Phillip Ross

All God's Children

1 Corinthians 15:21-22 provides a clear statement of the representative nature of biblical governance, "by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection" (1 Corinthians 15:21). Death and resurrection are dispensed to the whole of humanity thro... Read >

Not Women

The first thing to notice about Paul's admonition against women taking leadership in worship is that it limits or clarifies what Paul just said about all Christians prophesying (clarifying and explaining Scripture). Here he says that women should keep sil... Read >

Edification of Others

Paul said that "one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself" (1 Corinthians 14:4), and now repeats his insistence that it is preferable to build up the church rather than one's self. He does not say to do both of these things, but contrasts them as if th... Read >

Holding Daddy's Hand

We cannot see clearly as we try to peer into the future. "For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known" (1 Corinthians 13:12). It's not just that we see dimly, but th... Read >

Love is Not...

Love is not irritable or resentful. Love is not easily annoyed, nor is it bitter or indignant. We could add that love is not cynical either, in that cynicism is closely related to irritability and resentment. This means that these characteristics are expr... Read >

Love Endures

In 1 Corinthians 13 the very first gift that Paul sets love over and against is tongues. In Paul's day as in ours tongues was a special concern. Two kinds of tongues are mentioned here: tongues of men and tongues of angels. This is the only time that the ... Read >

Gift of Love

God's grand plan unfolds through the exercise of the ordinary means of grace -- Word and Sacrament -- in the midst of His people who make use of their God-ordained gifts, and are intended to bring blessing to us and glory to God through ordinary living. I... Read >

Various Kinds Of Tongues

"Various kinds of tongues" is a translation of two Greek words: genos glossa. The first word literally means kin, as in kindred or family. And the second means tongue, by implication a language, and specifically the language of one's kin (family). The Gre... Read >

Healing, Helping, Administrations

The gift of healing included everything that would contribute toward increased human health and well-being as a result of the preaching and teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the application of the Trinitarian perspective that produced modern scie... Read >

Prophets, Teachers, Miracles, Science, Technology

Second in Paul's list of gifts were prophets (1 Corinthians 12:27). We know those who have this gift as preachers. The prophet's job was to expound Scripture, to multiply the gift of the apostles, the gift of Scripture (the New Testament, but not the New ... Read >

Apostleship and Followership

1 Corinthians 12:25 sums up the central concern of the chapter: "that there may be no division in the body." The general theme of the chapter is the unity of the body of Christ, the church. Paul had been writing to the Corinthian church because some of th... Read >

Unity, Denominations, Sting Theory

The problem of finding the oneness in diversity was a primary concern of Plato. Basically stated, the problem of the one and the many begins from the assumption that there is a unifying factor that operates in the background of things, that unity and onen... Read >

Unity in Diversity

The body of Christ is one. The body of Christ is many. Which is it? One or many? The answer is trinitarian. When we look at the construction of 1 Corinthians 12 we see the following theme: the spiritual unity of the body of Christ though the diversity ... Read >

Tongues, Part 2

If Paul's use of tongues does not mean glossolalia in the contemporary or Delphic sense, what does it mean? The Greek word simply means tongue, the instrument of speech. And by implication and common use at the time it was written, it referred to a foreig... Read >

Tongues, Part 1

The gift of tongues is difficult to understand, not because it is shrouded in mystery, but because there is so much historical confusion about it. The first difficulty is to understand what it is, to define it correctly -- biblically. We will use the inte... Read >