Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - When You're Stuck in Comparison | New Testament | 1 Corinthians 12

Episode Date: June 22, 2023

What gifts has God given you? Do you ever wish they were different? How often do you find yourself looking around and trying to measure up to the people around you? Paul shares some good news in 1 Corinthians 12. Don't miss today's episode as Tanyadiscusses comparison and humility. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Join the TMBT community in reading the entire New Testament in one year. Get your FREE reading plan here. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter@TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: 1 Corinthians 12

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life in the time it takes to get to work. I'm Tanya Wilmeth. Today we're going to fulfill our own tagline here on Team BT, where we apply the Bible in the time it takes to drive to work by talking about how the Bible impacts your work. And I promise, even if you're in the produce aisle while you're listening, you'll still love the way the Bible puts words into things you experience, but may lack the language for at work or in team settings.

The Bible is consistently the best resource. to ground us in the true story of our lives. And I particularly love the way this part of First Corinthians puts words to the frustrations and guilt we feel about our limits and incompetencies at work. Lately, we've been taking tests like the Enneagram, the Strength Finder, and the Working Genius, and we're constantly finding out more about who we are. I'm a three-wing to discerning galvanizer in case you're interested. But in this part of his letter to the Corinthians, Paul is telling them not to be uninformed

about who they are not. Just wait, I'm going to get to that, I promise. But as much as we love knowing more and talking more about ourselves, focusing only on us and our work actually leads to a lot of frustration and guilt. Let me give you a few examples. Let's say you take a test and affirm what you probably already suspect are your gifts. You will probably feel known and empowered to use those. And this is good.

But what we sometimes don't do with those tests and with our gifts is also affirm the ones we don't have. If you do not have the gift of innovation, you may feel uninteresting or slow when you're sitting in a team meeting. If you don't have the gift of discernment, you may feel like you lack depth or insight when your team is making decisions. If you don't have the gift of execution, you may feel like you're unorganized or undisciplined. If you don't have the gift of encouragement, you may tell yourself you're unaware or you're uncaring. See, the coin has two sides. If we take too much credit for our strengths, then we also take too much credit for our weaknesses. And we feel either prideful or guilty.

So we overwork and overthink and then we feel more pride or guilt. It's an unending cycle. Paul begins this part of his letter like this. He says now concerning spiritual gifts. Brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed. And then he goes on in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 to talk about how they used to be led by idols, but they learned a better way. And now Paul is going to make sure they understand the better way, the kingdom way,

to think about and use their spiritual gifts. Verse 4. He says, now there are varieties of gifts but the same spirit. And there are varieties of service but the same Lord. and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them in everyone. Father, son, and spirit are all active in the giving of spiritual gifts. This reinforces that the three persons of the Trinity work together, and it also introduces the main theme of Paul's letter, which is unity and diversity.

In such succinct words, Paul makes it very clear that while there are three persons, there is one God we worship and one God we glorify with our gifts. And as we are gifted differently, we image God when we use our gifts together as one body. When we grasp diversity as unity, we can stop comparing, competing, and fragmenting, and come together as one body to glorify God. Understanding that diversity serves unity is both freeing and encouraging. If you don't have a gift, someone else does. That's really humbling and really awesome.

You don't have to be. to do it all. But that's not what we're thinking when we put ourselves out there at work or school, is it? Our culture promotes a different kind of thinking that sounds more like this. You should be able to do at least on some level everything that others can do, i.e. you feel guilt or shame when your incompetencies are exposed. We also tell ourselves this. Your gifts are more highly valued than others and should be prioritized, which leads to you create fragmented work environments and underutilize your team. God has given gifts for the benefit of everyone, but we have used them to do things that we're not supposed to do, like compare, evaluate, and self-promote,

and they become sources of guilt and division. So yes, Paul offers a better way, where we live in celebration of all our gifts and all our limits and bring them together for the common good. We can do this because we know that only God is limitless and when we work together, we honor and glorify him. It takes a lot of humility, though, to work with limits instead of denying them. But what difference would it make if you heard a person in a position of leadership, say to someone else, you know, I'm not good at coming up with new ideas. Would you help me brainstorm some different ways to tackle this problem?

Or, I have lots of ideas, but could you, with your gift of discernment, help me see which ones are the best? That sounds like humility, doesn't it? And we are drawn to humble people, especially humble leaders, because they are honest and because they earn our trust. They also help cultivate environments where people can ask for help and make things better. they lay the foundation for unity. Paul uses body language or language of the body to describe what it looks like to work in our strengths

and to acknowledge our limits. Verse 14. For the body does not consist of one member, but of many. If the foot should say, because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body. That would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body. that would not make it any less part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing?

If the whole body were in ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them as he chose. Ah, did you hear that? As he chose, your gifts are his choice. They are his design. They are good. And your lack of certain gifts, they are also his design. They are good.

because they give you an opportunity to work together, to ask for help, to build up the body. They give you humility. So how do you put this into practice? In Paul's list of examples, he lists nine spiritual gifts, and this list probably isn't even meant to be exhaustive. His point, though, is not just to get the Corinthians to identify their gifts, but to identify their place. They are not more or less important than someone else, but they are very important.

just like everyone else. Their place is in the body of Christ. Their place is working together. Their place is willingness to serve in ways that makes sense for them. Their place is humility to ask others to help out in ways where they aren't as strong. Their place is not to walk away from situations where people are different, but encourage differences to build a stronger community. Their place is to stay glued to Christ and to one another.

Their place is in the upside-on kingdom of Jesus Christ, where eternal satisfaction awaits when they know they can use their gifts to glorify and worship Him. Before you forget, sign up for the brand new TMBT newsletter. Hit the link in the show notes, and you'll get an email every Wednesday that will help you beat the midweek slump and go deeper in your walk with Jesus. Thanks for listening.