Through Paul, the Spirit gives Christ’s solution to each challenge. Concerning prideful comparisons, Paul asks, “What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?” (1 Corinthians 4:7). Whatever our abilities, our status, our roles, they come entirely from God’s generosity. That leaves no room for personal pride.
In the early church, before the New Testament was complete, the apostles laid their hands on members to receive gifts for the church’s guidance through gifts such as prophecy, knowledge and wisdom; and proof of authenticity through gifts such as miracles, tongues and healings. These should never be used competitively, Paul said, because they came from the same source: the same Spirit, the same Lord, and the same God (1 Corinthians 12:4-11). The variety of gifts was not about individuality but about Christ’s whole, healthy “one body.”
For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. … 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. … If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an 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. (1 Corinthians 12:12, 15, 17-18).
Some who spoke in tongues (languages they had not learned) became prideful and competitive (Acts 2:4-11). The Spirit corrected them with healthier perspectives and by changing their focus from self to service (1 Corinthians 12). The worship assembly, for example, was not for showing off, but for honoring God and strengthening each other in the faith (1 Corinthians 14). The attitudes for unity all come together in one basic virtue—love!
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. … Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends (1 Corinthians 13:1-2, 4-8).
“Love never ends.”