Letters from the sub-editor V
And another thing. Chapter 12 of 1 Corinthians doesn't deserve to be burdened with the popular heading “Spiritual Gifts”, any more than the word “gifts” should appear in verse one of this same chapter. The word is not there in the original Greek, no matter how hard we look. So why import it in verse one, or in a heading?
If anything, Paul is trying to move the Corinthians away from their obsession with spiritual giftedness. His point is to draw the focus back to the Lord Jesus Christ, who by his Holy Spirit and according to the will of the Heavenly Father, enables us to use all we have to build up other Christians. The focus is not at all on the gifted, charismatic individual; it is not even on persuading the poor person suffering low self-esteem that they too have something to offer.
Rather, we are to start looking to the body of Christ, the church, and see what we can do to help them know God better and build each other up in love.
So what's with the heading “Spiritual Gifts”? Another subeditor's brainwave that should have bitten the dust along with those lawn sprinklers with a cut out of the blessing Pope attached to where the water comes out.