive way. There are people who have the gift of healing, others have the gift of performing miracles.

Actually in the writing in the New Testament at least we don't have many examples of that kind of - except Jesus Christ evidently had a gift - when Christ for example told Peter to go and draw two fish out of the sea and that there were two drachmas i I believe in the mouth of those fish. That is a miracle unlike doing a healing for example or a word of prophecy, they are all Miracles but there are situations and events that are more appropriate to put them in that category.

Elijah when he made fire fall from heaven: Elijah and Elisha moved in that dimension. When he commanded the prophets to throw something in the river that had lost an ax, something very valuable at that time, the metal was not very abundant, one of the prophets and he made the ax float to the surface of the water that was a miracle. In other words, there are people who move in that dimension of events and very extraordinary circumstances.

To others he gave the gift of Prophecy, by prophecy brothers I understand an inspired speech and I also understand a specific word anointed for a special purpose. I resist the semantic tendency rather in modern scelcis, to say that prophecy is all that, that is to say when I stand here to preach I am prophesying, yes in a sense, but when I look at the scripture and when I see Paul Speaking of the Prophetic, the prophecy, I see a clear awareness of a very, very specifically supernatural exercise in which God is speaking, in a very clear, very direct and very specific way to a congregation or an individual at a given moment.

Prophecy is not only what is going to happen in the future, that is one of the dimensions of prophecy, but it is a declaration that comes directly from the mouth of God, for someone or for some at a given moment. If you look for example in First Corinthians Chapter 14, look at how Paul understands this idea, in verse 22, 14:22 he says: "So tongues are not for a sign to believers but to unbelievers, but prophecy is not to the unbelievers but to the believers the prophecies”.

The Apostle Paul is putting it on the same level as tongues, a very, very supernatural manifestation and as a sign that is evident even to believers that the power of God is moving within them.

Hello. God bless you, Pastor Roberto Miranda speaks to you. Thank you for listening to our messages and it gives us great joy to know that this program is being a blessing to your life. I want to leave you with the words of Moses' blessing to the people of Israel: “The Lord blesses you and keeps you. Jehovah make his face shine upon you and have mercy on you. Jehovah lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.” It is a privilege for me to be part of your life, I hope you stay tuned to our program "An appointment with Christ". I bless you in the name of Jesus.

Look at 24 and 25, they say: "But if everyone prophesies and some unknown unbeliever enters and is convinced by all, is judged by all, the secret of his heart becomes manifest. Obviously, Paul's mind, that prophetic exercise is partly to discover what is hidden in someone's heart Someone comes with something, a situation in their life or a need or something and a prophetic word reveals what is in the heart.

That person is obviously going to be overwhelmed by that evidence of God's power and finally verse 29 and 30 say: "In the same way, the prophets speak two or three and the rest judge. And if something is revealed to another who is sitting, let the first". Prophecy is associated with revelation and I believe that this revelation is not only... I once saw a theologian say that today we have revelation but only illumination.

I completely disagree with that idea. I believe that the revelation is for our time, too. It is not as abundant as some believe but God still reveals in very extraordinary ways things that are hidden in the heart or in the world itself through the prophetic word. Although we can not depend. There are many people who depend on prophecy and then there are churches in which everything is prophecy and if they go to look for a job they have to go to the prophet or the pastor of the church to prophesy and if they are going to get married they look for a prophecy. That, brothers, is the beginning of witchcraft within the Church.

The prophecy can be deified to a point where as helpless children we can not move if we do not have a word of prophecy. It becomes a harmful addiction. In the vast part of our Christian life, we have to depend on the illumination of God's spirit in our hearts and on the text of the word that illuminates us in certain areas of life.

But there are also moments when God decides through the prophetic ministry to speak to an individual or to the life of the Church. Let's look for that ministry, brothers, and let's ask the Lord to develop it in our congregation.

It also speaks of discernment of spirits: the ability of one to intuit if it is a good spirit or a bad spirit that is moving in an environment or in an individual. Although I also go further and believe that discernment of spirits also refers to the ability to discern certain traits of the human personality. It is the ability to be able to understand what is there at times as well as in the form of shadow and light; certain areas of the heart of individuals.

Being able to get in tune very quickly with someone's personality and understand certain dimensions of their personality; sometimes what gifts they have, what advantages they offer, what things you have to take care of them etc, etc. This is part of that ministry of discernment of spirit. Not only does it refer to discerning evil or devilish spirits but I also create spirits in the sense of human spirits. To various other kinds of tongues, again the ability to move in the gift of tongues.

And here something needs to be clarified. There are many brothers who say that when Paul says that some are only given different kinds of tongues or when Paul talks about: "Do all speak tongues?" Meaning as evidence that not every Christian can speak in tongues and that is not the idea. As you can see, everyone has faith, but it gives some a very powerful measure of faith. Everyone can make gifts of healing but some have been given a gift of healing, every Christian can at some point in his life or as part of his daily life speak in tongues.

But there are people - it is the implication and I think many of the exegetes I have consulted about this passage support me - the idea that there are people who according to the apostle Paul receive a special portion of the gift of speaking in tongues and have that gift although it does not necessarily mean that not every believer can participate in it. It is not something exclusive, but it is something that for you to say that I have the gift of tongues or that God assigns that gift to you, you must move in a degree of generosity of that gift that God has given you.

Finally, he talks about the interpretation of tongues, which is the ability to understand and translate those angelic or human languages that a person is speaking when speaking in tongues. Well then, he continues. What is the Apostle Paul getting at by saying all this? In verse 11 is the conclusion to which he wants to lead the Corinthians.

He says: "But all these things," that is, "all those gifts, all those ministries, those gifts, those operations and all these things that I just mentioned, Corinthian brothers, I want you to understand that there is only one spirit that does it, which is the holy spirit. And that spirit distributes to each one in particular as he wants." And here the apostle Paul begins to emphasize to these Corinthian brothers that idea that they have to stop looking and stop putting it only on one or two gifts, but look at the wealth of gifts and recognize that all those gifts have a purpose, they have an origin that God has given us to enrich the church.

We cannot despise some and put some above others, but God gives as He wants. It is what it means. As He wants and we have to respect them in that way. There is a new appeal to this idea of unity and variety, there is a game of the two concepts. And here, I add something, brothers, because again there is a lot of talk about interpreting the Bible in its proper context and there are people who use this passage to even talk about things that are not gifts.

I also believe that when the apostle Paul is inviting the church to respect all the gifts, brothers, he is not necessarily inviting the church to respect all the theologies either. Because there are people who understand this as an idea that we rather have to believe, accept everything that is preached there, that they are all part of the wealth of the church.

I think that's true, up to a point. But when the apostle Paul talks to him about respecting that diversity that exists in the people, he is referring specifically to the gifts that God gives. He is not referring to different theologies. Sometimes it becomes very difficult in a single congregation for different radically different theologies to coexist for too long.

At some point you have to go towards unification, although a context of respect yes, but sooner or later if some believe or one believes something radically different or very contrary to what others believe, there will be conflict. And the church has to go towards unity, that is inevitable now, always respecting the right of others to believe as they believe. That's true.

But there is an appeal here to a congregation that I believe, that, again, Paul is speaking to a church that accepts, let's say, the use of the gifts. A charismatic church, this church moves on the gifts and is not saying anything more than that. We must respect different gifts that the Holy Spirit gives and that this spirit distributes those gifts as he wants.

Then he continues: "For as the body is one and has many members but all the members being many are one body, so also is Christ." He now uses the model of the body, and I think that this is a beautiful image of what the church is, what a community like this is. It is a body, we are a single entity, we are an organism.

God has called us to function as a single force that moves in a defined direction with clear purposes and that we are all working for the building of the kingdom of Jesus Christ. And I like that image that so is Christ in the idea that we are all centered in Jesus Christ, the life of Christ moves within us and certainly Christ is not divided and neither should the church of Jesus Christ be. He talks about how we have all been baptized in one spirit.

The holy spirit has come to the whole church. Every Christian, we have always said, has the holy spirit. Every believer, every person who confesses Christ as a savior has the spirit. We have said that this does not exclude the idea that there is that search for the baptism of the holy spirit, which is something different.

At no time do we want anyone to think that when they say that you have to seek the baptism of the holy spirit, you are saying to some Christian: "You do not have the holy spirit. We have all been baptized in one spirit, we have all been submerged and this baptism in one spirit destroys all differentiation of races or social levels in the case of Jews or Greeks or slaves or free. We are all one thing in one spirit, which is the spirit of God.

So the apostle Paul addresses the idea again that we can't exclude some gifts because they don't seem supernatural or don't seem loud or thunderous, that doesn't mean they aren't gifts. The person who has the gift of service is just as important as the person who preaches. I tell the brothers who work, for example cleaning the church:

"Brothers, God has given you a call to service." And there are brothers who work in that and through the years we have seen them when the church needs something they are there. When you have to bring some food for an activity, they are the first to offer themselves. When something needs to be done for the construction of the church or for the improvement of the building, they have a call. I believe that they have a genuine gift of serving and giving of themselves to others.

And there are other dimensions too, to serve. Paul says: "Because the hand says 'I am not the hand, I am not of the body', is that why it is not of the body?" Brethren, do not underestimate the importance of what God has given you. Perhaps God has not given you a gift of evangelism, of preaching, but perhaps He has given you the gift of prayer or the gift of consolation or the gift of advising.

Do not think that God has not given you anything. God doesn't love me, I'm good for nothing. Just because you don't recognize it doesn't mean you're not part of it. God has given each individual something, a gift, a calling and we have to receive what God has given us, enjoy it, develop it to the fullest.

Even while we yearn, because I do not believe that one thing excludes the other. But let's not underestimate ourselves, but let's not look at ourselves as inferior to those with those evangelical gifts.

Everybody wants to be an evangelist, everybody wants to be a preacher. But if it were only preachers who would teach, who would clean the church. That is, we all play an important role in the economy of the kingdom of God.

And the apostle Paul continues in verse 18: "But now God has placed the members each one of them in the body, as He wanted" emphasizing once again: we cannot usurp that function of God. God is the one who gives, God is the one who allocates and we cannot say to some: 'you are better or more necessary than the others'. Rather, God gives things knowing how necessary they are at a given moment.

Then the Apostle Paul continues in verse 21 and refers now not to those who underestimate themselves but to those who underestimate others and says: "Not even the eye can say to the hand 'I do not need you nor the head at the feet'". You do not have the right to say that so-and-so is not necessary in the life of the church, nor that so-and-so is inferior. And the Corinthians were doing that, it seems that if the person did not have a gift of tongues or a gift of working miracles like that then it did not matter and there were some who were already inflated by the gifts they had.

The apostle Paul says: “You cannot tell anyone. The church is a community. I believe that this is the image that should be highlighted from this entire passage and from that analogy that the apostle Paul uses. Every day I am forced to see the church more and more as a pastoral community. Brothers, many times we think that the pastor is the only Pastor in the entire Congregation. What if someone has a problem, then, go to the Pastor and have the Pastor advise you and have the Pastor tell you what to do.

But I am finding more and more as I observe our own congregation that most of the pastoral blessings our church receives are given by members like you ministering to someone who is sick, bringing a meal to someone at home and not can go out, that they minister to someone who is going through a family or marriage or health crisis. They call someone when they don't see them at church for a couple of Sundays.

Definitely, as our church grows proportionally, I will be able to do less and although we now have our Associate Pastor, do not think that this solves all the problems, do not think that this exempts you from that call that God has given us to function as a body only.

That's why the apostle Paul says, “That there be no disagreement in the body,” in verse 25, “but that the members all care for one another. So that if a member suffers, all the members suffer with it and if a member receives honor, all the members rejoice with it. The word he uses: worry is in the original Greek "merinnao" which refers to worry, anxiety, it is something negative.

But the idea of the apostle Paul is that the church should adopt an attitude that we get to the point that we are anxious for the welfare of our brothers, that we are concerned for each other. If there is a crisis in the family, let the whole church join in praying for that crisis. That if someone is suffering from something we can go there en masse to help our brothers. Let us know each other.

Brothers, let's not let our congregational experience be limited to a small group of people that we have chosen and that is all. Let's make efforts to know more about others. When a visitor comes to church, say hello, jump out of your pew, bother to go to that person and say, "We are glad you came to church today."

If you see his emaciated or sad face, go to that person and ask him "Brother, can I pray for you?". If you know someone is having a problem, go, “Brother, I'm going to pray, I keep you in my prayers” or step aside and take their hands and pray with them. When we are in a moment of intersection, how beautiful it is when brothers come and place their hands on some other believer or visitor and we intercede for one another!

That is much deeper and more powerful than simply having the Shepherd do it all or two or three chosen leaders. God has called us to be a community in which we all shepherd, we all minister, we all watch, and we all care for one another. And the more that love spreads, the more that love spreads among the people of God, the more glory to the Lord.

We could perhaps one day have a troop of professional counselors and perhaps they could advise in a much more effective way but I believe that in the long run the glory of the Lord would not be the same. And I also don't think that in the long run the spiritual effectiveness of that ministry would be the same as if the entire congregation flowed into that concern for one another. If we move with one body, if we try to help each other.

This week I had a conversation that convinced me more and more that we cannot underestimate the importance of meeting with someone and listening to their needs and praying with them and ministering to them in their time of need. Sometimes you think “Oh, what am I going to do? Maybe that person is not even interested.” But one discovers that there is such an eagerness and desire many times for someone to minister to us and that is wonderful.

Many times, it is not praying, like that in terms of laying hands and something supernatural happening, but it is also the very act of someone seeing a hand rest on their body and feeling that feeling that I am not alone; that someone is with me and putting oil on a person's forehead, it is not -again- the oil does nothing, I know, but also that concrete manifestation of the anointing of God's spirit, of something that settles on us and symbolizes that which lubricates our life, softens it, heals it.

That's beautiful, although I too have supernatural powers in laying on hands. I believe that there is also a mysterious dimension in all these things. I don't want to etymologize it too much either. But both things are important and what I think the apostle Paul calls in all that image of the church as a body, as an organism. Like we're involved in a unit. We cannot allow anything, is the idea of the apostle Paul, that nothing else separate us from that concept of the church as a family.

When those gifts are overemphasized then we are already underestimating each other. The Corinthians suffered from it. The women who said “we are already liberated. We don't need to wear veils,” they were shocking the incredulous society and their husbands many times. So they were using their freedom in an irresponsible way, they weren't caring what effect that was having on others.

Those who ate food sacrificed from idols said: “God is sovereign of all. Idols are nothing” but there were people with a weak conscience who were scandalized by seeing a brother of the Congregation going to a temple of idols, eating food sacrificed from idols and their conscience was hurt.

Those brothers, then, were not seeing the idea of the church as a community. Those who came to the sacrament and gorged themselves while others suffered, humiliated them and made them feel bad. They were not using the love of God. They were just thinking of themselves. And the church has to be that community, brothers, the call of the Lord to our life: it is for the church to move.

In this idea that we cannot be so spiritual that we forget that the best path is love. All other things are just instruments, they are means. And you know that our church is moving more and more in that direction of cultivating the gifts. I don't apologize for that. In the context of talking about the gifts, the spirit of God moves, in the context of giving glory to the spirit the spirit of God is glorified and the spirit is then invited and he begins to move and we saw the effectiveness and power What is in the gifts?

We saw the liberation that can come from a well used gift, we saw how it can unite the community, we saw how there can be word of revelation and clarification of certain things that are happening in the life of the church. We have seen how lives are touched and moved and revolutionized when the holy spirit is given the place it needs.

Brothers, I do not want us to lose that, quite the contrary. We are committed to moving forward until this church fully moves into that power that God has given to the gifts. Now having said that, brothers, I tell you – just as I have said so many other times – that we will never lose sight of the importance of the fruit of the spirit and that love must be the context within which we exercise all those gifts. And that no matter how many gifts we have, if the fruit of the spirit is not manifested in your life, it is of no use to you. You are nothing, as the apostle Paul says.

We're looking for a balance, okay? To that I hope we say Amen, too. Looking for that balance between the fruit and the gifts of the spirit. A church that walks in the gift of God's power and on the other hand also defensively, giving evidence that Christ and his character live in me. And we are being called to that - no one excludes, brother, one thing for the other - and neither do those who do not want to know about the gifts understand or misunderstand what is being said. Or those who do not want to know about the fruit, do not misinterpret what is being said either.

God called you, brothers, on this day to an open vision, to a balanced vision to seek both things. The church of Jesus Christ is divided. Because there are those who emphasize the fruit of the spirit and everything is the fruit, the fruit, the fruit and they forget the gifts that God has provided as explosive weapons to open a gap in the ranks of the devil.

And there are others who emphasize the gift, the gift, the gift so much that they are shallow and weak and infective in the long run because their lives do not support their behavior and their walk does not support what God has placed in them.

Let's do a balanced admiration. But the Lord calls us today to this idea of a church that cares for one another, that puts love above all things.

The apostle Paul wrote to a divided congregation. With the help of the Lord we are not divided. Christ is not divided, neither are we. We love each other, we are in search of each other. That search does not exclude conflict and friction, that is part of all reality in this fallen world.

Now the important thing is that there is also forgiveness, that there is tolerance, that there is honest communication, that there is prayer, that there is a lot of love, that there is when we confess our sins to each other that there is making a fixed pact that no one will go to me. to catch me talking about another brother, in a negative way. As the Epistle Titus said "let no one defame anyone", let no destructive word resonate in this church about the Ministry or the character of another brother, especially if that brother is not present. May we be honest and transparent in our communication with each other.

I cannot talk about my brother because sooner or later I am destroying myself and we are part of a single body. It's like if I pull my ear my whole body is going to suffer. Let us be brothers of a single body, a single community. Let's love each other dearly. Let's commit ourselves that we are going to survive as a united, unified, powerful church in the name of the Lord.

We are going to worship our God, all in the context of Christian love and concern for one another. May the Lord continue to bless us.