Homilies on First Corinthians

“So also ye, since as you are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that you may abound unto the edifying of the Church.”

Do you see his aim every where, how he looks to one thing continually and in all cases, the general utility, the profiting the Church; laying this down as a kind of rule? And he did not say, “that you may obtain the gifts” but, “that you may abound,” i.e., that you may even possess them in great plenitude. Thus, so far am I from wishing you not to possess them, that I even wish you to abound in them, only so that you handle them with a view to the common advantage. And how is this to be done? This he adds, saying,