SPIRITUAL GIFTS
© Hubert Krause
The Church of God in Williamstown
WEB SITE: http://www.alphalink.com.au/~sanhub/index_.htm

INTRODUCTION
In the second chapter of his first letter to the Church in Corinth, the apostle Paul makes comparisons and contrasts between the human spirit and the Holy Spirit of God. Let us notice some of the points he brings out:

Just as the qualities of human beings are known through the human spirit dwelling within them, so the Holy Spirit imparts the things of God.
Paul then goes on to explain one of the reasons for the receipt of the Spirit of God by the Church: The New English Bible renders the last part of this verse as "that we may know all that God of His own grace gives us".

Brethren, how well do we comprehend the nature of these gifts, gifts of the Holy Spirit imparted by the grace of God? This is what I would like to examine.

GIFTS AND THE SPIRIT OF GOD
We understand, at least to a limited degree, that the human spirit, without which the body is dead (Jas 2:26) imparts understanding, as Job tells us:

It is via this spirit that God also imparts human gifts and talents, as evidenced by those skilled men whose services were called upon to make the priestly garments for Aaron and his sons: Likewise, Daniel, we read in Da 6:3 "distinguished himself above the governors and satraps, because an excellent spirit was in him."—the human spirit, but certainly not excluding the influence of the Spirit of God.

It is this human spirit that must be perfected, we are told by the writer of the Book of Hebrews (Heb 12:23). This is the work of the Holy Spirit of God in us (2Co 5:17; 7:1; Eph 4:23-4). Let us then note some of the attributes of the Spirit of God:

The Spirit of His Father endowed Jesus Christ with the wisdom and the power to fulfill the purposes of God while on earth. In similar manner, the Holy Spirit has empowered and endued human beings in the service of God. Let us look at some concrete examples of this.

To help Moses bear the burdens of the people, seventy elders were chosen from among the leading men of Israel, who were then especially endowed by God for the purpose:

Some of the gifts and the powers of the Spirit were thus transferred to these seventy men. Interestingly enough, as an aside, issues of conversion do not seem to have come into the picture here!

In similar manner, let us note the role of the Spirit of God when skilled artisans were required for the construction of the tabernacle and its furnishings:

So the Spirit of God, in fulfillment of His purpose, can endow men with ability above and beyond that naturally imparted or learned by the human spirit, such as the creative skill of Bezalel, the master craftsman, or the ability to teach others as was bestowed upon Oholiab. Or the talent to administer, as seen in Othniel, the judge of Israel, and in the other judges called to serve God and His people: It is characteristic of God to provide men and women with both the desire as well the means to fulfill His purposes. Their will and their ways are moulded by Him: As the apostle Paul said to the Athenian philosophers, quoting one of their own poets, "in Him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28).

There are many examples in the Scriptures where the Spirit of God came upon individuals who were then empowered to execute the will of God. Let us note just a few more of them:

The Spirit of God impacts even evil men in this fashion: Nu 23:5,16 simply say that "the LORD put a message in his mouth". 1Sa 19:20-24 and Jn 11:49-51 are two other examples of unworthy men prophesying.

The apostles, commissioned personally by Christ, were directly given inspired gifts in preparation for the important rule they were to play in the early Church:

One called by God for special service to Him is equipped by Him with the gifts or talents necessary to carry out His will. This also applies to the Church. As James tells us, God is the Author of "every good and perfect gift" (Jas 1:17) whose divine power, Peter adds, "has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness" (2 Pet 1:3).
Yet before we consider in some depth the nature of spiritual gifts in the Church, let us keep in mind Paul's important—and sobering—statement: The immutable God does not take back a gift or cancel a summons! What are the implications of this for us, members of the Body of Christ, today?

SPIRITUAL GIFTS AND THE CHURCH
We all have the responsibility to participate in the building up of the Church:

When each part of the body is working properly, the head will see by its overall control that the whole organism develops correctly. The unity of the Church of God is provided by the sum total of its members, bound by the Spirit of God and bonded by love. It is a unity through diversity. The various members each contribute to the whole, just like the diverse members of the human body, until the organism reaches spiritual maturity.

So let us examine the role of spiritual gifts in this process.

To illustrate the importance of understanding the role of gifts imparted to members of the Body of the Church, Paul then loosely quotes from Ps 68:18, painting an image of a victorious king, typifying Jesus Christ, a triumphant warrior who is elevated to his throne as he returns home with hosts of prisoners, receiving gifts from the conquered peoples, and issuing gifts to his followers:

The Church is the recipient of gifts from the ascended Christ, as part of the endowment of the promised Holy Spirit. Paul then goes on to list some of these specific gifts, in this case those most directly and immediately related to the building up of the Church. It has been the practice of many to define these as "offices", yet let us examine them more closely: Paul then describes the end result of the process of maturation which the Church can and should go through: The body, the recipient of these divine gifts, grows by co-operation under the control and guidance of the Head, Jesus Christ.

In 1Corinthians 12, and elsewhere when spiritual gifts are being discussed, the Greek word charisma, in its plural form, denotes the special gifts imparted by the Spirit of God to Christians for service to the body of the Church. Paul revisits some of what he has explained in his letter to the Ephesians:

So the "offices" delineated by Paul in the verses in Ephesians, above, are in fact gifts. The officer in the Church officiates by reason of his gifts, these spiritual gifts linked with the grace of God extended to His people, as we are told: To be sure, some of these gifts enumerated are essential to the spiritual life of every Christian, for instance faith (1Co 12:9), or the giving and mercy mentioned in Ro 12:8, which we will shortly note; yet some are more endowed with these gifts than others, as we no doubt understand.

It is also most interesting and pertinent, given our Church of God background, that in enumerating some of the functions of the various members of the Body, Paul makes no hard and fast distinction between ministries that people might be inclined to label "clerical" and those they might consider "lay". To recap, from Eph 4:12 (NIV): all these gifts—these charismata—are given us "to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up"

CHARISMATA
Let us briefly focus in on some of these spiritual gifts enumerated to the Church by the apostle Paul:

We no doubt recall that when the Scriptures speak of prophesizing, what is generally meant is inspired speaking. Revelations are of course not excluded, and rarely do we find in the New Testament predictions of the future (Acts 11:28; 21:10-11). As far as we know there are no prophets extant today.
That the exercise of this gift also includes exhortation, or encouragement (see Ro 12:8), is also indicated by the Scriptures: In Acts 2:16-18, Peter explained to the astounded crowd present on that Day of Pentecost that the outpouring of the Spirit upon the Church was a partial fulfillment of the prophecy of Joel (Joel 2:28-28) which spoke of sons and daughters prophesizing. So this gift of prophecy was made available to the Church as a whole, but in special measure to certain individuals who were distinctively known as prophets. Similarly today, not every single member of the Body prophesizes.

Notice how those endowed with this gift were to serve the Corinthian Church; the pattern is surely one to be emulated by any Church which God richly gifts in this manner:

He who has this gift of inspired speaking uses it both to instruct and to encourage, even as all that is said and done is to edify the collective Body. And notions of infallibility have no place in the Church of God! What is spoken to the people of God must always be validated. Given these dynamics at work in the early apostolic Church, what would have happened, do you think, if a spirit of error were to manifest itself in the words of one of these speakers? False prophets also claim to be the possessors of the gifts of the Spirit, do they not? Associated with the gift of prophecy, or inspired speaking, the speaker was to be judged on the truth of his words by the spiritual discernment of those who heard him, as we have noted. Notice what Paul enjoined upon the Church in Thessalonika: It has been part and parcel of the history of the true Church that false prophets have co-existed with true prophets, and that the spirit of truth has been at work amidst spirits of error. The words of the prophets are to be proved, or tested. We all have this responsibility, and more so those gifted with this ability to spiritually discern, with the mind of Jesus Christ: These come at the end of Paul's list although their use was probably the most prized in the Corinthian Church. This was a supernatural gift and therefore does not in the main seem to refer to human languages, but rather to an ecstatic experience granted to some; a miraculous spiritual language for communion with God. The plural "kinds" of tongues (1Co 12:10) points to considerable variation within this experience. Some speakers could also interpret the tongues: We noted that Eph 4:11 closely linked teachers with pastors, yet we are all teachers to varying degrees, as the writer of the Book of Hebrews points out: The Greek for the word "administration" in 1Co 12:28 suggests the idea of piloting a boat; steermanship in the Church is a gift of God. Some are blessed with the ability to offer wise counsel; in its fullest form this is exemplified in the ministry of elders, those in whom this gift has been attested to.
Paul exhorted the elders of Ephesus to follow his example in helping the weak: We understand that the apostles and others of prominence in the early apostolic Church were granted this gift (Acts 3:7; 5:12-16; 8:7; 19:12; 28:8). James (Jas 5:14-16) refers to a ministry of healing. Yet in these verses Paul actually speaks of special gifts of healings, perhaps in reference to a diversity of ailments miraculously healed, granted to ordinary members in the Church.

Given this diversity of spiritual gifts which God has bestowed in the past, and wants to continue to bestow on His Church, what is our role and our responsibility in regard to what God has granted us?

SPIRITUAL GIFTS AND CHRISTIAN RESPONSIBILITY
Let us consider a little further these gifts given to the Church by the grace of God. While we may not personally be endowed with some of the dramatic gifts granted to the early Church—indeed, we may safely state that, at least on the surface, there seems to have been a paucity of spiritual gifts in recent Church of God history—how do we use what God has granted us? We each have a responsibility, for we have each been allotted a gift or gifts according to the grace of God. Let us note again in Ephesians 4:

How then do we measure and use our gifts? The Church is told quite definitively by the apostle that if its members are indeed the recipients of gifts of the Holy Spirit they are to "use them"—not hide them away under a bushel! We are responsible with our gift, whatever it may be—serving, teaching, encouraging, giving, leadership, etc—to make a contribution to the whole Church, to help build it up. The apostle Peter likewise emphasizes this point: The Spirit of God is a Spirit of power and self-discipline, not a Spirit of timidity that recoils from its responsibilities: We can note the exemplary attitude of Paul towards this end: He then explains that the exercise of these gifts confirms Christians in their faith: It is part of the process of mutual edification of the Body to which we must all contribute. Let us consider for a moment the dynamics of worship in the Corinthian Church: It does not necessarily mean that everyone present would have participated; rather, the indication is that these spiritual gifts were generally distributed throughout the Church. In the Greek, the verb "to have" is repeated with each gift and is possibly suggestive of the individual possession of specific gifts.
It is very obvious when examining what the Scriptures have to say about the use of these gifts of the Holy Spirit that their exercise would need to be carried out in an orderly manner, especially in a Church richly gifted, as was Corinth. Each individual comes prepared to contribute, yet equally ready to remain silent as the need becomes evident, as Paul illustrates in his instructions to the Church in regard to the speaking and interpretation of tongues: As with the other charismata, the exercise of the gift of tongues was to be under the immediate control of the speaker. Whatever our gifts today may be—listening, teaching, preaching, serving, encouraging, discernment, offering hospitality, extending kindness—their exercise is subject to the same conditions. So in the context of spiritual gifts among the members of the Body of Christ, comes this admonition to each member to think soberly, or sensibly, with soundness of judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith assigned to him or her, for this is the standard by which we measure ourselves. In Ro 12:6 we were told, for instance, that the gift of prophesizing can only be used as God would have it used in proportion to one's faith. An exaggerated view of one's own importance must give way to a sensible estimate of one's position, and of one's gifts, Paul is telling the Church in Rome, and us today. We may not have the gift we think we possess. Has the exercise of our "gift" edified the Body?

Of course, we may indeed possess a gift we are totally unaware of. The onus is on each of us to realistically assess our faith, and the gifts which the grace of God has bestowed upon us.
Among some in the Church of God fellowships today where hierarchical structure has been dispensed with there is the tendency to now go to the opposite extreme and assume a full equality of spiritual gifts, such as the gift of teaching. This notion—that we are all equally teachers—has led and continues to lead to the breakdown of many of what has come to be called a house church, or home fellowship, as what generally prevails in such an atmosphere is not sound doctrine, but rather the dominant personality. Let us notice again what the apostle Paul taught the Church:

God has given us a particular gift and put us into the Church where He wants us. Every gift, used as God has assigned it, is needed for the proper functioning of the Body. The Church is whole when each member functions according to his or her place in the Body and according to his or her gift; this is a call for all of us to realistically assess our position and role in the Body of Christ: Now of course all this does not disallow the all-too-frequent reality that time is needed for all of us to fully discover and develop the gift that the grace of God has bestowed upon us. Which brings us to the next point. Paul's admonition to Timothy is applicable to each one of us: This is the stark warning contained in Christ's parable of the talents: It would surely behoove us then to ask: could we be hiding our talent, failing to use our spiritual gift? The Spirit that so dramatically changed King Saul, as we noted earlier on, eventually departed from him, leaving him spiritually destitute. Could this ever happen to us? These gifts are in accordance with the grace given each of us by God, who has allocated different functions to different spiritual limbs in the Body of Christ. Each one of us has his gift from God and, while we may have similar gifts and should be assessing and developing all our gifts and talents, let us not allow our gifts, or the pursuit of them, to be a stumbling-block to us or to others of our brethren. As Paul wrote to the Corinthians who were beset with divisions and factionalism: The role of ministering is something granted by the Lord the His servants, in this case to Paul and Apollos. The gifts people possess have been assigned to them by God, so there is no place for competition, no reason for boasting or self-aggrandizement, nor should this reality be a cause for division. And the more gifted we are, the more we should heed these admonitions: The greater the light the greater the responsibility. Let us then be mindful of our responsibilities as we reflect upon the gifts graciously granted to each of us by God.

SPIRITUAL GIFTS IN PERSPECTIVE
The apostolic Church was the recipient of some awesome and dramatic spiritual gifts (of course, not all spiritual gifts are of the dramatic variety), tongues being a good example. So where are all the gifts of the Spirit in the Church of God today? What is a correct biblical perspective on the value and use of these spiritual gifts?

Let us consider the words of the apostle Paul, again, to the Corinthians:

Yet the Corinthians, endowed with so many spiritual gifts, lagged behind in the grace of giving; Paul gently encouraged them: This gift is one that we all can improve on, is it not? And the following criterion also applies to us: Because the Spirit of God worked mightily in the Corinthian Church, endowing its members with an abundance of spiritual gifts, the human tendency may well have been to be intemperate, to focus on the outward manifestations of these gifts, to boast. Hence the apostle felt the need to emphasis that spiritual growth and the edification of the Church is the true aim of all spiritual endowments. It is a commendable thing to desire spiritual gifts, but the motive is crucial: not puffing up the self, but by love building up the Church. Paul then expounds upon this most, or still more excellent way: Godly love—a fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22) as opposed to a gift—surpasses all the charismata. No spiritual gift can compensate for a lack of agape love. Do we then cease to pursue these gifts of the Spirit to pursue love? What is Paul's point? Simply that these spiritual gifts are not to be neglected but are rather to be exercised in and through love; without love they would become objects for dissention, as evidenced in Corinth. Love is "the most excellent way" in which to seek these higher gifts.

So let us pursue these gifts of the Spirit of God in love, never forgetting that for the spiritual gifts with which the grace of God has endowed us, the credit always belongs to the great Giver and not to the gifted.

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