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UBUNTU: JESUS’S INTENTION?
1 Corinthians 12:1-11

“Therefore I want you to know that no-one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, ‘Jesus be cursed,’ and no-one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit.

 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.” 1 Corinthians‬ ‭12:3, 7‬ ‭NIV



The same Spirit who instills the faith in Jesus and enables us to confess with our hearts and our lips, also comes with Spiritual Gifts!

These gifts enrich our life! Not just for personal benefit and enjoyment but for common good! So we can use our gifts to bless and enrich each other. . The Spirit of God will never limit us to think just “about me and myself”. Instead, the Spirit will enlarge our hearts and capacity to include and care for others. The more we use the richer the gifts will become.

But if we only utilise the gifts for our own benefit, we are restricting God’s grace and belittling His power. God’s concern is for us living together as His people, striving and growing together into the likeness of Christ! (1 Thes 5:11)

This is the true spirit of the community of believers, of Jesus’ disciples. Yet somehow we tend to read our Bible through the individualistic lenses.

Perhaps we can learn from the African—the ubuntu philosophy: It was told that one day a missionary tied a bucket of cookies in a tree. He then asked a group of children to run for the cookies. The first to arrive could have the prize. But to his surprise, when he saw first boy who reached the cookies. Instead of grabing the cookies, he just sit under the tree and waiting for his other friends to arrive so he could share the cookies with them. The ubuntu spirit will not just think of personal enjoyment!

Ubuntu ngumtu ngabanye abantu” (“A person is a person through other people”). “One finger cannot pick up a grain.” Ubuntu is, at the same time, a deeply personal philosophy that calls on us to mirror our humanity for each other. To the observer, ubuntu can be seen and felt in the spirit of willing participation, unquestioning cooperation, warmth, openness, and personal dignity demonstrated by the indigenous black population. From the cradle, every black child inculcates these qualities so that by the time adulthood is reached, the ubuntu philosophy has become a way of being.

I believe we also need to inculcate this spirit of ubuntu which is similar if not the closest to Jesus’s heart! May God help us! ~plt270218

#pltwrites #1Corinthians #ubuntu #spiritualgifts #livingtogether #commongood #upholdeachother #buildeachotherup #gmcjakarta

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