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Q1. Gifts and Selfishness


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  • 3 months later...

It won’t matter how many spiritual gifts are manifested in an individual if that person violates the supreme Law of Love, first for God with all that you are and then for others.  That love keeps us humble to guard us from prideful endeavors, and rightly focused to keep us dependent on the Spirit’s power and leading.  The natural flesh can never accomplish spiritual works!  I do think there can be a showy display of works through self-effort and errant motives that can look impressive, but the outcome can never be all that God intended and can never delight His heart, please Him, or accomplish His will.

 

This makes me think of comparing old TV reception with a “rabbit ear” antenna to today’s hi-def TV reception.  The antenna picture came through and looked fine, but it was never really true-to-life. It “got the job done”, but there were occasional interruptions of the signal and static interferences.  But HD is a whole different experience!  The colors are truer, details are sharper, and the images far superior.  The old days of static interference are gone.  It’s so realistic you feel like you’re there!  That’s seems a little bit like the difference in trying to operate a gift of the Spirit without truly being of the Spirit as opposed to actually working with the Spirit in His empowerment.  The efforts of the first may look adequate, even impressive, to the world, but will be like noisy distracting static.  Only the submitted efforts of the second will impress the LORD, benefit His spiritual kingdom, and bring us into sharper spiritual clarity and reality.

 

We won’t become more spiritual by chasing after gifts of the Spirit and seeking to employ them.  And that seems a futile effort, really, since the Spirit gives His gifts according to His wisdom, will, and intent – not our desires.  We will grow in spiritual maturity as we seek God and His kingdom above all else because that spiritual kingdom includes the development and growth of spiritual fruit in our lives.  So it would be the Fruit of the Spirit that makes us more spiritual.

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Q1. (1 Corinthians 13:1-3) What is the result of the greatest imaginable manifestation of the gifts of the Spirit done without love?  

Zero! Paul says ""If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal." (13:1)  We might be able to speak in angelic languages, Paul says, but without love motivating the gift, the net value is merely that of an echoing gong or a clanging cymbal but without love it's just noise. (notes)

 

 

 

Is it possible to operate a gift of the Spirit from a selfish or wrong motivation. Which make us more spiritual – Gifts of the Spirit or Fruit of the Spirit?  

 

A person can have huge spiritual gifts, but unless the "fruit of the Spirit" (Galatians 5:22-23) is present, Paul says, "I am nothing. We need the fruit of the Spirit in order to take full advantage of our gifts, without love we are just noise. If one can have one or the other than I expect the fruits or better but that is just speculation for God wants us to use both. Paul   observes, as Jesus did, that acts of piety done to impress rather than motivated by love bring no reward (Matthew 6:1-8, 16-18)

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1 Corinthians 13:1-3
Q). What is the result of the greatest imaginable manifestation of the gifts of the Spirit done without love?
A). In God's estimation the gifts without love makes their contribution nothing.
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Q). Is it possible to operate a gift of the Spirit from a selfish or wrong motivation. Which make us more spiritual -- Gifts of the Spirit or Fruit of the Spirit?
A). Yes it is possible to operate a gift of the Spirit from a selfish or wrong motivation. The Fruit of the Spirit makes us more spiritual than the Gifts of the Spirit. The gifts are spiritual (Spirit-led) only when they are accompanied by the Fruits of the Spirit.

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Q1. (1 Corinthians 13:1-3) 

What is the result of the greatest imaginable manifestation of the gifts of the Spirit done without love? 

Is it possible to operate a gift of the Spirit from a selfish or wrong motivation? 

Which make us more spiritual - Gifts of the Spirit or Fruit of the Spirit?

Without our love for God and the resulting love for one another, our spiritual gifts are meaningless. Yes, it is possible to operate a gift with a selfish or wrong motive, but I doubt whether it will be effective or even spiritual. Take knowledge and understanding as examples. Alone it is not enough, love must be added to both knowledge and understanding. If not, we get the situation where, in the church, there is a knowledge of the Word and an understanding of it as well; yet this same church is filled with gossip, bitterness, and even hatred. Without the Fruit of the Spirit the Gifts of the Spirit cannot operate except in the flesh, and it is then that these gifts become shams and may even be harmful. The Gifts of the Spirit can only operate in a truly spiritual life, and this spiritual life reflects spiritual fruit - the first of which is love. So it is the Fruit of the Spirit which gives the motivation and power to minister the Gifts of the Spirit, and this Fruit of the Spirit comes only from walking in the Spirit. I love the way J. Vernon McGee put it: “Look at it this way: Write down a string of zero’s - eloquence alone is zero, prophecy alone is zero, knowledge alone is zero, faith alone is zero, sacrifice alone is zero, martyrdom alone is zero. Six zero’s still add up to nothing. But you put the numeral 1 to the left of that string of zero’s, and every zero amounts to something. And, friend, love is the thing that needs to be added to every gift of the Spirit. Without love your gift is worthless.”

 

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 What is the result of the greatest imaginable manifestation of the gifts of the Spirit done without love?

Nothing meaningful. I might impress people but in the Kingdom i achieved nothing.

Is it possible to operate a gift of the Spirit from a selfish or wrong motivation.

Yes. for pride or to impress others. The result is still nothing in the Kingdom.

Which make us more spiritual -- Gifts of the Spirit or Fruit of the Spirit?

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The results of the greatest imaginable gifts done without love are: NOTHING.

Without love being the motivating factor for any gift, they are meaningless. Even truth is to be accompanied by love. Anything else is like a clanging cymbal. Cymbals alone are harsh, loud and grating on your nerves. There is no melody, harmony or music. Just clanging noise.

Yes- it is absolutely possible to operate in gifts from selfish motives. Pride can be involved, thinking way too much of self, knowledge (of man) can be result of foolish use of gifts and harshness that turns people away (even if truth is there) are all results of misuse of gifts. Social circles in churches because of gifts are wrong and selfishly motivated and excluding others can come from pride in certain gifts or looking down on other gifts.

Fruit of the Spirit is number one! Becoming Christ like using our gifts in love for HIS purposes....not ours. What is love? Patient, kind, not putting on airs.....all parts of the fruit of the Spirit!

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What is the result of the greatest imaginable manifestation of the gifts of the Spirit done without love?

 Worthless - nothing - desacrating the Holy Spirit.

 

Is it possible to operate a gift of the Spirit from a selfish or wrong motivation?

Yes, it use is somewhat controlled by the person with the gift.

 

Which makes us more spiritual -- Gifts of the Spirit or Fruit of the Spirit?

The fruit of the Spirit makes us more spiritual because - the Holy Spirit manifests them as we grow spiritually.

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Q1. (1 Corinthians 13:1-3) What is the result of the greatest imaginable manifestation of the gifts of the Spirit done without love?

 

Self magnification, God is not glorified, a waste of time for the kingdom of God.

 

Is it possible to operate a gift of the Spirit from a selfish or wrong motivation?

 

Yes, I believe it is. It's called flesh.

 

Which make us more spiritual – Gifts of the Spirit or Fruit of the Spirit?

 

I believe they are both important...the Fruit of the Spirit is the Character of Christ worked "into" us, and the Gifts are His love extended through us to the recipient of the gift. Both honor Him. Both encourage. Both display His work and His glory.Both are demonstrations of His Redemption of each life and His love.

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Q1. (1 Corinthians 13:1-3) What is the result of the greatest imaginable manifestation of the gifts of the Spirit done without

love?

It makes the contribution nothing in the eyes of the Lord

Is it possible to operate a gift of the Spirit from a selfish or wrong motivation.

That happens all the time

Which make us more spiritual – Gifts of the Spirit or Fruit of the Spirit?

Fruit of the Spirit

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Q1. (1 Corinthians 13:1-3) What is the result of the greatest imaginable manifestation of the gifts of the Spirit done without love, and which make us more spiritual -- Gifts of the Spirit or Fruit of the Spirit?

 

Manifesting the gifts of the Spirit does not make one person more spiritual than another, in order for the body to work as one; the gifts of the Spirit are given to inspire and to build each other up in the faith - that is what "LOVE" does, for faith worketh by "Love".

 

Paul is warning the Corinthian's - without God's "LOVE" as its source of motivation, instead of unity, the building up of faith in the body of believers, the flesh will lead, and if the flesh leads, the flesh will fight against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, the working of the flesh is contrary to that of "Love", therefore it will be heard as a clanging cymbal of noise and confusion.

 

 

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Q1. (1 Corinthians 13:1-3) What is the result of the greatest imaginable manifestation of the gifts of the Spirit done without love? Is it possible to operate a gift of the Spirit from a selfish or wrong motivation. Which make us more spiritual – Gifts of the Spirit or Fruit of the Spirit?

The result of the greatest spiritual gifts done without love are are of no use to the Lord. We using our gifts selfishly and for public recognition.

The Lord would rather we have love than the some of the spiritual gifts. What good are these gifts if they satisfy no one or the unity of the church.

Having gifts which the Lord has given us makes us more spiritual if we use them in the fruit of the spirit, which is love for others. With out this love we are useless to the Church, only showing our own self interest. 

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The results of the greatest imaginable manifestation of the gifts of the Spirit done without love is just a sounding gong. It means nothing except to the person doing the manifestation. It is possible to operate a gift of Spirit from a selfish or wrong motivation. That is what people are doing when they try to exploit others.

I don’t think that you can the Gifts of the Spirit without the Fruit of the Spirit. The Fruit of the Spirit is a byproduct of the Gift of the Spirit.

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What is the result of the greatest imaginable manifestation of the gifts of the Spirit done without love?

 

Without love counts as nothing.

 

Is it possible to operate a gift of the Spirit from a selfish or wrong motivation.

 

No, because as a person tries to operate outside of the Spirit the gift becomes nothing more than human endeavour.

 

Which makes us more spiritual - - Gifts of the Spirit or Fruit of the Spirit?

 

Fruit of the Spirit which is the more common characteristic of a believer where as the Gift of the Spirit is given to an individual  for a specific reason to suit His purposes.

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  • 2 weeks later...

1 Corinthians 13:1-3:  Paul writes in these verses that without love nothing whatsoever we do amounts to anything.  Like Paul, without love we are nothing and have gained nothing.   When virtue is displayed to attract attention to self then it has no value.  One of the Biblical imperatives is that we love others and do unto others as we want them to do to us.

 

Spiritual gifts cannot be exercised in selfishness.  The fruits of the Spirit Paul describes in Galatians 5:22-26 makes a person more spiritual not spiritual gifts. 

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  • 2 months later...

What is the result of the greatest imaginable manifestation of the gifts of the Spirit done without love? Is it possible to operate a gift of the Spirit from a selfish or wrong motivation. Which make us more spiritual – Gifts of the Spirit or Fruit of the Spirit?          

  • Without love, tongues, prophecy, wisdom, knowledge, faith, generosity, and even martyrdom are nothing, just noise.
  • It is possible to operate a gift of the Spirit from a selfish or wrong motivation.  We allow the flesh to get in the way, become too prideful, thing we know it all and that we are doing things on our own.  We do it all the time!
  • The Fruit of the Spirit makes us more spiritual.  We can have spiritual gifts but if they are not used in the right way it means nothing.   That's where the Fruit of the Spirit come into play and the biggest component is Love.
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  • 7 years later...

Q1. (1 Corinthians 13:1-3)

What is the result of the greatest imaginable manifestation of the gifts of the Spirit done without love?

Without love it is as nothing, as noise, meaningless. In fact it can be damaging to the "Body of Christ"/the Church . People can be put off by this kind of manifestation and then steer clear of the genuine gifts. Unbelievers are possibly even more put off by this kind of behaviour.

Is it possible to operate a gift of the Spirit from a selfish or wrong motivation?

Yes, it unfortunately often happens.

Which make us more spiritual -- Gifts of the Spirit or Fruit of the Spirit?

For Fruit to develop and ripen ,Gifts too are necessary. Love just needs to be centre of it all to be of any use to each other. Else selfishness rules.

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  • 1 year later...

Paul says the fruits of the Spirit are far more valuable than spiritual gifts, particularly the fruit of love. Fruits of the Spirit grow us spiritually. Apparently gifts of the Spirit do not grow us spiritually.

Why would God give spiritual gifts to individuals whose character has not yet matured to the point of love? True gifts are wholly of the Spirit, after all. But most of the posters here as well as Pastor Ralph have seen or experienced true gifts incorrectly used, that is, from "a selfish or wrong motivation." 

Perhaps this is why Christians who have the gift of healing don't always heal. They must have the gift of healing but not the maturity to exercise that gift correctly. They don't have love ... or enough love.

Until now, I had thought that gifts that failed to reach their purpose were within people who didn't exercise enough faith. But in this passage Jesus says even a loveless faith can move mountains.

Faith alone has a certain power. Faith + love has rewards.

I'm confused. Sorry.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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