SPIRITUAL GIFTS IN I CORINTHIANS

When it comes to a discussion of the spiritual gifts, I should first of all say that I am not one of those who tries to make firm distinctions between which of them are still active today and which are not, especially on the dubious basis of I Corinthians 13:8-13. My personal belief is that in one form or another, they are all present in today's church. There are at least six different lists of these gifts given in the New Testament; four of them are located in I Corinthians 12-14. Within chapter 12 we have two lists, the first in terms of the gift and the second concentrating on the person exercising the gift. Here are some comments related to these spiritual gifts:

I Corinthians 12:8-10

utterance of wisdom – Gordon Fee explains: “This language clearly harks back to the problem addressed in 1:17-2:16, where in the name of wisdom the Corinthians were rejecting both Paul and his gospel...With a considerable stroke of inspiration Paul now does two things: (a) He uses one of their own terms to begin his list of 'manifestations' in the assembly that demonstrate the great diversity inherent in the one Spirit's activities; and (b) he reshapes that term in light of the work of the Spirit so as to give it a significantly different content from their own. The phrase means either 'a message / utterance full of wisdom' or 'an utterance characterized by wisdom.'”

utterance of knowledge – Fee considers this to be parallel to some extent with the above gift. For one thing, it appears to be a rejoinder of sorts to the Corinthians' use of the word “knowledge” as seen in I Corinthians 8:1-7. Here it may refer to factual material which would be otherwise unknown. However, Fee feels that it may also mean “something more akin to inspired teaching, perhaps related to receiving Christian insight into the meaning of Scripture.”

faith – It should be obvious that this does not refer to the Christian faith which every believer possesses. Instead, it is more like the mountain-moving faith that Jesus mentions in the Gospels. Orr and Walther express the following: “In the light of 13:2, it seems to be the kind of openness and confidence that enables the power of God to operate through the person who has it. It enables the possessor to perform great and wonderful deeds and to live through hardship.”

healing – Without denying the reality of the rare phenomenon of “faith-healings” today, I think we can safely apply this gift to those in the medical and counseling professions, especially when their work is carried out in a Christian setting or in the name of Christ.

working of miracles – Both “working” and “miracles” are plural in the Greek. Thus, Fee states that in means “all other such phenomena not included in healing. Marsh feels these “miracles were most evidently acts of power. Such instances are recorded in Ac. 5:1-11; 13:11.” Similarly, Lowery says the term “may refer to exorcising demons (Acts 19:12) or inducing physical disability (Acts 13:11) or even death (Acts 5:5,9).”

prophecy – By this, we certainly are not talking about those self-proclaimed prophecy experts who claim to be able to read the signs of the times to predict future events. It is more likely that it refers to the sort of OT prophets who spoke under God's guidance of mainly ethical matters in order to bring the people to repentance and a proper understanding of His intended will for their lives.

distinguishing spirits – I personally believe that this is the spiritual gift most lacking in today's churches. Too many believers appear to totally give up on trying to develop spiritual discernment. Instead that are all too happy to just leave it to the preacher or Sunday school teacher (or even their favorite politician) to tell them what is right and what is wrong, instead of looking again at what the Bible says.

Two examples: Years ago, two young women in my Sunday school class told me that they only wanted me to give them one interpretation on any issue and they would be content to believe it instead giving them a couple of the most logical possibilities for them to decide between.

And I heard of a recent case in another church in which the pastor spoke on the subject of forgiving our enemies. After the service, a member of the congregation came up to him and told him that he should never preach on that subject again.

tongues and interpreting tongues – This difficult subject is discussed at length in my three posts “Tongue Speaking: Private Prayers, Congregational, Pentecost.”

I Corinthians 12:28

apostles – This gift gives rise to the question as to whether the church today should appoint apostles. There are three ways to understand this particular gift, which is said to be “first.”

One interpretation uses the word “apostles” to refer to The Twelve and Judas' replacement, Matthias. This is the usage of the word throughout the Synoptic Gospels and the first part of Acts. If so, then “first” may be an indication of either importance or chronology such as in the parallel passage Ephesians 2:19-20: “...the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets,

with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone.” According to this understanding, this office does not apply to the church today.

However, the same Greek word, apostolos, is applied in the Epistles and in the second half of Acts to Paul (Romans 1:1, 11:13; I Corinthians 15:9, etc.), Barnabas (Acts 14:14), Epaphroditus (Philippians 2:25), Andronicus (Romans 16:7) and Junia (Romans 16:7). The last one is especially interesting since it is a woman's name. Thus, “apostle” may have a broader definition referring to some designated church office which could conceivably be valid for today's church.

Lastly, Paul may have been using the word according to the original meaning of the word: “messenger, or one sent forth.” This last possibility is the understanding of apostolos in John 13:16 and II Corinthians 8:23 and explains how the author of Hebrews could even call Jesus an apostle (Hebrews 3:1). Whether or not God sends only particular people out as a messengers (or apostles) today is not clear.

prophets – see comments above

teachers – Grosheide appears to devalue this gift by his comments: “This teaching may have been based on a special charisma (cf. vs. 8), but it must have been done without such a special gift of the Spirit as well...In Jas. 3:1, we read that the office of a teacher was open to everyone's ambition, and the requirement of a special charisma is not mentioned. The office of a teacher is based on a vocation rather than on a charisma. It is one of the most common among the ordinary offices in the church.”

By contrast, this gift's high position in several “gifts lists,” argues that this is one of the most important for the life of the church. In addition, James' admonition in James 3:1 that “not many of you be teachers” seems to similarly point to that fact.

healers – see above

helpers – Orr and Walther point out: “The ministries of aids are nowhere in the New Testament discussed in detail, but they are everywhere assumed (and cf. Acts 6:1-6).” One could say that this should be a prime gift of the deacons, even though some of them unfortunately often consider themselves to be the prime movers and shakers in some congregations instead.

Administrators – There is a great deal of diversity regarding this gift. For example, Grosheide feels that “comparison with I Tim. 5:17 indicates that there were elders who ruled without laboring in the word and in doctrine. Those men were charged not so much with the administration of the external things as perhaps the 'helps' were, but rather with the spiritual leadership.” By contrast, many denominations today restrict the office of elder to the paid pastoral staff who have the proper academic credentials.

speakers and interpreters of tongues – see the posts recommended above

And, as a final word on the subject, note that there is nothing in the New Testament that teaches against a person having either (a) more than one spiritual gift at a time or (b) having different gifts at different times of their life.