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Anyone's list of mature saints would rightly include Abraham, Isaiah, Elijah, Moses, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Paul, David, Joshua, Samuel, the author of Hebrews, the apostles, and Christ Himself. In the OT such men were variously called "a man of God", "a seer", or "a prophet". In fact the prophet Abraham is taken in Romans 4, Galatian 3, and Hebrews 11 as an exemplar par excellence of the Christian walk - a paradigm for ALL of us to follow.
Is anyone seeing a pattern emerging here? I mostly certainly am.
While exegesis is fallible, we favor the interpretations seemingly most harmonious with the author's words. This thread will expose evidence in 1Corinthians strongly favoring mature prophethood as the definition of spiritual maturity climaxed at 14:1, "Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual things, especially the gift of prophecy."
The original Greek at 14:1 - and 12:1 as well - says not spiritual gifts but spiritual things because Paul's obsession isn't with a set of superfluous gifts (understood as merely an optional bonus to spirituality) but with spirituality/maturity itself. After all, the Corinthians were unspiritual (i.e.impoverished in spiritual things). For such 'mere babes in Christ' (1Cor 3), the obvious remedy is to 'eagerly pursue spiritual things, especially the gift of prophecy'. It is in fact only tautological - and thus irrefutable - to point out that a spiritually mature man is a man mature in spiritual things - and topping Paul's list of spiritual things is 'especially the gift of prophecy' (14:1).
In a nutshell, 1Corinthians doesn't value gifts for gifts' sake but for maturity's sake. This is the epistle's most distinctive emphasis and yet it is still overlooked by the entire church even today, some 2000 years later.
As we shall see, this thesis surfaces most strongly in chapters 2 and 3, but is powerfully reiterated at chapter 13 as well.
Is anyone seeing a pattern emerging here? I mostly certainly am.
While exegesis is fallible, we favor the interpretations seemingly most harmonious with the author's words. This thread will expose evidence in 1Corinthians strongly favoring mature prophethood as the definition of spiritual maturity climaxed at 14:1, "Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual things, especially the gift of prophecy."
The original Greek at 14:1 - and 12:1 as well - says not spiritual gifts but spiritual things because Paul's obsession isn't with a set of superfluous gifts (understood as merely an optional bonus to spirituality) but with spirituality/maturity itself. After all, the Corinthians were unspiritual (i.e.impoverished in spiritual things). For such 'mere babes in Christ' (1Cor 3), the obvious remedy is to 'eagerly pursue spiritual things, especially the gift of prophecy'. It is in fact only tautological - and thus irrefutable - to point out that a spiritually mature man is a man mature in spiritual things - and topping Paul's list of spiritual things is 'especially the gift of prophecy' (14:1).
In a nutshell, 1Corinthians doesn't value gifts for gifts' sake but for maturity's sake. This is the epistle's most distinctive emphasis and yet it is still overlooked by the entire church even today, some 2000 years later.
As we shall see, this thesis surfaces most strongly in chapters 2 and 3, but is powerfully reiterated at chapter 13 as well.
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