It is a gracious beginning
for a letter dealing with divisions in the body of Christ prompted by people
puffed up with spiritual pride. But then the history of the church has been
rife with divisions of one sort or another so I suppose it really should not
surprise us when they occur. Maybe we should be surprised when the church
actually works as it was intended to and those enriched with gifts use them for
the benefit of the body and not to draw attention to how gifted they are. But the
church is populated with sinners and that presents some problems when it comes
to being blameless on the day of the Lord. Perhaps being blameless has less to
do with being perfect and more to do with love that expresses itself in the
less demonstrative spiritual gifts, like patience and forbearance and long
suffering; not a product of pride or rigid piety but true fellowship with Jesus
who, as Paul will tell the Philippians, emptied himself to take on the form of
a servant. Fellowship with Jesus - that is the greatest gift the body possesses
because you can't have fellowship with Jesus and not have fellowship with other
believers.
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