16 “The Greatest Gift: Keeping the Commandments”

A. T. Jones

WE are commanded to “desire spiritual gifts” (1 Cor. 14:1), and to “earnestly desire the best gifts” (1 Cor. 12:31).

These spiritual gifts are the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which are imparted by the Spirit to those who have received the Holy Spirit.

The sole object of these gifts is the perfecting of the of the saints,—the bringing to perfection the believers in Jesus.

Christian perfection is manifested in “love, which is the bond of perfection” (Col. 3:14). This is the love [agape] of God; “for this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments” (1 John 5:3).

So entirely is it true that love is the sole object of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, that though I had the gift of tongues in such measure that I could “speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal” (1 Cor. 13:1). And this is the love of God, “for this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments.”

So entirely is it true that love is the sole object of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, that “though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing”  (v. 2). And this is the love of God; “for this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments.”

So entirely is it true that the sole object of the gifts of the Spirit is love, that though I had these gifts in such measure that I were to “bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing” (v. 3). And this is the love of God; “for this is the love of God, that keep his commandments.”

Thus is it entirely true, and the evidence is overwhelming, that the keeping of the commandments of God is the sole object of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. And thus it is demonstrated that the keeping of the commandments of God is the greatest gift that can possibly be bestowed upon men.

Do you desire to keep the commandments of God? If you do, then earnestly “desire spiritual gifts;” for without these you never can become a true keeper of the commandments of God.

Do you desire really to keep the commandments of God? If you do, then “earnestly desire the best gifts;” for only by the gifts of the Spirit can you ever be a keeper of the commandments.

“Ask, and it will be given to you.” “Receive the Holy Spirit.” “Be filled with the Spirit.” “Earnestly desire the best gifts.”

The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, October 25, 1898