Use your gift for others

Hello everyone. I hope y’all had a great weekend. Today we will be talking about 1 Corinthians 14. We all know someone that has a specific gift that God gave them. It could be singing, speaking in tongues( I personally don’t believe this is still in practice anymore from the spirit), could be preaching, administration or finances. Some use their gift for themselves and others will use it for other people.

Obviously God wants us to use it for the betterment of others.

“Pursue love and desire spiritual gifts, and above all that you may prophesy. For the person who speaks in another language is not speaking to men but to God, since no one understands him; however, he speaks mysteries in the Spirit. But the person who prophesies speaks to people for edification, encouragement, and consolation.”

1 Corinthians 14:1-3

Hcsb Bible.

Paul here talks about that he would rather us have the gift of prophecy or preaching over other languages. Not because one gift is better than another but rather it will help those around us better than a gift that doesn’t directly help others.

He wants us to edify each other. The definition of edification is to improve someone else either by knowledge or morally. For this reason, he would rather you have the gift of prophecy. You can have the gift of encouragement or administration or any other gift but if it’s not being used to build up others in the body of Christ, you’re wasting it.

We don’t need to use our gifts just for ourselves for that would be selfish. You can still benefit from your gift for yourself but if you only do it for yourself then it will stop there. God wants your gift to go farther than you and to benefit your family, friends, and church.

Another reason for why we should use our gifts for others is because it will give us joy and help us through rough times.

For example, if you are a preacher or a singer, eventually you can get to a point in your life that you might be benefiting greatly from it but you might feel empty inside since it’s all about you. Or you don’t see any instant improvements and if it’s about you, you can easily stop using your gift since it’s not benefiting you at the moment.

If you use your gift to edify and help those around you, you will be obeying God and that will give you purpose for your gift outside of yourself. If you know that God gave you your gift for something bigger than yourself then you will have more motivation to keep going when life gets rough.

Now when life gets rough, it will still suck but you will feel like you have more purpose and you will more likely push through.

The same thing happens when people have children. I personally don’t have kids yet but I’ve been told that when they had children, they had more drive and new purpose for their life. When life sucked for the parent, they continued at their job or gift since they knew someone else depended on them. It wasn’t about them anymore.

Now this is not to say that Paul said to have the gift of prophecy in order for you to have more purpose in your life or that it will benefit your life more. But rather, he says that you need to have your gift that edifies and improves those around you more than one that puts all the attention on you by yourself.

So at the end of the day, use your gift to edify and build up others in Christ. Don’t focus on yourself but rather use your gift for others.

If you have any questions, disagreements or comment, just message me or comment below. I will respond when I can. I hope you have a great day.