Joseph initially used his gift of dreams and dream interpretation with his brothers and, whether he meant to or not, encouraged them to hate him more. Something that occurred to me while reading this beginning part of Joseph’s story is that receiving a spiritual gift doesn’t automatically mean it’s right to use that gift on everyone and in every circumstance. While God can make all things work together for good, it is still not responsible or loving to indiscriminately use the gift.
Gifts and responsibility go together. Without responsibility (and the wisdom first to realize one’s responsibility), gifts can cause a lot of damage relationally and physically. Therefore we must steward gifts carefully: continually praying for discernment and seeking to understand how those around us feel.
When people show off spiritually, it can make the person or even the faith appear inaccessible to those who do not have that gift. One self-check that can be helpful is to make sure what we are doing is actually encouraging other people toward Jesus, not just toward their admiration and/or jealousy of us: Am I actually glorifying God and causing more people to want to go to Jesus, or am I just trying to get more people to be impressed by me?
We can be encouraged by this: Joseph didn’t earn his spiritual gift, and initially, he also didn’t know how to use it responsibly. This is a reminder that people with spiritual gifts are not superior to anyone else. They just have a gift that they will need to learn how to use. Even with Jacob’s favoritism of Joseph, Joseph’s lack of tact about his dreams, and the evil actions of his brothers, God worked it out for good over Joseph’s lifetime.
It’s impossible to never make mistakes, but we can receive the peace from God that Jesus was perfect in our place so we do not need to prove our worth, only respond to Jesus’ loving substitutional sacrifice.