What was true of Corinth is true of us. We have been enriched in every way. We don’t lack any spiritual gift. But just like them we must learn how to use them for God’s glory and our collective good.

I wonder how you’ve read the word ‘you’ so far in these opening 9 verses of 1 Corinthians? We’re so steeped in individualism that by default we read it as ‘me’. But Paul is writing to a collective you, the assembly of God’s people in Corinth. It matters all the way through the book, but particularly here in these verses as he speaks about spiritual gifts, as we’ll see when we come to chapter 12.

As a church they’re enriched in every way, with all kinds of speech and with all knowledge(5)… they don’t lack any spiritual gift(7). God blesses the church by enriching them in every way, giving them all they need in Christ. They’re a church full of spiritual gifts given to every member. It’s not that one person has all or most of them or that someone in the church is the ‘gift-less wonder’.. God has given them everything they need to grow and thrive together.

The problem in Corinth isn’t what they lack, it’s how they use the abundance God has given them.  They’re like over sugared kids at a birthday party fuelled on jelly, ice cream and cake all insisting on their turn, their moment in the spotlight and not loving others.

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