Spiritual Gifts
Week 01: Making love the aim
“Make love your aim, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.”
— 1 Corinthians 14:1
I love going to the grocery store. Seriously, it’s a fun outing for me. And there are times my wife will send me to the store to grab something for dinner on my way home. But she will often tell me not to get anything else. She’ll say to me, “Just get what’s on the list.” She does this because she knows I might come home with just about anything. I can get so caught up in the euphoric experience of grocery shopping that I miss the whole point. Even worse, I could come home with just about everything except the one thing I was supposed to get for dinner.
Like me, you can miss the point when it comes to spiritual gifts. We can get so caught up in the pursuit of spiritual gifts that we miss the point — which is love. You could do incredible things for God and still miss the point. You can do powerful things, but without love, it's meaningless. In fact, Paul put it like this in 1 Corinthians 13:
1 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
You can speak in tongues, perform miracles, prophecy, and even give everything you have to the poor. But unless you have love, it’s like a clanging cymbal. It might even sound great on earth, but in heaven it’s an annoying sound. We may like the sound of power, but heaven loves the sound of love.
Make Love Your Aim
In 1 Corinthians 14:1 Paul tells us to “make love your aim.” The goal of spiritual gifts is love. The focus of spiritual gifts is love. Love is the aim. The goal isn’t to be gifted or powerful. The goal isn’t to be the most impressive person in the room. The goal is love. The goal is to love God more and to love others well.
So, what does it mean to “make love your aim”? What does this look like practically? To start, Jesus said that love is the greatest command (Matt. 22:36-40). John went so far as to say that God is love (1 Jn. 4:8). Paul said that the role of the Spirit is to reveal God’s love to us (Rom. 5:5).
So, let me ask you, why do you want spiritual gifts? If you want them for power and ecstatic experiences, you might be pursuing them for the wrong reasons. When love is our aim, we pursue spiritual gifts as a way to love God and love others more. The Holy Spirit is not a party trick. And the power of the Holy Spirit comes through intimacy with the Holy Spirit. In other words, the Holy Spirit is a person to be pursued, not a power to be used. The difference between the two is love. One is about intimacy and relationship, the other is about power and influence. The difference is love.
Spiritual gifts are supposed to build up the church (1 Cor. 12:7; 14:3, 12, 26). In other words, they’re about love. So Paul tells us to “make love your aim” (1 Cor. 14:1). But how do we do that? How do we make love our aim?
Love is our aim when we seek to know God more, deepen our intimacy with the Holy Spirit, and follow Jesus. Love is our aim when we seek to serve and build up others. This is what spiritual gifts are for. They flow from our love for God and express themselves through love for others.
Eagerly Desire Gifts of the Spirit
In Luke chapter eleven, Jesus teaches his disciples how to pray. And in the middle of his teaching, Jesus says, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you” (Lk. 11:9). And then he said this:
11 “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
Did you catch that? The Holy Spirit is given “to those who ask him.” Jesus says that the Father is a good father who longs to give good gifts to his kids. The Father gives the Holy Spirit to those who ask. It doesn’t say that the Father gives the Holy Spirit at random. He gives the Holy Spirit to those who ask. James says, “You don’t have because you don’t ask” (Jm. 4:2). So if you want more of God, if you want more of the Holy Spirit, if you want spiritual gifts — ASK!
Aim at love — determine to have an intimate relationship with the Holy Spirit and to love and serve others.
Seek his face — spend intentional time with the Holy Spirit.
Knock until it’s open — ask for gifts until you receive them.
God is the one who gives spiritual gifts. But, we are told to desire, seek, and ask for them! We do this because our God is a good Father who gives the Holy Spirit when we ask. What would happen if you took God at his word and eagerly desired spiritual gifts and asked for more of the Holy Spirit in your life (1 Cor. 14:1; Lk. 11:13)?
01 – Aim at love. Without love, even the greatest spiritual gifts are like a clanging cymbal. We can easily miss the point of spiritual gifts — love. Pursue love this week. Make it your aim. You can do this by deepening your intimacy with the Holy Spirit and by setting your heart on loving others.
02 – Seek his face. Deepening your intimacy with the Holy Spirit or growing in your relationship with the Holy Spirit won’t just happen. You need to pursue him. When you draw near to God, he draws near to you (Jm. 4:8). The author of Hebrews says that he rewards those who earnestly seek him (Heb. 11:6). Set aside time to intentionally be with the Holy Spirit. Talk to him in prayer and listen to him in silence.
03 – Knock until it’s open. Jesus taught us to ask until we receive, seek until we find, and knock until the door is opened (Lk. 11:9). Ask God to give you spiritual gifts this week. Ask him to reveal to you what gifts you may already have. And don’t stop asking until God opens the door (Lk. 11: 13).
Recommended reading: Practicing the Power by Sam Storms