The Best Gifts - 1 Corinthians 12:28-31

Even though all members are a part of the “body of Christ” and we all serve an important function in our own way, Paul points out that there are those who are called to serve in different leadership capacities. He says, “God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healing, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.” I don’t really understand why Paul put this statement here, in the middle of talking about spiritual gifts, but the IM makes a really interesting point, saying, “in Paul’s list of Church officers, he mentioned teachers immediately after apostles and prophets, which underscores the importance of effective teachers in the Church.” The IM continues, quoting Elder Jeffrey R. Holland as teaching, “In this Church it is virtually impossible to find anyone who is not a guide of one kind or another to his or her fellow members of the flock…We must revitalize and reenthrone superior teaching in the Church- at home, from the pulpit, in our administrative meetings, and surely in the classroom. Inspired teaching must never become a lost art in the Church, and we must make certain our quest for it does not become a lost tradition.”

Interestingly, there is an aspect of Paul’s statement that I hadn’t noticed before, which is that “apostles” come first, before “prophets.” This might be confusing for us in the church because we call the President of the Church “the prophet” and the rest are called “apostles” which might imply an order of precedent of prophet-> apostles-> teachers. A statement about this verse from gospeldoctrine.com surprised me, saying, “just as the Book of Mormon teaches that ‘a seer is greater than a prophet,’ Paul is teaching that an apostle is greater than a prophet. The Prophet and President of the Church holds that calling not by virtue of being the only prophet in the church but rather by being the senior apostle, for every apostle is ordained to be a prophet, seer, and revelator.” 

When it is explained like that, it makes more sense, especially when considering that the only way to become a prophet is to be ordained as an apostle first. This helps us understand the lesson we learned about “prophets” last week, which is that everyone can be a prophet which is a testimony of Jesus Christ, and I think personal revelation for your own sphere of stewardship. The article continues, “Indeed the true church should be full of prophets, even as Moses lamented, ‘would God that all the Lord’s people were prophets.’ If the members as a group would obtain the spirit of prophecy which is the testimony of Jesus, then the Church would be full of prophets, but they would still be subject to the apostles.” This really makes the concept of prophets less intimidating and more empowering that we could have this connection to God in our own personal lives.

Paul goes on to ask an interesting set of questions, and I’m not exactly sure what his point is with these, but he asks, “are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers?” etc, going through the gifts and asking if everyone has them. Maybe he is trying to emphasize the point that everyone has different gifts and that no one has all the spiritual gifts. After pointing out that no one has all of the spiritual gifts, Paul encourages, “but covet earnestly the best gifts.” I’m certain that he didn’t mean for us to be jealous of people who seem to have different gifts that you think about cool, because that is totally contrary to the way that we actually acquire spiritual gifts, but the word “covet” here more implies a deep desire for and the word “earnestly” implies a willingness to work hard to obtain. 

There is kind of a cliffhanger of an ending here at the end of verse 31, but it’s important to remember that when Paul wrote this letter to the Corinthians, he didn’t write it in chapters and verses, so while it might seem like we’re being left in suspense that wasn’t the way that it was written or read to be. After encouraging us to “covet earnest the best gifts,” he ends with “and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way.” It’s a pretty ambiguous statement and some of the implications might be that there is one way to live that is superior to all the spiritual gifts, or it could mean that there is a “more excellent way” to gain spiritual gifts. Those are all that I can think of, so I guess we will find out tomorrow what exactly this more excellent way is.