If I speak in tongues or have a prophetic gift, can
understand mysteries or have a gift of knowledge or have
such faith that I can move mountains, if I am generous and
give all my money to the poor and become a martyr for the
faith, but have not love, I AM NOTHING. Paul has
shown us that gifts, without love as the aim and the bond,
amount to nothing in the building process because they are
the tools, not the material and not the end product. We
desperately need the correct tools properly cleaned and
honed in order that the job might be properly done, but the
purpose, the gain, the aim, the whole point of what we are
doing is the building and its completion.
As a young apprentice to my trade, I recall arriving on my
first day with my new white overall and a small assortment
of brand new tools. I hadn’t much idea what I should do
with the tools, but to me they looked good. I later
discovered that none of the tools were much use, since
tradesmen rarely use the tools which you buy for DIY
work. I was encouraged to seek better tools. At the end of
the first day, I packed my tools away – they hadn’t stood up
to the job very well – put on my coat, and was setting off to
catch the bus home.
“Aren’t you taking your overalls off?” asked Les. I was
shy and didn’t answer. I wanted to keep them on so that
everyone could see that I was working. I felt that I was a
man (aged 15!) of importance and I wanted to look the part.
Cyril helped me out. “Let him keep them on. It’s his first
day.” The next day, they explained to me that wearing
dirty overalls on the bus wasn’t such a good idea.
Later I learned that whilst the tools and overalls were
important in their own right, my employers were much
more concerned that I learned my trade to their high
standard. This meant training, college, mistakes, successes,
having to do the jobs which no one else wanted, becoming
part of the team, learning what needed to be done next and
how far you could take something. I learned what
materials were useful for what function and while learning
everyone else’s skills, I developed my own understandings.
For six years as an apprentice it seemed that everything that
happened was intended to make me a skilled tradesman and
so it was, but the higher intention was the maintenance of
the huge number of hospital facilities, for which the area
hospital management committee had responsibility.
Of course there were different tools for different jobs, and
learning which tools were appropriate for which job was
important. Now, as a Christian minister, I sometimes get
involved with church maintenance work. I find that the
grace needed to allow the young men in the church to help
with the maintenance work is not easily found. I would
rather do it myself – it’s quicker and simpler and I know
that it would be done properly. The difficulty I have is that
tradesmen taught me. But, if I can allow those young men
to make their mistakes and train myself to look at the
bigger picture, not only will the maintenance continue, but
they will learn skills which they can use in their own
homes, where they have wives and families. It’s a more
difficult but more excellent way. Besides, if I stay behind
to clear up, I can also just tweak the mistakes so that it
looks a bit better.
In the Church we need the tools and the skills, but much
more we need the bigger purpose of the love of God. We
may have all the gifts – the equipment – but we need the
mortar – the love – and the picture of the finished product.
Without these we cannot begin to build. Gifted people in
the Church often appear powerless. Even though they
manifest gifts of the Spirit, there doesn’t seem to be much
real growth around them. A skilled man using the best
tools and having mortar and a purpose, will build the best
building. If you took his tools off him he would probably
make a better job than most using just his skilled hands.
Without a purpose or plan, and without mortar, he would
never get started. He would finish up in the unenviable
position of guarding a pile of stones, the plight of some
disillusioned church leaders or evangelists, who Jesus
called to be fishers of men and now have a job keeping an
aquarium.
I once heard someone describe a man’s ministry as “like a
mighty oak”. The one who was speaking paused, then
added, “very impressive to look at, but nothing grows
under it.” Selfish ambition is a killer in the church,
resulting in leaders and others who are constantly looking
for a platform on which they can shine. The promotion of a
man’s ministry has a place in the church only in order that
he be built up and built in. I am not speaking of those who
labour tirelessly in the Lord and receive their proper wages,
but I was appalled a short while ago to see a well-known
teacher in a big auditorium appealing for money, loading
false guilt on people that they might support his ministry.
A thuggish armed guard carried the huge trunks of money.
Would they shoot someone who tried to steal from them?
Some leaders seem to believe that they are obviously the
most anointed and seek every opportunity to take the
biggest and best place on every occasion. Often there is a
tight control over all the genuine ministry opportunities,
because the leader believes he can do it better.
In Joshua chapter 6, Israel conquered Jericho when God
told them to act all together as one band walking around the
city, and then together blowing all their trumpets. No one
was to blow his own trumpet! But more seriously, the Lord
had told them not to touch the devoted things, the gold and
precious things which were used in service in the temple at
Jericho. Achan, son of Carmi, took some of those things
for himself and hid them in his tent and because of this the
Lord withdrew His favour from the Israelites. They made
their own plan to conquer Ai, knowing that they were
strong and believing that God was in their plan. Of course
the Israelites lost at Ai. They came before the Lord, and
God told Joshua that Israel had sinned. Everyone was held
to account. Eventually, Achan was found and put to death.
It may seem unfair that God stopped the whole of Israel in
their tracks over one man’s sin, but he expects us to discern
and safeguard and oversee one another, encouraging each
other to good works. “Do you not know that you are the
temple of the Holy Spirit?” Paul asks. In our midst are the
precious, devoted things. They belong to the Lord. The
gift ministries given into the hands of ordinary men and
women are for each one severally to serve the Lord. They
are not to be buried in the tent of the Pastor, or to be the
property of the most vocal leader or charismatic member.
In John’s gospel, chapter 4, Jesus encounters the woman
from Samaria at the well at Sychar. The disciples had gone
to get some food and when they returned, they offered
Jesus something to eat, but He said to them in verse 32, “I
have food to eat, which you know nothing about.” Jesus
continues at verse 34, “My food is to do the will of him
who sent me and to finish the task.” Food, in the kingdom
of God, is not listening to a good sermon as we have long
believed, but to do the will of Him who sends us and to
finish the task. In 1 Corinthians 11, Paul speaks to the
Corinthian Church about the Lord’s Supper where he says
that their meetings do more harm than good and they
selfishly reject one another and eat without consideration
for others. Ananias and Sapphira died because of this in
Acts chapter 5. Here in 1 Corinthians 11, Paul is speaking
of physical food, but he is also speaking of profaning the
body of Christ. “We all partake of the one loaf,” he said in
chapter 10 verse 17. He is speaking of the food which is
Jesus; food which Jesus says is to do the will, in love, of
Him who sends us, and to finish the task. If I hold a
monopoly on gifts of the Spirit, if I seek to build “My
ministry” instead of the body of Christ, then I withhold
from the people their share of the loaf, their food, the
devoted things. Paul says, “Some people have become sick
and some have fallen asleep” – they died.
In our fellowship was a man who is now retired, but
continuing to serve the Lord in his retirement; a man of
Holy Ghost faith, who served as a deacon. I had had a sore
wrist for some time and so I asked if someone might come
and pray for me. After some time, this man and his wife
came forward and as he took hold of my hand, he said
quietly, “I don’t think I should be doing this.” I understood
his love and concern for me but I was a bit perplexed about
that comment. After he had prayed, he returned to his seat
and my wrist was no better. We arrived at the time for the
breaking of bread, which would normally be towards the
end of the meeting, but on this occasion we had it earlier in
the meeting. Two giggling girls about thirteen or fourteen
years old came to the front and stood in front of me. I
looked at them, wondering if they wanted prayer for
something. They nudged each other, saying, “You tell
him,” “No you tell him.” One did speak eventually in a
very shy and broken manner: “We think God has said that
we should pray for your wrist.” They then stood for a
moment, looking as if they were about to be struck by
lightning. I did not know whether to laugh or weep, but I
invited them to pray. Upon their simple prayer, the pain
went immediately and has never since returned. Praise the
Lord for His healing and His word of truth. He gives gifts,
severally as He wills, and not to the best and oldest
minister. When I spoke later to the faithful deacon, he was
beside himself with joy for those young people. He
continues to be a skilled builder, laying foundations,
planting seeds and encouraging others to come into the
field and take up the work. I have noticed that for such a
skilled man of faith, he sometimes seems apparently unable
to do anything right by himself, and always needs someone
with no skill to do it better. Yet as he teaches and preaches
the Truth about Jesus, many people around him seem to be
being saved and growing in grace. Remarkable, isn’t it?
Selfish ambition fails to reveal effective power in church
building, but also endangers the whole Church and can halt
the movement of a fellowship, a town or even a nation, and
it has been the cause of death. A bricklayer with a trowel
uses it to apply the mortar or to cut bricks. Without love,
cutting the bricks is the only alternative.
If there is a gift of healing then that manifestation is for the
common good, (1 Corinthians 12 verse 7). That doesn’t
just mean that everyone benefits from healing, but from the
entire manifestation of the Holy Spirit. We are all
partakers. This is because the building work of the Holy
Spirit is changing our character to make us more like Jesus,
to attain to the perfection found in Him. Therefore, if I am
younger, or less honourable in the body, I need more Holy
Spirit work within me. I need more of His unchanging
Love changing me, and more opportunity for this grace to
work in my life towards others. Who ought first to partake
of the loaf? The strong? The greedy? The loud? Paul
says that we should not eat before those who have had
nothing at home. Who should be more honoured? The
faithful deacon, who I mentioned earlier, is secure in his
relationship with the Lord, sufficient to be able to release to
others the encouragement of being the one who lays hands
on the sick, and allow the Lord to do the healing. In
Exodus chapter 15 verse 26, we learn that God has said, “I
am the Lord, who heals you.” The gift of the Son of God,
the living Word, is ministered to us from a Father’s heart
which burns with passion for the Church to be formed.
This is the very basis of the Father’s giving, eternal love,
outside of which there is no real gift, only stolen devoted
things, the fading and sullied glory of a man