If coveting is wrong, why does Paul encourage coveting the best gifts?
PROBLEM: One of the Ten Commandments says, “You shall not covet” (Exodus 20:17). Yet Paul encourages the Christian church at Corinth to “covet earnestly the best gifts” (1 Corinthians 12:31, KJV).
SOLUTION: “Covet” is used here in the good sense of “earnestly desire” (NKJV), rather than in the bad sense of an unlawful craving of what does not belong to us.
Verse 1 Corinthians 12:31. _BUT COVET EARNESTLY_] To _covet_ signifies to _desire_ _earnestly_. This disposition towards _heavenly_ things is _highly_ _laudable_; towards _earthly_ things, is _deeply...
BUT COVET EARNESTLY - Greek “Be zealous for” Ζηλοῦτε Zēloute. This word, however, may be either in the indicative mood (ye do covet earnestly), or in the imperative, as in our translation. Doddridge...
2. THE BODY AND THE MEMBERS OF THE BODY CHAPTER 12 _ 1. Concerning spiritual manifestations and diversities of gifts. (1 Corinthians 12:1 .)_ 2. The Body and its members. (1 Corinthians 12:12 .) In...
Paul now elaborates an illustration from the body and its members. Here we have organic unity with diversity of function and interdependence of the whole and its parts, interdependence also of the par...
Just as the body is one, although it has many members, and just as all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by the one Spirit we have all been baptized i...
THE CONFESSION OF THE SPIRIT (1 Corinthians 12:1-3)...
COVET EARNESTLY. Greek. _zeloo._ See Acts 7:9. BEST. The texts read "greater". MORE EXCELLENT. Literally according to (Greek. _kata_. App-104.) excellence. See Romans 7:13....
Comparison of the Unity of the Body and the Unity of the Christian Church 12. _For as the body is one, and hath many members_ This simile is a very common one. It is used on several occasions by the A...
_But covet earnestly_ So Tyndale. _Sue_, Wiclif. _Sectamini_, Calvin. Perhaps, _desire eagerly_. Literally, BE ENVIOUS, or JEALOUS OF. _Aemulamini_, Vulg. Cf. Acts 7:9; Acts 17:5, and ch. 1 Corinthian...
COMPARISON OF THE UNITY OF THE BODY AND THE UNITY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH...
ΜΕΊΖΟΝΑ אABC. Rec. κρείττονα with DEFG, Vetus Lat. Vulg. 31. ΖΝΛΟΥ͂ΤΕ ΔΈ. BUT BE EMULOUS FOR, _aemulamini_, Vulg. ζηλόω (see note on ch. 1 Corinthians 3:3) signifies originally _to be eager, fervent_....
_MEMBERS THAT LOVE ONE ANOTHER 1 CORINTHIANS 12:27-31:_ In the close of this chapter we will see the application Paul made concerning the spiritual gifts given in the one body. The church is composed...
ΖΗΛΟΎΤΕ _praes. imper. act. от_ ΖΗΛΌΩ (G2206) жаждать, завидовать, страстно желать. Верующие могут мечтать о даре; Дух же раздает дары, как Он того хочет (Bengel), ΜΕΊΖΟΝΑ _сотр. от_ ΜΈΓΑΣ (G3187) об...
DISCOURSE: 1984 GIFTS AND GRACES COMPARED 1 Corinthians 12:31. _Covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way_. SUCH is the weakness of human nature, that we can scarce...
BUT COVET EARNESTLY THE BEST GIFTS.— _But ye contend earnestly about the best gifts._ "Ye contend one with another whose particular gift is best, and most preferable; but I will shew you a more excell...
APPLEBURY'S COMMENTS _Maintaining the Unity of the Church_ (12-31) _Text_ 1 Corinthians 12:12-31. For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of the body, being many, are one...
BUTLER'S COMMENTS SECTION 3 Singleness in Diversity (1 Corinthians 12:27-31) 27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. 28And God has appointed in the church first apostles, s...
But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way. COVET EARNESTLY, [ zeeloute (G2206)] - 'emulously desire;' not with discontented 'coveting.' The Spirit 'divides to...
13 The body of Jesus, or of the Lord, denotes His physical frame. The body of Christ, however, is quite a distinct thought. Christ, or the Anointed, is a title rather than a name. It suggests official...
_(E) SPIRITUAL GIFTS_ In the early Church various powers, faculties, and graces were bestowed on individual Christians by the Holy Spirit. Some of these were distinctly miraculous, such as prophecy, t...
COVET (RV 'desire') EARNESTLY THE BEST (RV 'greater') GIFTS] The lowest have their place, but it is right to aim at possessing the higher. AND YET SHEW I UNTO YOU A MORE EXCELLENT WAY] RV 'a still mor...
SERVANTS OF CHRIST 1 CORINTHIANS _HILDA BRIGHT_ CHAPTER 12 *SPIRITUAL GIFTS 12:1-31 1. JESUS IS *LORD 12:1-3 V1 Now about the *Holy Spirit’s gifts, *brothers and *sisters, I do not want to leav...
BUT COVET OARNESTLY, — Better, _But earnestly seek the better gifts._ All this argument is not meant to check ardour and to damp enthusiasm. The Spirit divideth to every man as He wills, but He wills...
CHAPTER 18 CONCERNING SPIRITUAL GIFTS This Epistle is well fitted to disabuse our minds of the idea that the primitive Church was in all respects superior to the Church of our own day. We turn page a...
1 Corinthians 12:21-31 _a_. § 41. THE MUTUAL DEPENDENCE OF THE BODY'S MEMBERS. Multiformity, it has been shown, is of the essence of organic life. But the variously endowed members, being needful to t...
_a_ corrects the inference which an indolent nature or weak judgment might draw from 1 Corinthians 12:29 f., supposing that God's sovereign ordination supersedes man's effort. Our striving has a part...
EACH CONTRIBUTING HIS PART 1 Corinthians 12:20 The hand and the foot obviously stand in need of each other; but the same interdependence marks the feebler and humbler parts of our frame. Indeed, it w...
Now the apostle turned from the corrective section of his letter to the constructive as he proceeded to deal with the spiritualities which negative the carnalities. These are those of the unifying Spi...
Division Is Undesirable Clearly, the facts Paul presented proved God created the body in such a way that division is undesirable. Every member of the physical body feels for the other members. If one...
(14) But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way. (14) He teaches those who are ambitious and envious, a certain holy ambition and envy. That is, if they give the...
_Be zealous for the better gifts: which are to be more or less esteemed, as they are accompanied with charity, as he is going to shew in the next chapter. (Witham)_...
“But covet earnestly the best gifts, and moreover I will show you a supremely excellent way.” Theodoret has taken the first proposition interrogatively. In that case it would contain a rebuke, either...
REFLECTIONS BLESSED God the Spirit! suffer my poor soul never to be ignorant of spiritual gifts! I know, indeed, 0 Lord, through thy divine quickenings, and gracious teachings, that like those Corinth...
(27) Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular. (28) And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of heal...
As usual, the introductory words (1 Corinthians 1:1-3) of the epistle give us no little intimation of that which is to follow. The apostle speaks of himself as such "called [to be] an apostle of Jesus...
31._Seek after the more excellent gifts. _It might also be rendered — _Value highly_; and it would not suit in with the passage, though it makes little difference as to the meaning; for Paul exhorts t...
The other branch of the truth, in reference to the assembly of God in general and to the assemblies, is the presence and the gifts of the Holy Ghost. These, as well as the Lord's supper, are in connec...
BUT COVET EARNESTLY THE BEST GIFTS,.... Which may be rendered either indicatively as an assertion, "ye do covet earnestly the best gifts": of prophesying and teaching, of doing miracles, healing disea...
Have all the gifts of healing? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret? 31 But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way. Ver. 31. _Covet earnestly, &c._] Ζηλο...
_And God hath set in the church first apostles_ Who planted the gospel in the heathen nations, being honoured with an office of the highest distinction, and furnished with endowments peculiar to thems...
COVET; earnestly desire. They had coveted what was most esteemed by men; but Paul would have them desire what was most esteemed by God, and without which, whatever else they might have, they would be...
BUT COVET EARNESTLY THE BEST GIFTS; AND YET SHOW I UNTO YOU A MORE EXCELLENT WAY. Beginning with v. 12, Paul had given a detailed account of the interrelation of the members and organs in the human me...
The spiritual meaning of the comparison:...
The Lord's supper has been first considered, being the most important of all gatherings, because it is for the united expression of the affections of the saints toward Him. Now ministry toward the sai...
BUT DESIRE EARNESTLY THE GREATER GIFTS. AND MOREOVER. MOST EXCELLENT WAY SHOW. UNTO YOU. 'desire earnestly' -'aim hard' (Ber); 'You should set your hearts on the best spiritual gifts.' (Phi) 'THE G...
27-31 Contempt, hatred, envy, and strife, are very unnatural in Christians. It is like the members of the same body being without concern for one another, or quarrelling with each other. The proud, c...
BUT COVET EARNESTLY THE BEST GIFTS: the word may be translated indicatively: Ye do covet the best gifts; or as we translate it, imperatively: Covet ye; I would have you be covetous to excel in the bes...
But desire earnestly the greater gifts. [Though these powers were bestowed as gifts by the Spirit, yet they were not bestowed blindly. They were apt to be conferred upon those who strove to be worthy...
Tertullian Against Marcion Book V above all these gifts, He even taught the apostle that it was the chief commandment,[372] Origen Commentary on Matthew Book XIV was said by Paul in view of our har...
1 Corinthians 12:31 But G1161 desire G2206 (G5720) best G2909 gifts G5486 And G2532 yet G2089 show G1166
SPIRITUAL GIFTS FOR THE WELL-BEING OF CHRIST AND HIS BODY (12:1-14:33). Paul now begins his reply to their question about spiritual gifts ('concerning spiritual things') and immediately gives an initi...
'But desire earnestly (or 'you desire earnestly') the greater gifts. And moreover I show to you a most excellent way.' At first sight this seems to contradict what has been said before about the gifts...
1 Corinthians 12:31. BUT DESIRE EARNESTLY THE GREATER [1] GIFTS referring to those mentioned in chap. 14, which were such as tended to edify both the audience and the gifted themselves, in preference...
THE GREATER GIFTS (τα χαρισματα τα μειζονα). Paul unhesitatingly ranks some spiritual gifts above others. Ζηλοω here has good sense, not that of envy as in Acts 7:9; 1 Corinthians 13:4.AND A STILL...
MORE EXCELLENT Chapter 13 continues the pneumatika begun in Chapter 12. Gifts are good, but only if ministered in love. (1 Corinthians 13:1); (1 Corinthians 13:2). Benevolence is good, but not apar...
1 Corinthians 12:31 ; 1 CORINTHIANS 13:1 St. Paul has been treating of spiritual gifts as they then existed in the Church of tongues, of prophecy, and the like. They were things to be courted and atta...
1 Corinthians 12:12. _For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one b...
1 Corinthians 12:1. _Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led._ Although the mem...
CONTENTS: Spiritual gifts in the Body of Christ, for ministry and worship. CHARACTERS: God, Jesus, Holy Spirit, Paul. CONCLUSION: The Body of Christ in the world is for the service for, and manifesta...
1 Corinthians 12:1. _Now concerning spiritual gifts,_ and gifts promised to old men, to young men, and to handmaids, according to Joel 2:28, I would now speak, in the third part of this epistle, and a...
ON THE MORE IMPORTANT GIFTS. "Even though God has put all in place, we should eagerly desire the more important gifts. We should not be content to _speak in strange tongues,_ when we could _speak God'...
_Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant._ SPIRITUAL GIFTS The particular gifts to which St. Paul was referring were not exactly as a whole like anything that is to be...
_And God hath set some in the Church, first apostles._ HELP-WORK The words which I have taken as my text occupy, you will remember, a somewhat exceptional position. They occur in the midst of what se...
1 CORINTHIANS—NOTE ON 1 CORINTHIANS 12:1 Some Corinthian Christians seem to have been creating divisions over spiritual gifts. Paul’s use of the body analogy in 1 Corinthians 12
1 CORINTHIANS—NOTE ON 1 CORINTHIANS 12:31 EARNESTLY DESIRE implies that Christians can and should want additional spiritual gifts (see 1 Corinthians 14
CHAPTER 12 SYNOPSIS OF THE CHAPTER In this and the two following Chapter s S. Paul discusses Christian gifts and graces. In this chapter he points out I. That gifts are variously distributed by the...
_But covet earnestly the best gifts._ Seek from God, and exercise, if you have received them (cf. notes to ver. 8), the more useful gifts, such as apostleship, prophecy, wisdom, but not such as the gi...
_CRITICAL NOTES_ 1 Corinthians 12:1.—GIFTS is a translators’ supplement; right in fact, as 1 Corinthians 12:4 show; slightly too precise in word. Almost certainly _neuter_, and so very general, “_spir...
EXPOSITION 1 Corinthians 12:1.—1 Corinthians 14:1.—ON SPIRITUAL GIFTS, AND THE DANGER WHICH AROSE FROM THE
Now concerning the spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you be ignorant (1 Corinthians 12:1). An interesting statement of Paul, because I think that in the church one of the areas where the gre...
1 Corinthians 13:1; 1 Corinthians 14:1; 1 Corinthians 14:39; 1 Corinthians 8:1;...
The best [τ α κ ρ ε ι τ τ ο ν α]. The correct reading is ta meizona the greater. So Rev. Yet [ε τ ι]. Some construe with more excellent, rendering yet more excellent. So Rev. Others render moreover,...
CONCERNING SPIRITUAL GIFTS 1 Corinthians 12:1 INTRODUCTORY WORDS 1. A contrast between the spiritual and the carnal in Abram and Lot (Genesis 18:1 and Genesis 19:1). 2. A contrast between
Ye covet earnestly the best gifts — And they are worth your pursuit, though but few of you can attain them. But there is a far more excellent gift than all these; and one which all may, yea, must atta...
He concludes the chapter with this advice, that they covet, and desire the BEST; that is, the most useful and excellent gifts, the most beneficial and edifying gifts, such as are most advantageous to...