A Position Paper of Heritage Bible Church
This is a Position Paper of Heritage Bible Church, published by the elders of the church as a guide to help Christians understand an important issue in light of the Scriptures. Complete agreement with the positions of the elders on all matters is not required for a person to serve with this church, but the elders do want you to understand what to expect from the leadership of the church. Interaction with the elders on the contents of this paper or any other issue is always welcome.
Concerning Spiritual Gifts
The subject of spiritual gifts has received an inappropriate amount of attention in the past few decades. Gifts are mentioned in just four texts of the New Testament, yet they have been the focus of countless books and sermons. One reason for the excessive interest in spiritual gifts is the abuse of some of them in the Charismatic Movement. (1)
Spiritual gifts are important for you to understand because they are directly connected to the New Testament metaphor for the church, describing it as a body. This article will summarize the New Testament passages on spiritual gifts in order to provide a background of Biblical information for the study of each text in its own context. These twelve truths about spiritual gifts are intended to help you understand what the New Testament teaches about spiritual gifts, and to prevent extrapolation and speculation beyond what Scripture teaches:
- It is crucial for you to understand gifts
- Gifts are things the Holy Spirit does
- Gifts can be counterfeited
- Gifts are not natural abilities
- Using your gift promotes unity
- Gifts are not a sign of maturity or spirituality
- Your gift is not for you
- Your gift is unique
- You are not commanded to know your gift
- Seeking to know your gift can cause problems
- Gifts of the Spirit are not the fruit of the Spirit
- You may not be using your gift
The primary text for this study is 1 Corinthians 12:1-7. (2)
1. It is crucial for you to understand gifts. When Paul said he does not want you to be unaware (12:1), he used the Greek word agnoeo which means not to know or to be ignorant. Therefore it is important to study and apply the things we learn about spiritual gifts.
2. Gifts are things the Holy Spirit does. A careful look at 1 Corinthians 12:1-7 reveals five different ways spiritual gifts are described. Two other words are used in Ephesians 4:7-8. These terms are extremely important for a thorough understanding of gifts.
We devote more attention to this point than the others on our list. The crucial matter to understand concerning spiritual gifts is: When we discuss “spiritual gifts,” what we are discussing is ways the Holy Spirit uses people to do the work of God on earth. Here are the five primary descriptions of spiritual gifts, including a summary of the meaning of each one:
a. Spirituals (12:1). The Greek word is pneumatika. The word "gifts" is not in the Greek, but was supplied in italics by the translators because of the context. The Greek word means “something which belongs to or which is actuated by the Holy Spirit.” A legitimate translation is "things of the Spirit." Everything described under the term "spiritual gifts" is in fact an activity of the Holy Spirit. We could paraphrase verse one: "I don't want you to be ignorant concerning the things the Spirit does through Christians."
The primary way the Holy Spirit ministers to people is through Christians.
b. Gifts (12:4). The Greek is charisma. It comes from the word charis, the word for "grace." This words means a “grace-gift,” or a free gift. It is an endowment of the Holy Spirit given by grace.
The word "charismatic" comes from this word. Every believer is "charismatic" in that every believer has a grace gift. It is unfortunate the term "charismatic" has been limited in modern use to those who hold to only a certain set of aberrant beliefs about miraculous gifts.
Part of God’s grace to you in Jesus Christ is that He has given you a spiritual gift to enable you to be His servant.
c. Ministries (12:5). The Greek is diakonia which means "service." It is from the same word we translate "deacon" which means "servant." A spiritual gift is for the purpose of enabling a person to serve.
The purpose of your spiritual gift is that the Holy Spirit can use you to serve others. If you are not involved in serving, you are not doing God’s will for your life, and you're missing out on seeing the power of the Holy Spirit.
d. Effects (12:6). The Greek is energema, from which come our words "energy" and "energizing." A spiritual gift is an energizing or enablement provided to you by the Holy Spirit.
When you serve God by serving other people, you are using your spiritual gift, and in the process, you are given special enablement from the Holy Spirit.
e. Manifestation of the Spirit (12:7). Spiritual gifts are things which make the workings of the (otherwise invisible) Holy Spirit visible. By definition, the Holy Spirit is invisible, because He is spirit. When we say we “see the wind,” what we actually mean is that we see the movement of things affected by the wind.
Likewise, we cannot “see” the Holy Spirit, but we see His existence and activities made manifest by people under His control using their gifts.
The visible activity of the Holy Spirit on earth is primarily through the actions of Christians serving and thereby using their spiritual gifts.
The other two words are in Ephesians 4:7-8, where both are translated "gift" or "gifts." The Greek words are dorea (4:7) which means a “free gift” and doma (4:8), which means something specific or concrete given as a gift. These words mean that spiritual gifts are real and that they are given freely by grace alone.
What Is A Spiritual Gift?
Taking all these terms in harmony with one another, we can define a spiritual gift as a specific, free bestowment of God's grace which enables the believer to function in the realm of spiritual things in order to minister to others as the Holy Spirit works through the believer to do the will of God.
It seems best, then, to take the New Testament lists of gifts not as mutually-exclusive and distinct operations, but as categories of things the Holy Spirit does through believers.
Let's summarize the key thoughts from these observations of the words for spiritual gifts:
The primary way the Holy Spirit ministers to people is through Christians. For you not to serve limits the work of the Spirit in the Church.
Part of God’s grace to you in Jesus Christ is that He has given you a spiritual gift to enable you to be His servant. Every member of the body of Christ can and must serve by God's grace.
The purpose of your spiritual gift is that the Holy Spirit can use you to serve others. If you are not involved in serving, you are not doing God’s will for your life. When you serve God by serving other people, you are using your spiritual gift, and in the process, you are given special enablement from the Holy Spirit. Those who refuse to serve miss out on experiencing the power of God.
The visible activity of the Holy Spirit on earth is primary through the actions of Christians serving and therefore using their spiritual gifts. You will not see the Spirit at work if you do not participate in the Church by serving.
3. Gifts can be counterfeited.
Scripture makes this clear. It is a sobering thought.
Matthew 7:22-23: "Many will say to Me on that day, `Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?' And then I will declare to them, `I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.'"
2 Thessalonians 2;8-9: And then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming; that is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders . . .
Notice the emphasis on the miraculous in those things counterfeited by Satan. This is in harmony with Satan's activity as a counterfeiter and with his purpose to deceive people through enticing them with promises of power.
2 Corinthians 11:14-15: And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their deeds.
Do not fall for the idea that everything done in the name of Christ, or everything which appears to be miraculous, is the work of God. The deception can be tremendously sophisticated, but it is real. Be aware that any good thing God does will be counterfeited by the enemy.
4. Spiritual gifts are not necessarily natural abilities.
The Holy Spirit is the source of these gifts, and along with them comes the divine energy provided to use them.
Something like musical ability is not necessarily a spiritual gift. It may be a natural ability used equally well by a believer or a non-believer, and it can be a means through which spiritual gifts can be ministered. And, of course, natural abilities are ultimately from God.
The distinction is that spiritual gifts are called "spirituals" (pneumatika). It is true that the operation of a person's gift is interwoven with his personality and his talents and his experiences, but the gift itself has a divine origin. Look again at 1 Corinthians 12:4-6, and you will see that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit do the work performed by our use of spiritual gifts.
Probably the most obvious distinction between the use of a natural talent and the ministry of a spiritual gift is the fruit. When it is the work of the Holy Spirit, the results include spiritual things such as salvation, growth in understanding and applying Scripture, praise and thanksgiving to God, and the presence of the fruit of the Spirit.
5. Using your gift promotes unity.
1 Corinthians 12:11: But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills.
The Holy Spirit is never divided against Himself. Ephesians 4 makes it clear that the edifying use of spiritual gifts brings about unity in the body of Christ, along with ever-increasing maturity of believers.
Ephesians 4:12-13: . . . for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fulness of Christ.
6. Gifts are not a sign of maturity or spirituality.
Spiritual gifts can be misused by believers walking according to the flesh. This was clearly the case in Corinth, as we can see by comparing these two passages:
1 Corinthians 1:7: . . . you are not lacking in any gift . . .
1 Corinthians 3:1-3: And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to babes in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able, for you are still fleshly. . . .
7. Your gift is not for you.
Your spiritual gift does not exist to make you happy or to make you mature. It exists for the purpose of ministering to the rest of the body of Christ. People seeking gifts for their own benefit misunderstand the purpose of spiritual gifts altogether.
1 Corinthians 12:7: But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.
Similarly, Ephesians 4:12 declares that the function of each member of the body is to build up all the others. One of the problems in the church at Corinth was people with the gift of tongues who had become enamored with using their gifts for personal benefit. Paul rebuked that practice:
1 Corinthians 14:1-5: Pursue love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. For one who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men, but to God; for no one understands, but in his spirit he speaks mysteries. But one who prophesies speaks to men for edification and exhortation and consolation. One who speaks in a tongue edifies himself; but one who prophesies edifies the church. Now I wish that you all spoke in tongues, but even more that you would prophesy; and greater is one who prophesies than one who speaks in tongues, unless he interprets, so that the church may receive edifying.
This is not to say that a person is not edified and blessed when he or she uses a spiritual gift. But the purpose of the gift is not primarily the edification or blessing of the one who possesses it. Spiritual gifts are for the purpose of building up others in the body of Christ. The teaching that you should seek out a certain gift is misguided and causes problems. So is the teaching that the display of certain gifts is a sign of maturity or progress in the Christian life. You have a gift for the good of the rest of the body, not for your own interest or edification.
8. Your gift is unique.
1 Corinthians 12:11: But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills.
Each individual Christian has a unique genetic and experiential background. This, coupled with the Holy Spirit's sovereign distribution of gifts "as He wills" makes each believer an individual creation. Every Christian is as unique as a snowflake. Each one is important and indispensable in the body of Christ. As with the physical body, no parts of the body of Christ are interchangeable:
Ephesians 4:15-16: . . . but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him, who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by that which every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.
9. You are not commanded to know your gift.
Many have been taught, without support from Scripture, that believers should try to discover their gifts. Following that teaching, people have developed “tests” and “spiritual gifts inventories” in well-intended efforts to help people identify their gifts.
A thorough study of the New Testament on the subject of gifts reveals the total absence of any command or exhortation to discover your gift. The well-intentioned tests designed to help Christians discover their gifts usually cause confusion and often lead to unhealthy introspection. In all the passages dealing with spiritual gifts in the New Testament, the emphasis is never on knowing your gift. The emphasis is on using your gift or on having the confidence to minister because of the promise of God’s enablement. Here are some of the themes in the “gifts passages.”
A. No individual Christian can function effectively independent of other believers (1 Corinthians 12:26-27).
B. No member of the body of Christ is any more or less important than any other member (Romans 12:3, 1 Corinthians 12:15-16).
C. We must work hard to preserve the unity of the spirit (Ephesians 4:3). This is sometimes fractured by the carnal emphasis we place on "specializing" our ministries according to our gifts.
D. The major emphasis is not on introspection about your gifts, but on serving one another and becoming more mature in Christ (Ephesians 4:11-16).
E. It is interesting to note that in listing the qualifications for elders and deacons, the Holy Spirit made no reference to spiritual gifts. (3) They are men who manifest their maturity by their character and by their influence in ministry, regardless of the gifts they possess.
While you’re not commanded to seek to know your gift, as you go about serving God in the body of Christ, you will come to see patterns of the kinds of activities God blesses. From these patterns, you gain a better and better understanding of what God chooses to do through you, and you get a pretty good idea of your gifts. As you mature in Christ, you may also discover that gifts become evident that you formerly were not aware of.
10. Seeking to know your gift can cause problems.
A. Confusion. Most Christians who have sought to "discover" their gifts have been frustrated by the inability to do so. Focusing on just one "gift" can limit a person's willingness to minister as the Spirit leads. Because of an unbiblical emphasis on discovering gifts, some parts of the body of Christ are like the centipede that used to know how to walk until he tried to figure out which foot to move first.
B. Rationalizing lack of service. Some Christians fixate on what they think their gifts are and use that as an excuse for not doing anything else. A good case can be made that the more mature a Christian becomes, the more effectively he ministers in a wide variety of situations.
C. Self-deception. In some cases, the result of the "find your gift" process is a person thinking he has a gift he does not possess.
D. Pride and unhealthy comparisons. This was one of the problems of the Corinthians. They were exalting certain gifts, and downplaying the importance of others.
11. Gifts of the Holy Spirit are not the fruit of the Holy Spirit. The fruit of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) is a list of the attitudes produced in all believers by the Holy Spirit, regardless of gifts. Gifts require the proper attitude for their effective operation in order to build up the body of Christ. All the fruit of the Holy Spirit will be produced in the life of every believer who walks by the Spirit. That does not mean that every believer is gifted like any other believer or that ministries are identical.
People who say they are using a spiritual gift, but are unloving, not joyful, not at peace, impatient, unkind, doing bad things, not being faithful, not gentle, or lacking self-control are not under the control of the Holy Spirit. It is your duty to manifest the fruit of the Spirit at all times, regardless of your gift.
12. You may not be using your gift.
1 Timothy 4:14: Do not neglect the spiritual gift within you . . .
2 Timothy 1:6: And for this reason I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.
1 Peter 4:10: As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
Peter's command to "employ" your gift is a present imperative, meaning that we are commanded to keep on using the gift which has been given to us. The presence of the command proves you can have a gift but not be using it.
CONCLUSION
- It is crucial for you to understand gifts
- Gifts are things the Holy Spirit does
- Gifts can be counterfeited
- Gifts are not natural abilities
- Using your gift promotes unity
- Gifts are not a sign of maturity or spirituality
- Your gift is not for you
- Your gift is unique
- You are not commanded to know your gift
- Seeking to know your gift can cause problems
- Gifts of the Spirit are not the fruit of the Spirit
- You may not be using your gift
As you study any of the passages on spiritual gifts or books on the subject, use these “twelve truths” in two ways.
First, check to verify the accuracy of these observations. They are derived from the text of the New Testament, but they are merely human observations. You may be able to improve on them.
Second, watch for claims concerning spiritual gifts which do not match up with these observations. Unless teaching on spiritual gifts (or any other doctrine) comes from the text of Scripture itself, it must be rejected.
When spiritual gifts operate by the power of the Holy Spirit the result is “the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” Teaching about spiritual gifts should have a good result in the church. Whenever the subject of spiritual gifts leads to division in the church, the teaching is suspect.
The reality of spiritual gifts, including how they enable the Body of Christ to function in wonderful and amazing unity, is important New Testament doctrine. Unfortunately, since the idea of the “Body of Christ” is a metaphor, and since “spiritual gifts” are a bit difficult to define, this area of theology is susceptible to speculation and confusion more than other areas. Our advice is that if some wrinkle of teaching about spiritual gifts causes you to be confused or if the teaching fractures the true unity of the church, reject that teaching.
Most of all, be diligent to continue to “grow up in all aspects into Him, who is the head, even Christ” (Ephesians 4:15) so that the gift God has given you will produce the most possible fruit for the body of Christ. Instead of asking “what is my gift?” Ask “What is my ministry?” or “How do I serve the body of Christ?” If the answer is not obvious, ask God to lead you to a need you can meet. As you meet needs, the Holy Spirit will use you by His power and grace, and it will become evident to others that your gift is being used.
Footnotes:
(1) The Charismatic Movement is comprised of those who believe the gifts of miracles, healings, tongues and interpretation of tongues operate the same now as they did in the first century. We believe those gifts have ceased. The subject of the Charismatic Movement is beyond the scope of this paper.
(2) The passages directly relevant to the subject of spiritual gifts are Romans 12:1-8, 1 Corinthians 12-14, Ephesians 4:1-16 and 1 Peter 4:7-11.
(3) "Able to teach" (1 Timothy 3:2) means that the man must be sufficiently grounded in doctrine to be able to exhort others and to refute false doctrine (Titus 3:9). It does not require that every elder be gifted to preach in a pulpit or teach in a classroom.