There more to spiritual gifts

I love, love, love 1 Corinthians 12–13. It is quite possibly my favorite passage in the New Testament aside from the Savior's experiences and Moroni 10:8–18 goes right along with it though it has a few differences.

I marvel that Heavenly Father made us so different. It seems that making us all the same would be so much easier. But then that sound like Satan's plan I guess. He made us different and gives us different gifts because there is opposition in all things, or rather, many choices for us to choose from. If we didn't have different gifts available, we wouldn't have choices and we wouldn't be able to use that wonderful gift of agency.

So, with all of these gifts available to us, some of us knowing what some of our gifts are and some of us unaware, we are to work together like a body coordinates it's actions. If some of us know what our gifts are, it is our duty to help others discover their gifts so that we may work together and work efficiently. If there is someone who does not use their gift well, instead of despising them, we are to figure out how to utilize them, or be patient until they figure out the purpose of their gift. We really can't do it alone either. We can't just say our gift is the only one necessary to function the whole body, we cannot forget the other parts or we don't properly function. There are really so many layers to chapter, so many eternal truths that are taught by comparing us to the members of a body. And the body can be the members of the church, members of society, member of a nation, because we are all partakers of the same spirit, or the same light of Christ. This parable includes how we should treat ourselves, how we should treat others and how we should work, succeed and fail together.


Moroni talks about similar gifts, but here's what I think is amazing. With only a few pages left on the plates, in the very last chapter of The Book of Mormon, it is revealed to him to write about these gifts and seeking the gifts. This passage is written among a strong testimony of Christ. It occurred to me that the giving of, the seeking of and the using of our gifts are a testimony of Christ. These gifts are to give us hope that we can become better people, that we can hope for a better world, that there is evidence that with all that we are capable of doing, there are some gifts and talents that can only be given by heavenly means, not attained by our mere mortal means. I'm beginning to understand that spiritual gifts have a far greater meaning and use than just to better ourselves and others, not that this is miniscule, but there's just more to them.

I think I will blog about 1 Cor 13 tomorrow because it's about charity and that deserves a whole post on it's own.