Distinctives 3 bis

The gift of prophecy was never meant to be a kind of appendix to the prophetic books of the Bible. The period of “Thus saith the Lord” is over, even in the New Testament. I once heard a guy say aloud in church, “One of you is struggling with a sin. If you don’t kill that sin in the next week, you or a member of your family will be dead.” (Of course, a week later when no one in the church had died, everyone knew it was bogus.)

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.

Okay, so that’s the first correction.

The Corinthians were using what looked like gifts of the Spirit—namely, prophecy and tongues—in order to set themselves apart as “next-level” Christians.

Which is, sadly, exactly what we see in many charismatic churches today. They’ll say, “I’m so glad you met Jesus… But are you baptized in the Spirit? Do you speak in tongues?” Now I don’t believe most of these Christians are intentionally trying to create a schism between Christians (their intentions are good), but in reality, that is what happens. You have the “born-again Christians” over here, and the “Spirit-filled Christians” over here. And Paul is trying to get the Corinthians to see that that is not how it works in the church.

There is a variety of gifts, but the same Spirit. Every gift is given to the church for one reason only (v. 7): for the common good of the body of Christ, for building up the church.So what are those gifts?

I’m going to explain tongues and prophecy very briefly first, because those are the gifts that stress people out.

The period of “Thus saith the Lord” is over, even in the New Testament. I once heard a guy say aloud in church, “One of you is struggling with a sin. If you don’t kill that sin in the next week, you or a member of your family will be dead.” (Of course, a week later when no one in the church had died, everyone knew it was bogus.)

The gift of prophecy was never meant to be a kind of appendix to the prophetic books of the Bible. The period of “Thus saith the Lord” is over, even in the New Testament. I once heard a guy say aloud in church, “One of you is struggling with a sin. If you don’t kill that sin in the next week, you or a member of your family will be dead.” (Of course, a week later when no one in the church had died, everyone knew it was bogus.)

So that is not the gift of prophecy Paul is talking about here.

Here’s a definition from Kyle Worley and J.T. English, and it’s an excellent definition: “Prophecy consists of Spirit-prompted, spontaneous, intelligible messages orally delivered to a person or community intended for edification or encouragement.”

Here’s Matt Chandler’s way of explaining that definition a bit further: "Someone receives from the Lord a word that doesn’t contradict the Scriptures...but [which] personalizes the Scriptures.”

What about tongues, and the interpretation of tongues?

We see the gift of tongues at work in —the Spirit comes on the Christians at Pentecost, and they begin speaking in other languages. It turns out that at that time, people had come from all over—multiple languages present—for the Passover. And what the apostles were proclaiming when they spoke in tonghes was the gospel, in the languages of the people that surrounded that house.

That’s what tongues is. And a big point Paul’s going to make in these chapters is that if you speak in tongues in church, most people aren’t going to understand it (because it’s in another language). Maybe one or two will, but most won’t.

So if you’re going to speak in tongues, he says, you should pray for someone to be able to interpret what you’re saying (14.13). And if you’re not sure that’s going to happen, don’t do it. Keep it to yourself.