Before beginning the discussion, however, we may define spiritual gifts as follows: A spiritual gift is any ability that is empowered by the Holy Spirit and used in any ministry of the church. This broad definition includes both gifts that are related to natural abilities (such as teaching, showing mercy, or administration) and gifts that seem to be more “miraculous” and less related to natural abilities (such as prophecy, healing, or distinguishing between spirits). The reason for this is that when Paul lists spiritual gifts (in Romans 12:6-8; 1 Corinthians 7:7; 12:8 – 10, 28; and Ephesians 4:11) he includes both kinds of gifts. Yet not every natural ability that people have is included here, because Paul is clear that all spiritual gifts must be empowered “by one and the same Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:11), that they are given “for the common good” (1 Corinthians 12:7), and that they are all to be used for “edification” (1 Corinthians 14:26), or for building up the church.
1 Spiritual Gifts in the History of Redemption. Certainly, the Holy Spirit was at work in the Old Testament, bringing people to faith and working in remarkable ways in a few individuals such as Moses or Samuel, David or Elijah. But in general, there was less powerful activity of the Holy Spirit in the lives of most believers. Effective evangelism of the nations was very uncommon, casting out of demons was unknown, miraculous healing was uncommon (though it did happen, especially in the ministries of Elijah and Elisha), prophecy was restricted to a few prophets or small bands of prophets, and “resurrection power” over sin in the sense of Romans 6:1 – 14 and Philippians 3:10 was rarely experienced.
But at several points the Old Testament looks forward to a time when there would be a greater empowering of the Holy Spirit that would reach to all of God’s people. Moses said, “Would that all the LORD’S people were prophets, that the LORD would put his spirit upon them!” (Numbers 11:29). And the LORD prophesied through Joel:
And it shall come to pass afterward,
that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh;
your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
your old men shall dream dreams,
and your young men shall see visions.
Even upon the menservants and maidservants
in those days, I will pour out my spirit. (Joel 2:28-29)
John the Baptist heightens people’s expectations of the fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy when he announces that someone is coming after him who “will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire” (Matthew 3:11).
When Jesus begins his ministry, he comes bringing the fullness and power of the Holy Spirit in his person. Luke writes, “And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee” (Luke 4:14). The result is that he teaches with great power (Luke 4:15 – 22) and he heals and casts out demons from all who are oppressed (Luke 4:31 – 41). Clearly, Jesus has come in the greater new covenant power of the Holy Spirit, and he has come to conquer Satan’s kingdom.
In fact, he says that the power of the Holy Spirit at work in him enabling him to cast out demons is an indication that the kingdom of God has come in power: “If it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you” (Matthew 12:28). Looking back on Jesus’ life and ministry, John tells us, “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8).
But this new covenant power of the Holy Spirit is not limited to the ministry of Jesus alone. He sent his disciples out, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand” and told them, “Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons” (Matthew 10:7 – 8). Nevertheless, this new covenant power of the Holy Spirit is not yet distributed to all who believed in Jesus or followed him, but only to his twelve disciples or to the seventy disciples (Luke 10:1 – 12).
The pouring out of the Holy Spirit in new covenant fullness and power in the church occurred at Pentecost. Before Jesus ascended into heaven he commanded his apostles “not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father,” and the content of that promise was, “Before many days you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 1:4 – 5). He promised them, “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you” (Acts 1:8). When the Spirit was poured out on the church at Pentecost Peter recognized that Joel’s prophecy was being fulfilled, for he said, “this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel” (Acts 2:16), and he then quoted Joel’s prophecy (Acts 2:17 – 21). Peter recognized that the new covenant empowering of the Holy Spirit had come to God’s people and the new covenant age had begun as a direct result of the activity of Jesus in heaven, for Peter said,
This Jesus God raised up, and of that we are all witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this which you see and hear. (Acts 2:32 – 33)
Against the background of Jesus’ ministry and the earlier ministry of the disciples with Jesus, the disciples present at Pentecost would rightly have expected that powerful evangelistic preaching, deliverance from demonic oppression, physical healing, and perhaps also prophecy, dreams, and visions would all begin and continue among those who believe in Christ, and that these things would be characteristic of the new covenant age that began at Pentecost. A further characteristic of this outpouring of the Holy Spirit was a widespread distribution of spiritual gifts to all people; sons and daughters, young men and old men, menservants and maidservants, in the words of Joel: all received a new covenant empowering of the Holy Spirit, and it would also be expected that all would receive gifts of the Holy Spirit then as well. In fact, that is what happened in the early church (see 1 Corinthians 12 – 14; Galatians 3:5; James 5:14 – 15).
2 The Purpose of Spiritual Gifts in the New Testament Age. Spiritual gifts are given to equip the church to carry out its ministry until Christ returns. Paul tells the Corinthians, “You are not lacking in any spiritual gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 1:7). Here he connects the possession of spiritual gifts and their situation in the history of redemption (waiting for Christ’s return), suggesting that gifts are given to the church for the period between Christ’s ascension and his return. Similarly, Paul looks forward to the time of Christ’s return and says, “When the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away” (1 Corinthians 13:10), indicating also that these “imperfect” gifts (mentioned in verses 8 – 9) will be in operation until Christ returns, when they will be superseded by something far greater. Indeed, the pouring out of the Holy Spirit in “power” at Pentecost (Acts 1:8) was to equip the church to preach the gospel (Acts 1:8); something that will continue until Christ returns. And Paul reminds believers that in their use of spiritual gifts they are to “strive to excel in building up the church” (1 Corinthians 14:12). Finally, in writing to the Ephesians, Paul specifies that when Christ ascended into heaven he gave gifts “to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ” (Ephesians 4:12).
But spiritual gifts not only equip the church for the time until Christ returns, they also give a foretaste of the age to come. Paul reminds the Corinthians that they were “enriched” in all their speech and all their knowledge, and that the result of this enriching was that they were “not lacking in any spiritual gift” (1 Corinthians 1:5, 7). Of course, this enrichment in their speech and knowledge did not give them the perfect speech or the perfect knowledge that would be theirs in heaven, but only a foretaste or down payment of that heavenly perfection. Similarly, Paul reminds the Corinthians that spiritual gifts are “imperfect” but when the “perfect” way of knowing comes at the Lord’s return, then these gifts will pass away (1 Corinthians 13:10). Just as the Holy Spirit himself is in this age a “down payment” (2 Corinthians 1:22) of the fuller work of the Holy Spirit within us in the age to come, so the gifts the Holy Spirit gives us are partial foretastes of the fuller working of the Holy Spirit that will be ours in the age to come.
In this way, gifts of insight and discernment prefigure the much greater discernment we will have when Christ returns. Gifts of knowledge and wisdom prefigure the much greater wisdom that will be ours when we “know as we are known” (see 1 Corinthians 13:12). Gifts of healing give a foretaste of the perfect health that will be ours when Christ grants to us resurrection bodies. Similar parallels could be found with all the New Testament gifts. Even the diversity of gifts should lead to greater unity and interdependence in the church (see 1 Corinthians 12:12 – 13, 24 – 25; Ephesians 4:13), and this diversity in unity will itself be a foretaste of the unity that believers will have in heaven.
3 How Many Gifts Are There? The New Testament epistles list specific spiritual gifts in five different passages. Consider this table.
| 1 Corinthians 12:28 | 1 Corinthians 12:8 – 10 | Ephesians 4:11 | Romans 12:6 – 8 |
| 1. Apostle | 9. Word of wisdom | (1) Apostle | (2) Prophecy |
| 2. Prophet | 10. Word of knowledge | (2) Prophet | 16. Serving |
| 3. Teacher | 11. Faith | 14. Evangelist | (3) Teaching |
| 4. Miracles | (5) Gifts of healing | 15. Pastor-Teacher | 17. Encouraging |
| 5. Kinds of healings | (4) Miracles | 18. Contributing | |
| 6. Helps | (2) Prophecy | 1 Corinthians 7:7 | 19. Leadership |
| 7. Administration | 12. Distinguishing between spirits | 21. Marriage | 20. Mercy |
| 8. Tongues | (8) Tongues | 22. Celibacy | |
| 13. Interpretation of tongues |
What is obvious is that these lists are all quite different. No one list has all these gifts, and no gift except prophecy is mentioned on all the lists (prophecy is not mentioned in 1 Corinthians 7:7, where only the subject of marriage and celibacy is under discussion). In fact, 1 Corinthians 7:7 mentions two gifts that are not on any other list: in the context of speaking of marriage and celibacy, Paul says, “Each has his own special gift from God, one of one kind and one of another.”
These facts indicate that Paul was not attempting to construct exhaustive lists of gifts when he specified the ones he did. Although there is sometimes an indication of some order (he puts apostles first, prophets second, and teachers third, but tongues last in 1 Corinthians 12:28), it seems that in general Paul was almost randomly listing a series of different examples of gifts as they came to mind.
There is some degree of overlap among the gifts listed at various places. No doubt the gift of administration (kybernesis, 1 Corinthians 12:28) is similar to the gift of leadership (ho proistamenos, Romans 12:8), and both terms could probably be applied to many who have the office of pastor-teacher (Ephesians 4:11). Moreover, in some cases Paul lists an activity and in other cases lists the related noun that describes the person (such as “prophecy” in Romans 12:6 and 1 Corinthians 12:10, but “prophet” in 1 Corinthians 12:28 and Ephesians 4:11).
Another reason for thinking that Paul could have made much longer lists if he had wanted to is the fact that some of the gifts listed will have many different expressions as they are found in different people. The gift of serving (Romans 12:6) or helps (1 Corinthians 12:28) will take many different forms in different situations and among different people. Some may serve or help by giving wise counsel, others by cooking meals, others by caring for children or befriending an older person, others by giving specialized legal or medical or financial advice when needed within the church. These gifts differ greatly. Among those who possess the gift of evangelism, some will be good at personal evangelism within a neighborhood, others at evangelism through writing of tracts and Christian literature, and others at evangelism through large campaigns and public meetings. Still others will be good at evangelism through radio and television. Not all of these evangelistic gifts are the same, even though they fall under the broad category of “evangelism.” The same could be said about gifts of teaching or administration. All of this simply means that no two people’s gifts are exactly alike.
How many different gifts are there then? It simply depends on how specific we wish to be. We can make a very short list of only two gifts as Peter does in 1 Peter 4:11: “whoever speaks” and “whoever renders service.” In this list of only two items Peter includes all the gifts mentioned in any other list because all of them fit in one of these two categories. On the other hand, we could take the Old Testament offices of prophet, priest, and king, and have a list of three kinds of gifts: prophetic gifts (in this broad sense) would include anything that involves teaching, encouraging, exhorting, or rebuking others. Priestly gifts would include anything that involves showing mercy and care for those in need or involve interceding before God (such as praying in tongues). The kingly gifts would involve anything having to do with administration or government or order in the church.
Other classifications of gifts are gifts of knowledge (such as distinguishing between spirits, word of wisdom, and word of knowledge), gifts of power (such as healing, miracles, and faith), and gifts of speech (tongues, interpretation, and prophecy).” Then again, we could make a much longer list, such as the list of twenty-two gifts enumerated above. But even that list does not include all the possible gifts (no list includes a gift of intercessory prayer, for instance, which may be related to a gift of faith but is not the same as a gift of faith; no musical gifts are included on any list either, and neither is any gift of casting out demons, even though Paul must have known that some Christians were more effective in that area than others). And if we wished to divide up different kinds of service or administration or evangelism or teaching, then we could quite easily have a list that included fifty or even a hundred items.
The point of all of this is simply to say that God gives the church an amazing variety of spiritual gifts, and they are all tokens of his varied grace. In fact, Peter says as much: “As each has received a gift, employ it for one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace” (1 Peter 4:10; the word “varied” here is poikilos, which means “having many facets or aspects; having rich diversity”).
The practical outcome of this discussion is that we should be willing to recognize and appreciate people who have gifts that differ from ours and whose gifts may differ from our expectations of what certain gifts should look like. A healthy church will have a great diversity of gifts, and this diversity should not lead to fragmentation but to greater unity among believers in the church. Paul’s whole point in the analogy of the body with many members (1 Corinthians 12:12 – 26) is to say that God has put us in the body with these differences so that we might depend on each of then “The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you, nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. On the contrary, the parts of the body which seem to be weaker are indispensable” (1 Corinthians 12:21 – 22). It runs counter to the world’s way of thinking to say that we will enjoy greater unity when we join closely together with those who are different from us, but that is precisely the point that Paul makes in 1 Corinthians 12, demonstrating the glory of God’s wisdom in not allowing anyone to have all the necessary gifts for the church, but in requiring us to depend upon each other for the proper functioning of the church.
4 Gifts May Vary in Strength. Paul says that if we have the gift of prophecy, we should use it “in proportion to our faith” (Romans 12:6), indicating that the gift can be more or less strongly developed in different individuals, or in the same individual over a period of time. This is why Paul can remind Timothy, “Do not neglect the gift you have” (1 Timothy 4:14), and can say, “I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you” (2 Timothy 1:6). It was possible for Timothy to allow his gift to weaken, apparently through infrequent use, and Paul reminds him to stir it up by using it and thereby strengthening it. This should not be surprising, for we realize that many gifts increase in strength and effectiveness as they are used, whether evangelism, teaching, encouraging, administration, or faith. Apollos had a strong gift of preaching and teaching, for we read that he was “mighty (or “powerful,” Gk. dynatos) in the Scriptures” (Acts 18:24). And Paul apparently had a frequently used and very effective gift of speaking in tongues because he says, “I thank God that I speak in tongues more than you all” (1 Corinthians 14:18).
All of these texts indicate that spiritual gifts may vary in strength. If we think of any gift, whether teaching or evangelism on the one hand, or prophecy or healing on the other, we should realize that within any congregation there will likely be people who are very effective in the use of that gift (perhaps through long use and experience), others who are moderately strong in that gift, and others who probably have the gift but are just beginning to use it. This variation in strength in spiritual gifts depends on a combination of divine and human influence. The divine influence is the sovereign working of the Holy Spirit as he “apportions to each one individually as he wills” (1 Corinthians 12:11). The human influence comes from experience, training, wisdom, and natural ability in the use of that gift. It is usually not possible to know in what proportion the divine and human influences combine at any one time, nor is it really necessary to know, for even the abilities we think to be “natural” are from God (1 Corinthians 4:7) and under his sovereign control.
But this leads to an interesting question: how strong does an ability have to be before it can be called a spiritual gift? How much teaching ability does someone need before he or she could be said to have a gift of teaching, for example? Or how effective in evangelism would someone need to be before we would recognize a gift of evangelism? Or how frequently would someone have to see prayers for healing answered before he or she could be said to have a gift of healing?
Scripture does not directly answer this question, but the fact that Paul speaks of these gifts as useful for the building up of the church (1 Corinthians 14:12), and the fact that Peter likewise says that each person who has received a gift should remember to employ it “for one another” (1 Peter 4:10), suggest that both Paul and Peter thought of gifts as abilities that were strong enough to function for the benefit of the church, whether for the assembled congregation (as in prophecy or teaching), or for individuals at various times in the congregation (as helps or encouragement).
Probably no definite line can be drawn in this matter, but Paul does remind us that not all have every gift or any one gift. He is quite clear in this in a set of questions that expect the answer no at each point: “Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret?” (1 Corinthians 12:29 – 30). The Greek text (with the particle me before each question) clearly expects the answer no to every question. Therefore, not all are teachers, for example, nor do all possess gifts of healing, nor do all speak in tongues.
But even though not all have the gift of teaching, it is true that all people “teach” in some sense of the word teach. Even people who would never dream of teaching a Sunday school class will read Bible stories to their own children and explain the meaning to them, Moses commanded the Israelites to do this very thing with their children (Deuteronomy 6:7), explaining God’s words to them as they sat in their house or walked on the road. We must say on the one hand that not everyone has the gift of teaching. But on the other hand, we must say that there is some general ability related to the gift of teaching that all Christians have. Another way of saying this would be to say that there is no spiritual gift that all believers have, yet there is some general ability similar to every gift that all Christians have.
We can see this with a number of gifts. Not all Christians have a gift of evangelism, but all Christians have the ability to share the gospel with their neighbors. Not all Christians have gifts of healing (in fact, as we shall see below, some people say that no one today has genuine gifts of healing), but nevertheless every Christian can and does pray for God to heal friends or relatives who are ill. Not every Christian has the gift of faith, but every believer has some degree of faith, and we would expect it to be growing in the life of an ordinary Christian.
We can even say that other gifts, such as prophecy and speaking in tongues, not only vary in strength among those who have the gift, but also find a counterpart in some general abilities that are found in the life of every Christian. For example, if we understand prophecy to be “reporting something that God spontaneously brings to mind,” then it is true that not everyone experiences this as a gift, for not everyone experiences God spontaneously bringing things to mind with such clarity and force that he or she feels free to speak about them among an assembled group of Christians. But probably every believer has at one time or another had a sense that God was bringing to mind the need to pray for a distant friend or to write or phone a word of encouragement to someone distant, and later has found that that was exactly the thing that was needed at the moment. Few would deny that God sovereignly brought that need to mind in a spontaneous way, and, though this would not be called a gift of prophecy, it is a general ability to receive special direction or guidance from God that is similar to what happens in the gift of prophecy, although it is functioning at a weaker level.
We can even consider the gift of speaking in tongues from this perspective. If we think of speaking in tongues as prayer in syllables not understood by the speaker (see 1 Corinthians 14:2,14), then it is true that not every Christian has the gift of speaking in tongues (and once again it must be said that some Christians would argue that no one has that gift today, since the age of the apostles has ended). But on the other hand we must recognize that every Christian has times of prayer in which his or her prayer is expressed not only in intelligible words and syllables, but also in terms of sighs, groans, or weeping that we know is understood and heard by the Lord, and that expresses needs and concerns of our hearts that we cannot fully put into words (cf. Romans 8:26 – 27). Once again we should not call this a gift of speaking in tongues, but it does seem to be a general ability in our Christian lives that is somewhat related to the gift of speaking in tongues, in that it gives expression to prayer in syllables that we do not fully understand, but that the Holy Spirit nonetheless makes into effective prayer that is heard by God.
The point of this whole discussion is simply to say that spiritual gifts are not as mysterious and “other worldly” as people sometimes make them out to be. Many of them are only intensifications or highly developed instances of phenomena that most Christians experience in their own lives. The other important point to be drawn from this discussion is that even though we have been given gifts by God, we are still responsible to use them effectively, and to seek to grow in their use that the church may receive more benefit from the gifts of which God has allowed us to be stewards.
Finally, the fact that gifts may vary in strength allows us to recognize that a certain person’s gift (such as teaching or administration, for example) may not be strong enough to function for the benefit of the entire church in a large church where many people already have that gift developed to a very high degree. But that same person, moving to a younger, smaller church where few have gifts of teaching or administration, may find that his or her gifts are very much in demand and able to function for the benefit of the entire congregation. (In this sense, something that is only considered a general ability in one setting might rightly be considered a spiritual gift in another setting.)
Next week we will finish this discussion.