The Gifts of the Spirit and Synthesis
The Spirit gives a gift to every believer to build the church; the greatest of all is love; and His whole work ends in glorifying Christ
1. Concerning spiritual gifts
Paul opens his great teaching on this subject by saying, "now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant" (1 Corinthians 12:1). A spiritual gift is an ability the Holy Spirit gives to a believer for the service of God and the good of the church. It is not the same as a natural talent, though God may take up our natural abilities and use them; a spiritual gift is the Spirit's own bestowal, given for the work of Christ's body. Paul lays down two tests at the very start. First, no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever curses Jesus, and "no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost" (1 Corinthians 12:3); whatever exalts Jesus as Lord bears the mark of the Spirit. Second, the gifts are distributed as the Spirit chooses, "dividing to every man severally as he will" (1 Corinthians 12:11). We do not select our own gift as from a shelf; the Spirit assigns it according to His wisdom.
2. A gift for every believer
It is a great comfort to learn that the Spirit gives a gift to every believer, not only to preachers and leaders. Paul says "the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man" (1 Corinthians 12:7), and Peter agrees: "as every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another" (1 Peter 4:10). There is no idle member in a healthy body of Christ, no one without some Spirit-given way of serving. This means that you, whoever you are, have been given something to do for God that no one else can do quite as you can. Some gifts are quiet and hidden, others are seen by all; but every one of them comes from the same Spirit, and not one of them is to lie unused. We must never say, because our gift is small or unseen, that we have nothing to offer; the Spirit has given us a gift, and He gave it on purpose to be used.
3. Gifts given to build the church
Why does the Spirit give these gifts? Paul tells us plainly: they are given "to profit withal" (1 Corinthians 12:7), that is, for the profit of all. The gifts are not toys to be played with for our own pleasure, but tools to be used for the building up of the church. Paul compares the church to a body with many members, each needing the others, "that there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another" (1 Corinthians 12:25). The eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of thee." So the gifts are meant to knit us together, each member supplying what the others lack, until the whole body grows strong. A gift used for show, or hoarded for self, has been turned from its purpose. The Spirit gives in order to build, and the test of any gift is whether it serves and strengthens the people of God.
4. Two wrong attitudes
Because we are still sinners, two wrong attitudes creep in around the gifts, and Paul warns against both. The first is pride. Those who have the showy gifts, the gifts that draw a crowd, may begin to think themselves better than their brethren, as if the gift were a medal earned rather than a trust given. But Paul asks, "what hast thou that thou didst not receive?" (1 Corinthians 4:7); there is no room for boasting in a gift we did not earn. The second wrong attitude is the opposite: those with quieter gifts may belittle them and bury them, saying their part does not matter. This too Paul corrects, for "if the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?" (1 Corinthians 12:15). The hidden gift is as needful as the famous one. So we are neither to boast in a great gift nor to bury a small one, but humbly and faithfully to use whatever the Spirit has given.
5. The greatest gift is love
Right in the middle of his teaching on gifts, Paul stops to set one thing above them all. He says that if he could speak with the tongues of men and of angels, or understand all mysteries and all knowledge, or even give his body to be burned, and yet had not love, he would be nothing and would profit nothing (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). Love is greater than every gift. The gifts will one day cease, for prophecies will fail and knowledge will vanish away when we see God face to face, "but charity never faileth" (1 Corinthians 13:8). Love is patient and kind; it does not envy or boast; it is not puffed up; it seeks not its own; it bears, believes, hopes, and endures all things. And so the greatest gift is not the most spectacular ability but the love that should govern the use of every gift. A church full of gifts but empty of love is a noisy, clanging thing; a church where love rules turns all its gifts to the glory of God. This is why Paul, having listed the gifts, calls love "a more excellent way" (1 Corinthians 12:31). The gifts are the instruments, but love is the music; without it the finest instruments make only noise. He would have us earnestly desire the gifts, yet pursue love above them all, for love is the one grace that will outlast heaven and earth and abide forever with God.
6. The gifts listed in Romans 12
Paul gives us a sample list of gifts in Romans 12, and bids each believer use his own. "Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us" (Romans 12:6), he names several. There is prophecy, which for us means the faithful declaring and explaining of God's Word. There is ministry, the gift of practical service, such as the deacons were chosen to render. There is teaching, the gift of making the truth plain to others. There is exhortation, the gift of encouraging and stirring up the saints, the gift that Barnabas, the son of encouragement, so richly had. There is giving, to be done "with simplicity"; there is ruling, the gift of leadership, to be done "with diligence"; and there is showing mercy, to be done "with cheerfulness" (Romans 12:8). No believer has them all, and none is left without any; each is to find his gift and pour it out for the good of the church.
7. A word on the gifts today
Wherever gifts are discussed, the question arises whether all of them continue today as they did in the apostles' time. We considered this question earlier with care, and need not reopen it at length here; sincere believers hold different views, and our churches extend charity to one another and do not divide over what Scripture does not make a test of fellowship. What matters most is the test the Spirit Himself gives: whatever is truly of the Spirit will exalt Christ as Lord, will accord with the Scriptures, and will be governed by love. Hold fast to that, and use the gift God has given you, whatever you conclude about the rest. The Spirit did not give His gifts to start arguments, but to build the church and to glorify the Lord Jesus through a people serving one another in love.
8. The whole work of the Spirit
As we close this course, let us gather the whole into one view, for the threads run together to a single end. We began by learning who the Spirit is: a Person, not a force, and not a lesser being but God Himself, the third Person of the one Godhead. We traced His work through the Old Testament, His coming in fullness at Pentecost, and His work in our salvation, giving the new birth, indwelling, sealing, and assuring every believer. We learned that He may be quenched, grieved, and blasphemed, and so He is to be treated with tender reverence. We saw Him as our Helper, aiding us in prayer, in trouble, and in the long work of our salvation. We watched Him bear His fruit in us, and give His gifts for the building of the church. And through all of it runs one golden thread, the very thing Jesus said the Spirit would do: "He shall glorify me" (John 16:14). The Spirit does not point to Himself; He points to Christ. So the whole of this doctrine ends in a single, practical call. Yield to the Spirit. Be filled with the Spirit. Bear the fruit of the Spirit. Use the gift the Spirit has given you. And in all of it let Him do His chosen work, glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ in you, "for if we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit" (Galatians 5:25). To study this doctrine is good, but to live it is better, for the Spirit was not given merely to be understood but to be obeyed and enjoyed. May the God who has given us His own Spirit teach each of us to walk in step with Him, until the day when the work He began in us is brought to its full and final glory.
From Dr. Cook's Pulpit
A word on the gifts that are persons — Ephesians 4:11, where the keyword is someThere is one list of gifts we have not yet set before us, and it is a remarkable one, for in it the gifts are not abilities but people. When Christ ascended on high, Paul says, He gave gifts to men; and "he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers" (Ephesians 4:11). Mark the little word that runs through the verse: some. Not all are apostles, not all are evangelists, not all are teachers; the risen Lord hands out these gifts as He pleases, giving some men to the church for one work and some for another. And these gifted men are themselves Christ's gift — the ascended King distributing leaders to His people as a conqueror distributes the spoils of his victory.
And He gave them for a plain purpose, stated in the next breath: to equip the saints for the work of the ministry and to build up the body of Christ, until we all come to maturity and are no longer children tossed about with every wind of doctrine (Ephesians 4:12-14). These offices are not platforms for a few great men to be admired; they exist to make the whole body grow up and to keep it in unity. A spiritual gift, of whatever kind, is never given to display the one who has it, but to serve and strengthen everyone else. A missionary to India named Gordon Maxwell once asked a Hindu scholar to teach him the language, and the man refused: “No, Sahib, I will not teach you. No man can live with you and not become a Christian.” His life so plainly carried Christ that it drew others toward Him without a word. That is what the Lord's gifts are for — not to be admired, but to build His church and to draw men to Himself.
So do not waste your strength wishing you had another's gift, nor parade the one you have. Find the gift the Spirit has placed in you, and pour it out where it belongs — in the building up of the body, in the service of the people of God, that Christ may be glorified and His church brought to maturity in love.