Spiritual Gifts
I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Ephesians 4. 1 - 16
Paul continues in his letter to the Ephesians today begging the people to lead lives worthy of their spiritual gifts. In Sunday's lectionary, we heard from Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians what those spiritual gifts were:
the utterance of wisdom
utterance of knowledge
faith
gift of healing
working of miracles
prophecy
discernment of spirits
various kinds of tongues
interpretation of tongues
In our Reading Between the Lines class on Friday, the discussion of these gifts bore great fruit including sharing what each other's spiritual gifts were as well as ways to define and discern those gifts. One of the most helpful comments was from a member of the group who suggested that we look at the fruit of the Spirit to determine what the gifts of the Spirit were.
Given these fruits of the Spirit (see below), if we watch from whence they come, we are better able to discern the various gifts of the Spirit. Try it!
love
joy
peace
patience
kindness
 generosity
faithfulness
 gentleness
self-control
And if you really want to see a person beam, identify her spiritual gifts and let him identify yours. In so doing you will be "maintaining the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."

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