Atlantic Gospel Hour

Watch a group of boys on the playground organizing a football game and you will notice that often times, they all want to be the quarterback.  The quarterback is seen as the star of the team; the most essential player on the team without whom the team would fall apart.
A similar situation was occurring in the church in Corinth.  Certain members of that church focused upon one or two gifts which were esteemed as more spiritual.  To possess these spiritual gifts meant you had a closer, more intimate walk with God.  Not unlike those boys on the playground.
But as Paul addressed this church, he admonished them for this thinking.  Instead noting that by the Holy Spirit and the working of the Lord Jesus and the power of God, all believers are gifted are equally necessary members of the body of Christ.
May this lesson in 1 Corinthians 12 encourage and bless you.  Thank you for listening.

The Corinthian church was a church marked by envy and pride.  But in the "dirt" of this church, Paul plants the flower of Love; a flower containing 15 petals, each describing an aspect, or description, of love.
In today's lesson, Paul describes love in the negative, in other words, describing love by what love is not.  It is as if Paul is saying to the Corinthian church, "You are envious of one another, but that is not love.  You are arrogant, boastful and selfish, but that is not love."
In today's lesson, we contrast love with envy, pride and boasting; that which should not mark the church.