We Should Think About Spiritual Gifts
One of the promises of the new covenant, one of the things Jesus died to purchase for us, is that all of God’s people would have God’s Spirit (Ezek. 36:27). But there’s even more than that. Not only do we get God’s Spirit, when God’s Spirit comes into the house of our lives, he comes bringing presents. The Spirit of God brings gifts from God to the people of God.
We call these gifts from the Spirit “spiritual gifts.” The spiritual gifts are often debated in the church. Unfortunately this can have the unintended result of the gifts being minimized or even ignored. But the Bible makes it clear that we need to think about the gifts. 1 Corinthians 12:1, “Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed.” Paul wanted the church in Corinth to think about the gifts, so he devoted three out of sixteen chapters of his first letter to them to this subject.
Gifts Are Important, But Not Primary
Though the gifts are important, they aren’t primary. They aren’t the center and foundation of our faith. Pride of place in Christian doctrine and life goes to the cross of Jesus Christ. In the same letter to the same church, Paul writes, “When I came to you…I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (2:1-2).
Paul then says that this is where the Spirit reveals his power. “My speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God” (vv. 4-5). Paul’s preaching of the cross is what demonstrated the power and Spirit of God.
The gifts aren’t what create the church so they can’t be what sustains the church. Only the gospel of Jesus Christ can do that. But the gifts are massively important to the life and well-being of the church and should therefore be thought about, desired, and used in the church.
God Sovereignly Decides Who Gets What Gifts
Last week we went through the main New Testament passages on the various gifts looking at each gift. Today we’re going to look more broadly at the gifts. I want to give you seven truths about the gifts and then answer two common questions about them. I’m leaning heavily on Thomas Schreiner’s book Spiritual Gifts: What They Are and Why They Matter, and I highly recommend it to you for further study.
The first truth is that God sovereignly decides who gets what gifts. After listing several gifts in 1 Corinthians 12:7-10, Paul says in verse 11, “All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.” Then in verse 18 we read, “But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose.” Then in verse 28 Paul begins another list of gifts with these words, “And God has appointed in the church…”
God the Holy Spirit apportions, arranges, and appoints the gifts. He passes out the gifts. He chooses who will be what in the church. At no point in this process does God consult with us and see what gift we’d like to have. He doesn’t check our Amazon “Wish List” before deciding what gift to give us. As Creator of the universe and of the church, he has the prerogative to decide who gets what.
This truth should chip away at the iceberg of our pride. Because of sin, we’re wired to take credit for what we have or what we can do. But Paul asks, “What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as it you did not receive it?” (1 Cor. 4:7).
It’s so easy for us to congratulate ourselves for what we can do or the effects of our ministry. But it’s God who “arranged the members of the body,” not us. Our gifts don’t reflect our hard work and dedication. They’re gifts, not rewards, or wages for a job well done.
The sovereignty of God over our gifts means we should thank and praise him and trust that he knows what he’s doing. God never gets it wrong. He always gets it right.
Gifts Are to Be Exercised Under Jesus’ Lordship
The second truth follows directly out of the first one. Our spiritual gifts are to be exercised under the lordship of Jesus Christ. Paul begins his section on the gifts in 1 Corinthians by reminding us of the truth of Jesus’ lordship (12:1-3). The supremacy of Jesus over all things is the criterion by which the gifts are to be assessed.
An implication of this is that if you have extraordinary gifts but aren’t living under the lordship of Jesus Christ, then you’ve missed the point. Submission to Jesus is the solid bedrock that the house of our lives must be built on. His gifts fill the house of our lives, but the house won’t stand if the foundation is bad. It doesn’t matter how pretty your furniture is if your house is cracking and crumbling. Obedience is more important than gifts.
This is no small matter. Jesus warned that those who have wonderful gifts but don’t obey God’s will don’t actually belong to him (Matt. 7:21-23). Schreiner summarizes this well, saying, “We should question whether someone is exercising spiritual gifts in a way that is truly helpful if there is a pattern of hidden and blatant sin in his or her life. In a world where subjective experience is often used as the measure of our spiritual lives, Paul brings us back to the objective baseline of Christian experience – the lordship of Jesus.”
God Does Not Want Us All to Have the Same Gifts
The third truth is that God doesn’t want us all to have the same gifts. God distributes the gifts with great variety and diversity. Romans 12:4-5 makes this clear. Paul says that each of us is uniquely gifted (v. 4), and that we belong to one another (v. 5). God designed the church to have unity in diversity.
God doesn’t want everyone in his church to be the same. How do we know this? Because he gives his people different gifts! Paul makes this clear in 1 Corinthians 12:4-6, “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone.”
The Father, Son, and Spirit don’t want us to all have the same gifts. Our trinitiarian God wills that his church reflect his unity in diversity. The church is one though many, just as he is one though three.
Paul makes this even clearer in 1 Corinthians 12:27-30. No one has all the gifts. This means that all the gifts aren’t equally accessible to all believers. No matter how badly you want to teach, God may not give you that gift. Or lead or administrate or serve or be generous.
God spreads the gifts out in his church according to his wisdom. And like a master artist, he knows how to mix and spread the colors of his gifts on the canvas of his church. Our diversity of gifts is meant to reveal his beauty and creativity. This means we should celebrate those who have different gifts instead of envying them, that we should use our gifts faithfully instead of wishing we had something else. In this we reveal the beauty of our creative God.
We Should Think Reasonably about Our Gifts
The fourth truth is that we should think reasonably about our gifts. This is found in Romans 12:3, “For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.”
Paul begins this section on gifts by saying that how we think about ourselves is important. Our culture is driven by comparison and competition. We’re all trying to imitate someone and be better than someone else. But instead of trying to become someone else, what if we just gave ourselves to being who God made us to be? We don’t have to be enslaved to the drive to be what we’re not.
The pursuit of greatness and fame and notoriety and influence shapes much of what we do and what we aspire to be. But do we think of greatness in ways that reflect Jesus or America? Jesus told his disciples, “Whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all” (Mk. 10:43-44). True greatness according to Jesus is the result of serving, not posturing.
The practical import of this is that we should bloom where we’re planted and stop wishing we were planted somewhere else. Serve faithfully where you are and see what God does with that.
The problem is, as the old song says, “Everyone wants to go to heaven, but no one wants to die.” We all want glory without a cross, greatness without sacrifice.
The antidote to our misguided glory hunger is in Paul’s words, “Think of yourself with sober judgment.” That is, be realistic in your evaluation of yourself. Every preacher wants to be John Piper. Every missionary wants to be Jim Elliot or Lottie Moon. Every businessperson wants to be Mark Cuban. Every athlete wants to be Tom Brady. But God hasn’t made everyone the same and the truth is that no one gets glory in the end except Jesus.
So why not do everything you do to the absolute best of your ability right where you are for Jesus’ fame and not yours? He’s the only influencer who can truly and fundamentally change anyone. Let’s not long for a greatness that only belongs to him. Let’s find contentment in the gifts God has given us and stop wishing we had gifts he gave to someone else.
Schreiner is helpful here. He says, “Don’t ignore areas where you are weak, but focus your energy on where you are strong and rejoice in the gifts God has given you. We may waste time trying to become experts in an arena where we are not gifted, and usually such endeavors are due to false expectations we have put on ourselves or the false expectations others have imposed upon us. Give yourself completely and joyfully to the work God has given you to do.”
No Gifts Are Inferior or Superior
The fifth truth flows out of this. There are no spiritual gifts that are inferior or superior to the others. In the middle of his teaching on the gifts in 1 Corinthians 12, Paul inserts this analogy about the church being like a human body (vv. 12-27). The church, like a human body, is one body but has many members.
Why does he do this? Because Paul wants us to think and feel rightly about the gifts. He wants us to understand that, just as there are not inferior parts of the body, there are no inferior gifts in the church.
He says that some members will be tempted to feel inferior (vv. 15-16). It’s so tempting to compare ourselves to other “body parts” and feel inferior. We think, “The teachers are the really important ones in the church, but I’m just an ugly, hairy foot.” We think that greater visibility means greater importance in the church. Paul says, “No way! Stop minimizing what God has given you! You’re valuable to the body!”
Paul then says in verses 17-20 that no part of the body is the whole body. What if we were all huge eyes or feet? Would that be attractive? A body without an ear is incomplete. No part is comprehensive. By definition, the body of Christ needs many different parts to live. No business or sports team or family will function or prosper if someone tries to do all the jobs. “Teamwork makes the dreamwork!”
In verses 21-26, Paul tackles the problem of pride, or those who think they’re superior to other members of the body. There are no dispensable parts of the body. It’s illogical for a mouth to think it’s indispensable. How could a mouth function without a head, neck, and lungs? We all need each other to function properly.
Again, Paul wants us to feel rightly about the gifts, but our feelings about our value to the body aren’t what determine our value. Schreiner says, “(Paul) doesn’t say that we belong to one another if we feel especially close to one another. Our belonging to one another isn’t based on our feelings or on friendships. Our head and hands aren’t united because they feel especially close to one another. Our unity as a body is a fact, whether we feel it or not, whether we naturally like each other or not.”
We may struggle to connect to people in the church because we only desire to connect with people just like us. But that misses the reality of what the church actually is, namely, a diverse group of people called together by God’s grace to be the body of Christ on the earth: white, black, and brown, male and female, rich, poor, and middle class, white collar and blue collar, educated and uneducated. The church isn’t a boring and dull club of clones. Rather, it’s the beautiful and diverse body of Christ.
Gifts Are Given to Us for the Church
The sixth truth about the gifts is that they’re given to us but are for the church. The purpose of the gifts is to build up the church. Several times in 1 Corinthians 14, Paul says that the gifts of prophecy and tongues are given to edify, or build up, the church (vv. 3, 4, 5, 12, 17, 26, 31). All the gifts, charismatic or otherwise, are to strengthen the church. Verse 26, “Let all things be done for building up.”
In Ephesians 4:11-12, Paul says, “He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.”
Our gifts are meant to point away from ourselves, not to ourselves. We’ll enjoy using them, but our satisfaction isn’t the goal. They aren’t given so that we can realize our potential. They’re given so that we can build up the church.
As we use our gifts in this way, we’re proclaiming the gospel with our lives. When we give ourselves for the sake of others, we’re showing people what Jesus did for them on the cross. Jesus didn’t serve for his own sake. He served for the sake of others.
By his Spirit, Jesus gives us gifts to bless his people and as we use them, we’re reminded what Jesus did to bless his people. In this way, the gifts point us back to the cross.
Love Is More Important than Gifts
The seventh truth about the gifts is that love is more important than the gifts (1 Cor. 13:1-3). Gifts without love are pointless and worthless. As Sam Storms says, “Character is always more important than gifting.”
In these verses, Paul says that having the charismatic gifts (tongues, prophecy, etc.), or any of the gifts (faith, generosity, etc.), is less important than having love. If we have great spiritual experiences or great doctrinal knowledge or great zeal in giving away our wealth, but we don’t have love, Paul says we’re annoying (v. 1), are nothing (v. 2), and gain nothing (v. 3).
We may be known for having deep spiritual experiences, or deep understanding of the Bible and theology, but God has no regard for emotion or theology that’s not joined with love. No one cares if you’ve been to the mountain of spiritual experience or the mountain of mastering dead theologians if you don’t have love. We wrongly equate spiritual maturity with spiritual experience and knowledge. Paul says love is the test. Yes, God wants you to experience and understand him. And the way to know if you truly have is if love is the result.
Verses 4-7 tell us what this love should look like. Love like this comes to church ready to serve. Love like this sees someone sitting by themselves as an emergency. Love like this welcomes visitors instead of walking by them. Love like this makes an effort to talk to people who’re neglected and lonely. Love like this is quiet and others-centered, not loud and obnoxious. Love like this prays for God to give opportunities to use one’s gifts to bless others and doesn’t keep a record of ways others haven’t used their gifts to serve them. Love like this displays the power and beauty of the crucified King.
The seven truths about the gifts that we’ve covered are that God sovereignly decides who gets what gifts, gifts are to be exercised under Jesus’ lordship, God doesn’t want us to all have the same gifts, we should think reasonably about our gifts, no gifts are inferior or superior, gifts are given to us for the church, and love is more important than gifts.
Does Every Christian Have a Spiritual Gift?
I want to address two questions about spiritual gifts. First, does every Christian have a spiritual gift? Yes! 1 Peter 4:10, “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another.” 1 Corinthians 12:7, “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.”
Every Christian has at least one spiritual gift. Because God is sovereign over the gifts, he may choose to give us more than one gift, but we all have at least one.
How Do We Know What Our Gifts Are?
Second, how do we know what our spiritual gifts are? There’s no Bible verse telling us how to discover our gifts. But the New Testament is clear that the gifts are for building up the church, thus it seems reasonable to conclude that the best way to learn what our gifts are is by serving the church. I might say it this way: skip the survey and start serving!
Schreiner says it like this: “Tests and surveys…aren’t used as much anymore and for good reason. Such an abstract way of discovering our gift is actually contrary to the spirit of the New Testament, where we are summoned to give ourselves to other believers in the congregation. To put it another way, we will discover our gift when we pour ourselves into the lives of other believers, when we get involved in the life of the body.”
I love his encouragement to those of us who struggle to know what our gifts are: “It isn’t crucial that you recognize and know your gift. Some worry excessively about what their gift is, and as a result they are distracted from doing actual ministry. If you are involved in the church, if you are serving other believers, you are exercising your gifts even if you don’t know what they are, and that is the most important thing of all.”
John Piper offers additional counsel on this point. He says, “You shouldn’t bend your mind too much trying to label your spiritual gift before you use it. That is, don’t worry about whether you can point to prophecy, or teaching, or wisdom, or knowledge, or healing, or miracles, or mercy, or administration, etc., and say, ‘That’s mine.’ The way to think is this: the reason we have spiritual gifts is so that we can strengthen other people’s faith…We must not get hung up on naming our gifts. The thing to get hung up on is, ‘Are we doing what we can do to strengthen the faith of the people around us?’ I really believe that the problem of not knowing our spiritual gifts is not a basic problem. More basic is the problem of not desiring very much to strengthen other people’s faith…So let’s apply ourselves to becoming the kind of people more and more who long to strengthen each other’s faith.”
As we start serving the church, we should be asking other church members what they think about our gifts. Our gifts aren’t based on what we think about ourselves. The body of Christ is meant to help us discern and confirm them in our lives. This makes membership in a local church one of the most important steps we can take toward discovering our spiritual gifts.
Do you know your gifts? Are you using them?
Living Water
A more fundamental question is whether your soul has tasted the living water of the Holy Spirit? There’s only one well that can quench the thirst of your soul. His name is Jesus Christ. Those who drink the water from his well will never be thirsty again. “Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (Jn. 7:38).
The water that Jesus gives to those who come to him in faith is the fresh, cool, life-giving, peace-creating, joy-increasing, help-providing, gift-granting presence of the Holy Spirit.
The gifts of the Spirit are important, and we should think carefully about them and earnestly desire them. But the gifts only come to those who drink from the well of living water. Have you tasted the water from Jesus’ well? If you have, you’ll never thirst again. And you’ll also be empowered to help other thirsty travelers quench their thirst at the well that never runs dry.