Jan 29, 2019
By Rev. Nate Crandall
Spiritual gifts are not an optional part of the Christian life. They are essential tools which are given by God for the building up of His body. The New Testament describes spiritual gifts in three different places—Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, and Ephesians 4. The list of spiritual gifts found in 1 Corinthians further describes them as “the manifestation of the Spirit.” A manifestation is basically when the Spirit of God shows up and does stuff through human beings in whom He resides.
The most important thing to consider concerning spiritual gifts is that they be used in love. You could say that they are a gift from the Spirit with love. This aspect of love is absolutely crucial. If the love of Christ is not the guiding reality in our use of spiritual gifts, they will be useless at best and most likely harmful to the church family. The apostle Paul really brings this out in his teaching on spiritual gifts in chapters 12-14 of 1 Corinthians. Let’s take a look at three guiding principles he gives concerning these manifestation gifts of the Spirit.
Earnestly desire the higher gifts
1 Corinthians 12:27-31, “Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? But earnestly desire the higher gifts.”
When Paul says first, second, third, he is not referring to a hierarchy in the church, but an order. Apostles are not more important than anyone else. They just are the first ones to arrive on the scene. Apostles have to be present first to plant the church; otherwise it wouldn’t exist. Prophets proclaim the Word of God to apply the truth which brings transformation. Teachers build up the church body by helping us to understand, etc. Think about it this way. You can’t have leaves on a tree until you first have roots, a trunk and some branches.
Paul says something which may go against something you have learned. He says to earnestly desire the higher gifts. You may have heard the expression, “Seek the giver, not the gift.” Well, that’s not actually a biblical statement. It is true that we should be seeking the Lord who gives us the gifts. However, we should also be seeking what Paul calls “the higher gifts.”
These higher gifts are the ones which serve a purpose to build up the body. It is a good thing to desire that the church family grows up into spiritual maturity, and the spiritual gifts can help with that growth. It is selfish to want the spiritual gifts for our own benefit instead for the benefit of others. Therefore, we must always remember that God’s gifts are never meant to be kept to ourselves. This leads us to Paul’s next principle.
Follow the way of love
1 Corinthians 12:31-13:3, “And I will show you a still more excellent way. If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.”
Have you ever heard a clanging cymbal going on and on? It can become greatly annoying. Instead of adding to a greater symphony it distracts because it calls attention to itself. When tongues and prophecy and knowledge and faith are used without the undergirding purpose of love, they are merely calling attention to themselves. When this happens it negates their impact. Instead of being helpful they may actually bring harm.
I experienced the power of love working with spiritual gifts in one of the first churches where
I served. One day Elder Jim Tate, a wise and seasoned man of God, took me aside and said that he had a word from the Lord for me. “You are not going to be a missionary.” At this point in my life my goal was to be a missionary, and Jim knew that. As you can imagine, I did not respond well. However, Jim shared it with me in such a spirit of grace and love that I slowly began to consider that God had spoken through him. Jim’s love for me allowed me to “hear” what God was saying even though I didn’t want to hear it.
Love is key. However, sometimes well-meaning Christians will come to this passage and reject or downplay the spiritual gifts because they think Paul was trying to say that love is better than spiritual gifts. That’s not what Paul was trying to say. The way of love is not a replacement for the spiritual gifts. Love is the way they will be used so that the church family will grow. In other words, whatever spiritual gift the Lord works in you, use it in love because otherwise the gift will be useless.
Love is the language of God’s presence. Whenever love is not present then God is absent. Consequently, there is no useful application of spiritual gifts when the giver of those gifts, God Himself, is not present when they are manifest. We must therefore always follow the way of love when using our spiritual gifts.
Prioritize the gifts which build the body
1 Corinthians 14:1-6, “Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. For one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God; for no one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the Spirit. On the other hand, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation. The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but the one who prophesies builds up the church. Now I want you all to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets, so that the church may be built up.”
Paul again tells the Corinthian church to earnestly desire the spiritual gifts. Now in order to correctly understand what he is saying you have to know that this verb is plural. He was writing to the church as a whole, not to them as individuals. As an individual you can desire a spiritual gift all day long, but unless the Holy Spirit decides to give you that gift, it ain’t gonna happen.
Our cultural mindset defaults to “me, myself and I”—so when you heard me read this verse you probably thought to yourself, “I, me personally, should desire the gift of prophecy.” That’s our cultural bias coming out. Instead we need to read according to the cultural mindset of Paul’s day, more like this. “Our church should be happy when the spiritual gift of prophecy is used because it will encourage people.” We have to understand Paul’s intention. He was all about building up the people of God spiritually speaking, and if we are going to follow Jesus and be led by the Holy Spirit, that’s what we need to be about too.
In our use of spiritual gifts we must always remember not to let the means replace the end. Without love, the gifts become an end in and of themselves instead of the means to point
people to Jesus. As God is love, when love is not the driving force behind our use of the gifts, then we have left God on the outside looking in.
As you discover the spiritual gift or gifts which the Lord has given you to use for the building up of the body of Christ, ask yourself why you want to use it. Is it for your own recognition?
Is it to prove that you are somebody? Or is it to be a blessing to someone? It is better to leave the gift on the shelf for a season while the Lord does a work in your heart than to use a spiritual gift selfishly. Pray for a purified heart so that when the Lord wants to work through you to bless someone else through a spiritual gift, that love will be your guide.
When the spiritual manifestation gifts are used in love, then the church body is built up, encouraged and comforted. These are things that we need. Let us pray that the Spirit who lives
in us moves through us in the spiritual gifts so that He can be glorified in all things. He will be glorified as we understand and live out the truth that spiritual gifts are from the Spirit with love.
