What does it mean that we should eagerly desire the greater gifts (1 Corinthians 12:31)?

What then is to be our attitude in regard to the various gifts? We are to desire earnestly the better, or greater, gifts; that is, such as prophesying, or teaching, as is evident from the opening verses of 1 Cor. 14. These are better because they are for wider and more general profit, and the gifts are given to each for the profit of all. And there is a way of more surpassing excellence by which this end may be reached. This way is the way of "charity" or divine love, as unfolded in chapter 13. The Apostle turns aside for a moment from the main line of his theme to stress the surpassing excellence of that love which is the very nature of God himself.

The questions of verses 29 and 30 of course are intended to imply negative answers. No more did all speak with tongues or interpret than were all apostles or teachers. Yet they are encouraged to desire earnestly the best gifts, This is not that each individual is to desire this in order to rival others, but rather the assembly was to desire earnestly that the best gifts should be in godly exercise in the assembly. As to the regulating principle in desiring gifts, however, chapter 14:12 is plain: "Seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the church." Gift is given for the good of others, not for my own satisfaction. And the apostle adds, "Yet show I unto you a more excellent way." More excellent than gift itself is the genuine spirit of love in which it should be consistently exercised. Chapter 13 considers this.

The apostle says, "Covet earnestly the best (or the greater) gifts." Do not be on the look-out for tongues. I think this exhortation may be taken in two ways. Sometimes it is regarded as meaning that a person is encouraged to have a holy ambition to possess some great gift in the church; and no doubt, this view is right, though very few of such ambitions will be realized. But does not the apostle mean more than this? Does he not mean that all the saints should desire that God would work in their midst by the greater gifts, that is, by the gifts for edification?

In "covet earnestly the best gifts," the emphasis is on "best," gifts that edify. The desire should be in the individual and in the assembly. Suppose I felt the assembly wanted teaching, I might earnestly desire to be able to unfold Scripture to them. Gifts belong to the whole body of course, though they may be used locally. Take the highest gift, and apostle, he was not an apostle merely in a particular place. An evangelist is the servant of Christ, not of the assembly; but wherever he may be, he is of the church himself. If there is no assembly gathered where he is, then he is alone; but if there is an assembly, he is of it. And the first thing in him is to gather to Christ. Say that I go to Galatia, and the Lord converts fifty, they are gathered to Christ, not to the assembly I had come from. An evangelist would be for the edifying of the body of Christ, inasmuch as he brings the souls in and 'adds them. How could you build up a church without people, without bricks (or scripturally I should say, "stones")? I should in this connection be jealous of two things exceedingly: of a person separating himself in spirit from the saints; or of the assembly thinking his work was their affair. I think it is of great importance that the workman should be clearly Christ's servant; but if he works in any spirit of separation from the saints, I could not go with it. An evangelist may not necessarily gather to anything that was there but to Christ, with a full knowledge of redemption; and having Christ and a full knowledge of redemption, they could not go on with anything else.

The chapter closes with an exhortation to "covet earnestly the best gifts;" that is, those that were for edification, though they had less of display than of power and blessing for the assembly.

In 1 Cor. 12:31; 1 Cor. 14:39, the word is ζηλόω , and is quite different from the coveting that is condemned in scripture; it is translated in Rev. 3:19 'be zealous,' and the above passages in Corinthians can be so translated, or 'desire earnestly' the best gifts, and 'desire earnestly' to prophesy.

Verse 31. "But covet earnestly the greater gifts,"9 etc. If presumptuous folly is to be restrained, godly emulation is also to be encouraged. What God has given is to be acknowledged. What He may give is not indeed to be rashly anticipated, but is to be sedulously sought and waited for. To prove his love to Christ, by serving Him, should be the aim of each believer. But to wait upon His people is to serve Himself.1 Such gifts are to be chiefly sought as will help the willing in their ministry of love. The greater gifts should be desired, that the more abundant fruit may follow. Now, the one great aim and labour of the Spirit is the edifying of the body of Christ. Gifts, then, which most distinctly make for that end, should be coveted by those who are ambitious after a godly sort. If the desire of the heart be pure, it will not fail to find the blessing that it seeks. If the gifts enquired for tend only to a vain display, they will be withheld in mercy, or bestowed in judgment. It is a deadly state of soul, to be asking nothing of the Lord.2 It is an unhealthy state, to be asking only what concerns ourselves. If our hearts are right, we shall be asking largely, not for our own sake but for His.

But although among gifts there are degrees of excellence, there is a something spiritual which excels them all. Like God Himself, it is in measure common to all who are of God.3 But though vitally essential to the saints, it may be languishing and half extinct, while more demonstrative spiritual energies are in full activity. The apostle has taught us the nature, and something of the relative value, of spiritual manifestation. He will show us next the way in which alone any special gift of God can be exercised with blessing and true honour to its possessor.

The apostle then points out these gifts, not to give a formal and complete list of them, but to mark the order and importance of those he mentions. Tongues, of which the Corinthians were so proud, are the last gifts named in the list. Some gifts then, were more excellent than others; they were to be estimated according to the measure in which they served for the edification of the assembly. Those which served this end were to be desired.

At the same time the saints are encouraged to desire earnestly the greater gifts, but these were for edification, not for show. And yet he points out to them a way surpassingly excellent; not surely a mere way, however eminently good, to obtain these gifts, as some suppose, but a way for souls to feel and think, to walk and worship, beyond all gifts. It is the way of love, which he opens out in the next chapter.

"Follow after love," etc. The preceding chapter has amply redeemed the promise given at the close of chap. 12. And now, having shown to us alluringly the path of excellence, he exhorts us to pursue it. For such is the true course of godly ambition which, cheered and directed by the good word of grace, is taught to aim boldly at the highest mark.1 But in the service of this higher aim there are lesser but yet precious things to be desired. The gifts of the Spirit are not disparaged, but vindicated, when placed in this just relation to their end. They are not therefore to be despised, but rather coveted. For what God gives will always be desired by those who know Him in His ways. And if love be first followed, gifts will be sought lovingly as well as eagerly. Their presence in the Church will then be not for ostentation, but to serve in their several uses the requirements of love. The less will be governed by the greater, and true edification be the result. But while all distinctive tokens of divine energy are to be prized, especial value should be set on prophecy, for reasons stated in what follows.