Daily Devotional for Small Group Discussion: Signs and Symptoms

Discussion Questions 

1. Read 1 Corinthians 14:1-17. Then read the devotional below, “Signs and Symptoms.” 

2. If you had to choose between having a super-powerful spiritual experience that you could never fully relate to others, or being gifted with a message that would improve things for others, which would you choose and why? 

3. Have you ever had a doctor look only at signs and ignore the symptoms you describe? Can you think of a time when the church ignored some people’s spiritual experiences? 

4. The distinction between signs and symptoms is imperfect; you can feel itchy (symptom) and have a visible rash (sign) at the same time. Likewise the distinction between tongues and prophesying—between spiritual gifts that uplift your own faith and spiritual gifts that uplift others’ faith—is imperfect. How do both types of gifts build up a community? 

Those who speak in a tongue build up themselves, but those who prophesy build up the church. Now I would like all of you to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy. – 1 Corinthians 14:4-5 (NRSV) 

If you go to the doctor, they’re going to collect at least two kinds of information: signs and symptoms. 

Symptoms are the things that you’re experiencing but that others can’t tell by looking at you. They’re about your own, purely internal, sense of your insides: tiredness, nausea, soreness, malaise. 

Signs, on the other hand, are measurable by somebody outside of you: temperature, heart rate, blood pressure, test results. 

For a long time, self-reported symptoms were sort of all there was for someone trying to help you. Then, as the world progressed, it became possible to take more and more precise measurements of more and more things. These measurements, scaled up across generations and around the world, enabled such growth in our knowledge and such feats of healing that they seem almost miraculous. These days, good doctors know that both “objective” signs and “subjective” symptoms matter. 

Paul divides gifts of the Spirit similarly: you might be gifted with speaking in tongues, but that’s internal, just for you. Being gifted with prophecy, however, is a sign that leads to measurable results: others are benefitted, the church is strengthened. Like a good child of the scientific age (which he was not, but you know what I mean), Paul gives more weight to signs than to symptoms. 

These days, good Christians know that both matter: internal and external, building up your spirit and building up the church, the health of your soul and the health of the world, spiritual and religious. 

Prayer
Let me experience all the symptoms of a Spirit-filled life, O God, and let my life be a sign of your love. Amen.

About the Author
Quinn G. Caldwell is Chaplain of the Protestant Cooperative Ministry at Cornell University. His most recent book is a series of daily reflections for Advent and Christmas called All I Really Want: Readings for a Modern Christmas. Learn more about it and find him on Facebook at Quinn G. Caldwell.