1 Corinthians 13 is a portrait of Christ. If you substitute the name of Christ for the word love, it gives us a perfect description of his character. That is why he is so lovely. Jesus Christ is patient. You know what we are like. We produce anything but patience in the reaction of other people, yet Jesus Christ is patient with us. He does not give up. When we sin again and again, when we’re so thick to learn a spiritual lesson, oh, how patient he is!

In the context of the entire book of 1 Corinthians, Paul has repeatedly set love over against the things that the Corinthians thought were most important. He contrasts love with the supernatural gifts. He also contrasts love with the idea of wisdom. In verse 3, Paul contrasts love with doing good deeds, even to the point of becoming a martyr for the sake of something good. He says you can be famous for doing extraordinarily good works, but if you have not love, it profits you nothing.

There are three applications that I want to make from 1 Corinthians 12. The first is, be content with what you have been given. If you are not content, you are telling God that you know better than he. Therefore, be content with whatever God has given you, because God gave it to you and he knows best.

Is there a particular number of spiritual gifts? That question is difficult to answer. Paul gives two lists here in chapter 12. The first one identifies nine gifts (vv. 7-11). Then in 1 Cor. 12:27-30, Paul identifies another set of nine gifts, but here the list is different. Some of the gifts from his first list are repeated in the second, but others are new. There are three other passages in the New Testament that also list gifts in a formal manner. There are five gifts mentioned in Ephesians 4:11; Romans 12:6-8 lists seven; and I Peter 4:11 mentions two. Not one of the lists is identical to the others. This is just a way of saying there are a great variety of gifts.

As we come to the twelfth chapter of 1 Corinthians, Paul begins to deal with the matter of speaking in tongues. There are a lot of people who do not like this subject. This is true in my own confession; many Reformed churches are against it. That is because they are concerned that if individuals claim to be able to speak under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, what they say should carry the full authority of God because the Holy Spirit is God. If this were true it would undermine the authority of Scripture, which is the final authority in the Church, since a person who claims to be speaking by the Holy Spirit would have the same status as Scripture!