We will build on the general discussion about spiritual gifts from the previous two weeks and examine several specific gifts in more detail. We will not consider every gift mentioned in the New Testament, but will focus on several gifts that are not well understood or whose use has aroused some controversy today. We will not examine gifts whose meaning and use are self-evident from the term involved (such as serving, encouraging, contributing, showing leadership, or showing mercy), but will rather concentrate on those in the following list, primarily taken from 1 Corinthians 12:28 and 12:8-10:
- Prophecy (This week)
- Teaching (This week)
- Miracles (This week)
- Healing (August 27)
- Tongues and interpretation (September 10)
- Word of wisdom/Word of knowledge (September 17)
- Distinguishing between spirits (September 17)
Prophecy
Although several definitions have been given for the gift of prophecy, a fresh examination of the New Testament teaching on this gift will show that it should be defined not as “predicting the future,” nor as “proclaiming a word from the Lord,” nor as “powerful preaching”, but rather as “telling something that God has spontaneously brought to mind.” The following material support this conclusion; the remaining points deal with other considerations regarding this gift.
The New Testament Counterparts to Old Testament Prophets Are New Testament Apostles. Old Testament prophets had an amazing responsibility, they were able to speak and write words that had absolute divine authority. They could say, “Thus says the Lord,” and the words that followed were the very words of God. The Old Testament prophets wrote their words as God’s words in Scripture for all time. Therefore, to disbelieve or disobey a prophet’s words was to disbelieve or disobey God.
In the New Testament, there were also people who spoke and wrote God’s very words and had them recorded in Scripture, but we may be surprised to find that Jesus no longer calls them “prophets” but uses a new term, “apostles.” The apostles are the New Testament counterpart to the Old Testament prophets (see 1 Corinthians 2:13; 2 Corinthians 13:3; Galatians 1:8-9, 11-12; 1 Thessalonians 2:13; 4:8, 15; 2 Peter 3:2). It is the apostles, not the prophets, who have authority to write the words of New Testament Scripture.
When the apostles want to establish their unique authority they never appeal to the title “prophet” but rather call themselves “apostles” (Romans1:1; 1 Corinthians 1:1; 9:1-2; 2 Corinthians 1:1; 11:12-13; 12:11-12; Galatians 1:1; Ephesians 1:1; 1 Peter 1:1; 2 Peter 1:1; 3:2, et al.).
The Meaning of the Word Prophet in the Time of the New Testament. Why did Jesus choose the new term apostle to designate those who had the authority to write Scripture? It was probably because the Greek word prophetes (“prophet”) at the time of the New Testament had a very broad range of meanings. It generally did not have the sense “one who speaks God’s very words” but rather “one who speaks on the basis of some external influence” (often a spiritual influence of some kind). Titus 1:12 uses the word in this sense, where Paul quotes the pagan Greek poet Epimenides: “One of themselves, a prophet of their own, said, ‘Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.'” The soldiers who mock Jesus also seem to use the word prophesy in this way, when they blindfold Jesus and cruelly demand, “Prophesy! Who is it that struck you?” (Luke 22:64). They do not mean, “Speak words of absolute divine authority,” but, “Tell us something that has been revealed to you”.
Many writings outside the Bible use the word prophet (Gk. prophetes) in this way, without signifying any divine authority in the words of one called a “prophet.” In fact, by the time of the New Testament the term prophet in everyday use often simply meant “one who has supernatural knowledge” or “one who predicts the future”, or even just “spokesman” (without any connotations of divine authority). The Greek word for “prophet” (prophetes) “simply expresses the formal function of declaring, proclaiming, making known.”
How Should We Speak About the Authority of Prophecy Today? Prophecies in the church today should be considered merely human words, not God’s words, and not equal to God’s words in authority. Most teachers today would agree that contemporary prophecy is not equal to Scripture in authority. Though some will speak of prophecy as being the “word of God” for today, there is almost uniform testimony that prophecy is imperfect and impure, and will contain elements that are not to be obeyed or trusted.
If someone really does think God is bringing something to mind which should be reported in the congregation, there is nothing wrong with saying, “I think the Lord is putting on my mind that … or “It seems to me that the Lord is showing us … or some similar expression. That does not sound as “forceful” as “Thus says the Lord,” but if the message is really from God, the Holy Spirit will cause it to speak with great power to the hearts of those who need to hear.
A Spontaneous “Revelation” Made Prophecy Different from Other Gifts. If prophecy does not contain God’s very words, then what is it? In what sense is it from God?
Paul indicates that God could bring something spontaneously to mind so that the person prophesying would report it in his or her own words. Paul calls this a “revelation”: “If a revelation is made to another sitting by, let the first be silent. For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all be encouraged” (1 Corinthians 14:30-31). Here he uses the word revelation in a broader sense than the technical way theologians have used it to speak of the words of Scripture, but the New Testament elsewhere uses the terms reveal and revelation in this broader sense of communication from God that does not result in written Scripture or words equal to written Scripture in authority (see Philippians 3:15; Romans 1:18; Ephesians 1:17; Matthew 11:27).
Paul is simply referring to something that God may suddenly bring to mind, or something that God may impress on someone’s consciousness in such a way that the person has a sense that it is from God. It may be that the thought brought to mind is surprisingly distinct from the person’s own train of thought, or that it is accompanied by a sense of vividness or urgency or persistence, or in some other way gives the person a rather clear sense that it is from the Lord.
The Difference Between Prophecy and Teaching. As far as we can tell, all New Testament “prophecy” was based on this kind of spontaneous prompting from the Holy Spirit. Unless a person receives a spontaneous “revelation” from God, there is no prophecy.
By contrast, no human speech act that is called a “teaching” or done by a “teacher,” or described by the verb “teach,” is ever said to be based on a “revelation” in the New Testament. Rather, “teaching” is often simply an explanation or application of Scripture (Acts 15:35; 18:11, 24-28; Romans 2:21; 15:4; Colossians 3:16; Hebrews 5:12) or a repetition and explanation of apostolic instructions (Romans 16:17; 2 Timothy 2:2; 3:10, et al.). It is what we would call “Bible teaching” or “preaching” today.
Prophecy has less authority than “teaching,” and prophecies in the church are always to be subject to the authoritative teaching of Scripture. Timothy was not told to prophesy Paul’s instructions in the church; he was to teach them (1 Timothy 4:11; 6:2). Paul did not prophesy his lifestyle in Christ in every church; he taught it (1 Corinthians 4:17). The Thessalonians were not told to hold firm to the traditions that were “prophesied” to them but to the traditions that they were “taught” by Paul (2 Thessalonians 2:15). Contrary to some views, it was teachers, not prophets, who gave leadership and direction to the early churches.
Among the elders, therefore, were “those who labor in preaching and teaching” (1 Timothy 5:17), and an elder was to be “an apt teacher” (1 Timothy 3:2), but nothing is said about any elders whose work was prophesying, nor is it ever said that an elder has to be “an apt prophet” or that elders should be “holding firm to sound prophecies.” In his leadership function Timothy was to take heed to himself and to his “teaching” (1 Timothy 4:16), but he is never told to take heed to his prophesying. James warned that those who teach, not those who prophesy, will be judged with greater strictness (James 3:1).
The task of interpreting and applying Scripture, then, is called “teaching” in the New Testament. Although a few people have claimed that the prophets in New Testament churches gave “inspired” interpretations of Old Testament Scripture, that claim has hardly been persuasive, primarily because it is hard to find in the New Testament any convincing examples where the “prophet” word group is used to refer to someone engaged in this kind of activity.
The distinction is quite clear: if a message is the result of conscious reflection on the text of Scripture, containing interpretation of the text and application to life, then it is (in New Testament terms) a teaching. But if a message is the report of something God brings suddenly to mind, then it is a prophecy. And of course, even prepared teachings can be interrupted by unplanned additional material that the Bible teacher suddenly felt God was bringing to his mind in that case, it would be a “teaching” with an element of prophecy mixed in.
Prophecies Could Include Any Edifying Content. The examples of prophecies in the New Testament mentioned above show that the idea of prophecy as only “predicting the future” is certainly wrong. There were some predictions (Acts 11:28; 21:11), but there was also the disclosure of sins (1 Corinthians 14:25). In fact, anything that edified could have been included, for Paul says, “He who prophesies speaks to men for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation” (1 Corinthians 14:3). Another indication of the value of prophecy was that it could speak to the needs of people’s hearts in a spontaneous, direct way.
Many People in the Congregation Can Prophesy. Another great benefit of prophecy is that it provides opportunity for participation by everyone in the congregation, not just those who are skilled speakers or who have gifts of teaching. Paul says that he wants “all” the Corinthians to prophesy (1 Corinthians 14:5), and he says, “You can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all be encouraged” (1 Corinthians 14:31). This does not mean that every believer will actually be able to prophesy, for Paul says, “Not all are prophets, are they?” (1 Corinthians 12:29). But it does mean that anyone who receives a “revelation” from God has permission to prophesy (within Paul’s guidelines), and it suggests that many will. Because of this, greater openness to the gift of prophecy could help overcome the situation where many who attend our churches are merely spectators and not participants. Perhaps we are contributing to the problem of “spectator Christianity” by quenching the work of the spirit in this area.
We Should “Earnestly Desire” Prophecy. Paul valued this gift so highly that he told the Corinthians, “Make love your aim, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts especially that you may prophesy” (1 Corinthians 14:1). Then at the end of his discussion of spiritual gifts he said again, “So, my brethren, earnestly desire to prophesy” (1 Corinthians 14:39). And he said, “He who prophesies edifies the church” (1 Corinthians 14:4).
If Paul was eager for the gift of prophecy to function at Corinth, troubled as the church was by immaturity, selfishness, divisions, and other problems, then should we not also actively seek this valuable gift in our congregations today? We evangelicals who profess to believe and obey all that Scripture says, should we not also believe and obey this? And might a greater openness to the gift of prophecy perhaps help to correct a dangerous imbalance in church life, an imbalance that comes because we are too exclusively intellectual, objective, and narrowly doctrinal?
Teaching
The gift of teaching in the New Testament is the ability to explain Scripture and apply it to people’s lives. This is evident from a number of passages. In Acts 15:35, Paul and Barnabas and “many others” are in Antioch “teaching and preaching the word of the Lord.” At Corinth, Paul stayed one and a half years “teaching the word of God among them” (Acts 18:11). And the readers of the epistle to the Hebrews, though they ought to have been teachers, needed rather to have someone to teach them again “the first principles of God’s word” (Hebrews 5:12). Paul tells the Romans that the words of the Old Testament Scriptures “were written for our instruction (or “teaching,”)” (Romans 15:4), and writes to Timothy that “all scripture” is “profitable for teaching [didaskalia]” (2 Timothy 3:16).
Of course, if “teaching” in the early church was so often based on Old Testament Scripture, it is not surprising that it could also be based on something equal to Scripture in authority, namely, a received body of apostolic instructions. Timothy was to take the teaching he had received from Paul and commit it to faithful men who would be able to “teach others also” (2 Timothy 2:2). And the Thessalonians were to “hold firm to the traditions” they were “taught” by Paul (2 Thessalonians 2:15). Far from being based on a spontaneous revelation that came during the worship service of the church (as prophecy was), this kind of “teaching” was the repetition and explanation of authentic apostolic teaching. To teach contrary to Paul’s instructions was to teach different or heretical doctrine and to fail to give heed to “the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness” (1 Timothy 6:3). In fact, Paul said that Timothy was to remind the Corinthians of Paul’s ways “as I teach them everywhere in every church” (1 Corinthians 4:17). Similarly, Timothy was to “command and teach” (1 Timothy 4:11) and to “teach and urge” (1 Timothy 6:2) Paul’s instructions to the Ephesian church. It was not prophecy but teaching which in a primary sense (from the apostles) first provided the doctrinal and ethical norms by which the church was regulated. And as those who learned from the apostles also taught, their teaching guided and directed the local churches.
Teaching in terms of the New Testament epistles consisted of repeating and explaining the words of Scripture (or the equally authoritative teachings of Jesus and of the apostles) and applying them to the hearers. In the New Testament epistles, “teaching” is something very much like what is described by our phrase “Bible teaching” today.
Miracles
Just after apostles, prophets and teachers, Paul says “then miracles” (1 Corinthians 12:28). Although many of the miracles seen in the New Testament were specifically miracles of healing, Paul here lists healing as a separate gift. Therefore, in this context he must have something other than physical healing in view.
We should realize that the English word miracles may not give a very close approximation to what Paul intended, since the Greek word is simply the plural form of the word dynamis, “power.” This means that the term may refer to any kind of activity where God’s mighty power is evident. It may include answers to prayer for deliverance from physical danger (as in the deliverance of the apostles from prison in Acts 5:19-20 or 12:6-11), or powerful works of judgment on the enemies of the gospel or those who require discipline within the church (see Acts 5:1-11; 13:9-12), or miraculous deliverance from injury (as with Paul and the viper in Acts 28:3-6). But such acts of spiritual power may also include power to triumph over demonic opposition (as in Acts 16:18).
Since Paul does not define “works of miracles” any more specifically than this, we can say that the gift of miracles may include the working of divine power in deliverance from danger, in intervention to meet special needs in the physical world (as in the case of Elijah in 1 Kings 17:1 – 16), in judgment on those who irrationally and violently oppose the gospel message, in vanquishing the demonic forces that wage war against the church, and in any other way in which God’s power is manifested in an evident way to further God’s purposes in a situation. All of these would be works of “power” in which the church would be helped and God’s glory would be made evident.