January 19 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

I Corinthians 13:

¹Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
²And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.
³And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
⁴Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
⁵Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
⁶Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
⁷Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
⁸Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
⁹For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
¹⁰But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
¹¹When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
¹²For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
¹³And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

Devotional

What gifts of the Holy Spirit are Christians to seek today? Are the special gifts that the apostles and the early church enjoyed to be sought by us?

When the work of the apostles was done and they had confirmed the salvation that our Lord began to attest in His earliest ministry; and when the New Testament church had been planted, when the apostolic foundation had been provided, and when the New Testament had been written, there was no further need of the apostolic office and of the signs and gifts that had so notably accompanied it.

For the new period there remained the Holy Scriptures, the canon being complete. The Bible, for succeeding centuries, in God's plan was to be the only infallible rule of faith and life. Further special gifts for revelation or confirmation of revelation were no longer necessary. "The whole counsel of God," as the Westminster Confession of Faith says, "concerning all things necessary for his own glory, man's salvation, faith, and life, is either expressly set down in scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from scripture: unto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelations of the Spirit, or traditions of men" (I: vi).

We are, however, to cultivate the abiding gifts of the Spirit. Paul commended these abiding gifts to the Corinthians. "Whether there be prophecies," Paul wrote, "they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease" (I Corinthians 13:8), "but . . . now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity [love]" (I Corinthians 13:13).

Welcome to "Think on These Things," a twelve-week daily devotional prepared by the late Dr. John H. Skilton, an ordained minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and for many years Chairman of the New Testament Department at Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia.

We are indebted to P & R Publishing and Skilton House Ministries for permission to use this copyrighted material on the OPC Web site. (P & R held the copyright from 1975 to 2005, at which time they reassigned the copyright to Skilton House.)