The Gifts of the Spirit - 2
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1 Corinthians 12 & 13
1 Corinthians 12 & 13
4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.
27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. 28 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. 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30 Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? 31 But earnestly desire the higher gifts.
And I will show you a still more excellent way.
1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 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. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
We contine today with our Church Unpacked study. Looking at the nature, attributes and function of the Church.
We need to have a strong Biblical theology of the Church in these times. Your concept of Church is the battlefield between the Kingdom of God and the spirit of the age.
Rugged individualism vs Interdependence.
We’ve touched on this passage before when we looked at what it means for The Church to be ‘The Body of Christ’. Today we’re returning to 1 Corinthians 12 and 13 in order to sharpen our focus on the Spiritual gifts.
Last time out we looked at 4 greek words that Paul uses to describe the gifts; they are Spiritual in nature, they are gifts of grace, they are gifts of service, and they are to go to work.
DOCTRINE
Q. What are the gifts of the Spirit according to 1 Corinthians 12 and 13?
A. They are a variety of gifts distributed to each believer by the same Spirit as He sees fit.
Working together in harmony these gifts build up the Church.
Their effectiveness will be directly proportional to the amount of love we have for one another.
AN UNBALANCED CHURCH
Paul stresses in 1 Corinthians 12:4-11 that there is a great variert and diversity of spiritual gifts.
The Church in Corinth was particularly blessed with many Spiritual gifts. From Paul’s letter it seems that they had many who spoke in tongues and many who had the gift of prophecy. Though it seems that there was some disorder in their meetings, not only pertaining to the Lord’s supper, where some ate and others went hungry, but also in their attitude to the gifts of the Spirit.
The Corinthians were making use of the Spiritual gifts, but there was very little order in their meetings.
40 But all things should be done decently and in order.
People would be speaking out in tongues without an interpretation. Others would be prophesying over the church and there would be no discernment happening.
The Corinthians highly valued the more miraculous gifts and those who operated in those gifts would receive an elevated status in the church. And so naturally everyone wanted to be seen to be operating in the miraculous gifts. The less visible gifts of the Spirit were being undervalued or barely noted at all.
The Apostle Paul wanted to stress the absolute necessity of ALL of the gifts, not just the obviously supernatural ones. A healthy church is not a Church full of people who have exactly the same gifts! That’s the definition of an unbalanced church.
Unity, not unvarying uniformity, is the law of God in the world of grace, as in that of nature - jfb
There’s no one like you - You were each made unique, with a special unique personality and a God given set of gifts for use in the Church.
Paul is at pains to say that those gifts that seem to be less flashy are every bit as essential as the more visible gifts.
Image of the unbalanced body builder.
We find out which gifts we have when we find a place to serve. Sometimes as Churches grow and change and God repositions you, He will give you a new gift. It may be that as HCC grows, so will you. By God’s grace you will start to operate in new areas of gifting for the upbuilding of this church.
There are 9 gifts mentioned between verses 8 and 10; word of wisdom, word of knowledge, faith, gifts of healing, miracles, prophecy, distinguishing between spirits, tongues and interpreation of tongues. but elsewhere Paul mentions more. Some count over 20 different Spiritual gifts in Paul’s writings - so the point being is that there is a vast variety of gifts and maybe some that Paul doesn’t even mention.
What’s more is - the manifestation of the same gift will look slightly different in each individual.
6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; 7 if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; 8 if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.
UNITY
Every clause which mentions variety is followed up by an answering clause stressing unity.
Varieties of gifts - The Same Spirit. Varieties of service - The same Lord. Varieties of activities - The same God.
Pneuma, Kyrios, Theos. Spirit, Lord and God. The Trinity is one, and it’s in His unity that the gifts have unity. Just as there is diversity of personhood and yet unity of being in the trinity, so there is both diversity and unity in the gifts.
The gifts given to the Pevensie Children in the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe - Peter received a sword and shield, Susan received a horn and a bow and arrows, Lucy received a vial of healing potion and a small dagger. It might have been easy for Lucy to feel jealousy that her sister and brother received larger gifts than she did, but she loved the gift, because of who it came from. It was unique, given to her with forethought by Father Christmas! This is how we are to treat our gifts - they are precious because of who gave them to us!
The gifts are also united in their purpose - they all function within the same body. Just because a particular part of the body isn’t visible to the eye doesn’t make it any less essential to the function of the body, in fact often the reverse is true, the parts of the body that we can’t see are the parts we can’t live without! The same is true of the gifts.
You may feel that because your gifts and service aren’t always very visible to others, that they aren’t valuable or important. God says that what you bring to the Church is absolutely indispensible. Those who have more visible gifts are not to think of themselves more highly than others, but are to be humble - remembering their dependence on others.
We don’t all have the same gifts as Paul makes clear - so we absolutely need each other to show up! We need to create ways for each individual to utilise their gift in the life of the church - sometimes that will be on a Sunday, sometimes it will be at Midweek, or Women at the Well, other times it will be at a social event. We are to create space for gifts to be used.
Friend using the prophetic: Gareth’s story of his mate calling him: Gareth saying to his dad he is going to quit the ministry and friend calls him...
“Prophecy at it’s most basic level is reporting something that God spontaneously brings to mind.” - Grudem
THE POWER OF LOVE
After Paul expounds on the power and value of the spiritual gifts, and encourages the Corinthians to earnestly desire the greater gifts (which i want you to do also!), he tells them he will show them something still more excellent.
What is this still more excellent way? What is this virtue which is higher than even the great gifts of grace? It is love.
How is love greater than the gifts? Because without love - the gifts of blessing become an offence instead. Without love, the beautiful is made ugly, the noble is made vulgar. And for all the extent of our giftedness - if we have not love it will profit us nothing!
22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
Many have fallen into the trap of thinking that spiritual gifts are a sign of spiritual maturity - that is not the case at all. The Corinthians were very active in the gifts but were rebuked by Paul for their immaturity. Jesus even says that some of those who practiced the most visible and powerful signs and wonders were actually workers of lawlessness, and in the last day will be condemned.
Measure maturity by the fruits of the spirit rather than the gifts.
Unless we have love - love towards each other, love towards the Church, these gifts won’t work properly. We’ve seen this happen over and over again on the church scene - leaders and ministries abusing their gifts in order to control people and manipulate them rather than love them. They outcome is that on one hand havoc is wreaked and on the other hand - it doesn’t profit the church.
What was the thing that people loved about Jesus above all other things? Above his teaching, His miracles, His healings? Was it not His ability to love the grimiest, most unlovable of people? Think of Zaccheus, think of the woman caught in adultery, think of the prostitute who washed his feet with her hair. What do you think was their abiding memory of meeting Jesus? It was surely the way He loved them.
16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
Abide in love. Walk in love.
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
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