Spiritual Gifts - 1 Corinthians 12
Last week we heard Ivan preach on the beginning of the Church in Acts 2: a church devoted to loving one another and to the apostles' teaching, a united church.
Now we are back in 1 Corinthians, and the picture is quite different. As a reminder, since it has been a few months: the church in Corinth had some serious problems, and that is part of why this letter exists. The apostle Paul writes to address them.
I won't go through all of Corinth's problems again, but if I had to sum them up, I would say the church suffered from division and arrogance. Division fed by arrogance, and arrogance fuelled by division. Members thought they were better than one another and formed groups around their favourite preachers, their theological views, their social status or their level of knowledge.
The passage we read today is another response to that same pattern of division and arrogance, this time in a different area: spiritual gifts. These are manifestations of the Holy Spirit, like miracles or speaking in tongues. And honestly, this is still a divisive topic in the church today, one that sparks plenty of debate.
It is a relevant topic for us at Connexion too. As far as I know, we have no divisions over it. But among our members and those who attend, there are people who have had different experiences of spiritual gifts, who come from different backgrounds, or who see the subject differently.
So keep your Bibles open, and let's look at three questions this passage raises:
Who are the "spiritual Christians"?
What are spiritual gifts?
How are they distributed?
1. Who are the "spiritual Christians"?
Spiritual gifts in Corinth are the subject of chapters 12, 13 and 14, so they will be the topic of the next few sermons as well. Chapter 12 is Paul's introduction to the subject. He begins by saying that, "concerning spiritual gifts," he does not want the Corinthians to be uninformed.
In other words, at that point they were uninformed! Paul probably opens with the word "spiritual" because it was the Corinthians' own expression. They used the adjective "spiritual" to describe certain people in their community, as if it were a status.
In the context of chapters 12 to 14, we can see the dividing line. On one side were the "spiritual" Christians who displayed visible "spiritual gifts", most likely speaking in tongues (speaking in languages one has never learned). On the other side were the "ordinary" Christians, who did not speak in tongues or did not have that kind of visible, impressive religious experience.
So Paul sets the record straight. First, in verse 2, he undercuts the idea that an impressive religious experience is the necessary and sufficient evidence of a spiritual Christian: "You know that when you were pagans you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led." You had powerful religious experiences before! And yet they were no evidence at all of a relationship with the true God.
So if visible, impressive religious experience is not the mark of a "spiritual Christian", what is? Verse 3: "No one can say 'Jesus is Lord' except in the Holy Spirit." Whoever publicly confesses Jesus as Lord, in word and in deed, is a Christian. More than that, they are a "spiritual Christian", because the Holy Spirit inspires their witness, their confession of Jesus as Lord. And whoever does not confess Jesus as Lord does not have the Holy Spirit, however many miracles they may perform.
The Corinthians relied on the display of certain gifts and miracles to decide whether a Christian was spiritual. Paul says the opposite: every Christian, by their confession of faith, is spiritual. Later, in verse 13, he goes even further: "For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body… and all were made to drink of one Spirit."
So all Christians are spiritual. They all have the same Holy Spirit: the same Spirit who, on the day of Pentecost some 2,000 years ago, caused the apostles and disciples of Jesus to speak miraculously in other languages.
We get it wrong when we judge someone's "level" as a Christian by what is visible and impressive. Someone prays with great intensity, has a spectacular experience to share, or speaks with great confidence, and we think: "Now that person is really filled with the Spirit." And we get it wrong in the same way when we judge the health of a church by the same standard.
Remember verse 2. When they were pagans, the Corinthians were already drawn to what was impressive, to powerful religious experiences. Paul is saying, in effect: what attracted you when you were pagans cannot become your standard now that you are Christians. Let's stop using in the Church the criteria that drove us before we knew Christ. The standard is the confession of Jesus as Lord, with our words and with our lives. A healthy church is a church where Jesus is confessed and served as Lord.
2. What are spiritual gifts?
If you didn't grow up in a Christian setting, or if you are not a Christian, you may feel a little lost at this point. In short: after Jesus' resurrection and ascension, his disciples received the Holy Spirit. As the first evidence of the Spirit, they began to speak in other languages they had never learned, and to prophesy.
This happened again several times in the book of Acts, each time the gospel was welcomed by people from a new region. Above all, it was a powerful sign that the gospel would be preached in every language, to every nation. And other miraculous signs went with it, such as healings.
These are the things Paul has in mind when he speaks of "spiritual gifts", but not only these! The Corinthians seem to have had a fairly narrow definition of spiritual gifts, and Paul deliberately broadens it. He mentions gifts of service, teaching, leadership and encouragement, a particularly resilient faith, and so on. He gives quite a broad list in verses 8 to 11, and again in verse 28.
So we have a list of examples of spiritual gifts. But what is a spiritual gift? Look at verses 4, 5 and 6. Their three-part structure gives us a definition:
"Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone." (vv. 4–6)
Paul is talking about one and the same thing, but describing it in three different ways. Spiritual gifts are:
an action that God accomplishes in someone…
… for a service to the Lord Jesus and his body…
… through a free gift of his Spirit.
We see the Trinity at work in these three words: action, service, gift. All three speak of the same reality, and each shows us something about it.
It is an action of God. It is not something we can bring about through a ritual or a magic formula, forcing God's hand to make him perform a miracle. No, it is a sovereign act of the sovereign God. God chooses when and how he does it.
It is a service. God chooses to act in order to serve the body of Christ: a service to one and the same Lord. Verse 7 says it too: gifts are given "for the common good". Spiritual gifts are not a way of deepening our personal spirituality or doing ourselves good. They are a means of serving the Church.
It is a gift. Gifts are… gifts! They are a free present from the Spirit. Once again we see God's sovereignty: he gives freely, without anything obliging him to do so. Verse 11 says: "All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills."
With this definition, Paul can broaden what really counts as a spiritual gift. If a gift is an action of God in someone, by his Spirit, to serve the Church, then the ability to serve as a deacon is a spiritual gift. Having resilient faith through hard times in the life of a church is a spiritual gift. Leading the church well is a spiritual gift. Knowing how to help brothers and sisters in distress is a spiritual gift.
Our definition of spiritual gifts needs to grow. Not because we doubt that God can still do impressive miracles. I believe he still does things most people would call miracles, at the times and in the places he chooses, according to his wisdom. No, our definition needs to grow because we come to know God better: the God who "empowers them all in everyone", who is constantly at work for his Church and through his Church, and who is generous as he gives a share of his Spirit to his children.
That is why I don't think we should try to pin down each gift in the list in verses 8 to 10. I imagine we would like to know: what exactly is "the utterance of knowledge"? How is it different from "the utterance of wisdom"? Frankly, these expressions appear nowhere else in the Bible. It is even possible that Paul borrows this way of listing gifts from the Corinthian church itself, as if to say: "All these gifts you usually list, and many others you don't, are all actions of God, free gifts of the Spirit, given to each one to serve the Church, for the common good."
3. How are they distributed?
We have already touched on two aspects of how gifts are distributed:
God's sovereignty: "as he wills" (v. 11)
Usefulness to the Church: "for the common good" (v. 7)
Let's add a third:
For the unity and interdependence of all: "that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another" (v. 25).
You might ask: if gifts are for the good of the Church, why not give every gift to everyone? One answer (besides the classic "God does what he wants") is that gifts are distributed in a way that makes us a body: people with different gifts who therefore depend on one another.
Paul spends a good deal of this chapter on the image of the body. Sometimes he wants to encourage those who are discouraged, who don't feel they really belong to the body because they lack a certain gift: "If the foot should say, 'Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body'…" Perhaps that is you today. You have faith, yet you wonder whether you are a "real Christian" because you have never had a miraculous experience, or because you don't have a gift you have seen in a brother or sister. And yet, as your confession of faith confirms, you have the Holy Spirit. Let's guard against that mistake.
At other times, Paul wants to correct those who think they are self-sufficient or superior because of their gifts: "The eye cannot say to the hand, 'I have no need of you,' nor again the head to the feet, 'I have no need of you.'" Sadly, I have heard people say: "I don't go to church, because God teaches me by his Spirit through the Bible", "I don't need a church". That is someone who wrongly thought their own gift was enough. Let's all guard against that mistake.
The diversity of gifts creates interdependence, and therefore unity. Uniformity would breed division and jealousy.
In verses 22 to 26, Paul adds, still using the image of the body, that we must pay attention to every member, because they suffer together and are honoured together. In a human body, some parts are more exposed and more naturally honoured, while others are less visible and less naturally honoured, yet we take care to honour them all the same. We protect our private parts, which are less visible, and honour them with our care and attention. Paul is saying that every member should be honoured in their role: some receive a more natural honour, others a more intentional one. If we neglect this, the whole body suffers!
There is something to notice in the list in verse 28: "And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then…" First, second, third: Paul does establish an order. Apostles, prophets and teachers are the gifts tied to the Word of God: those that found the Church on the gospel, build it up and teach it. So there is a hierarchy of authority and responsibility, measured by what most builds up the Church. And it is probably no accident that speaking in tongues, the gift the Corinthians were so proud of, comes last in every list.
But be careful: a hierarchy of authority is not a hierarchy of worth. And those who are more exposed are also exposed to the trials that come with their responsibility. Paul himself, the apostle, says in chapter 4 that the apostles have become "like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things" (4:13). Their visibility brings particular hardships. Authority exists to serve the body, not to rank its members. Each kind of honour in the church, according to its authority, comes with the responsibilities and difficulties of a particular service.
So we might think it is all fixed: either I have a gift or I don't. And if I don't, there is no point seeking it, because the Spirit gives sovereignly and I cannot force him. That is not quite what Paul says. In verse 31 he writes:
"But earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way." (v. 31)
Paul tells us to desire the gifts, to seek them. That does not contradict God's sovereignty. Very often, God works in and through our will: he places a desire in us, and then he answers that desire. Paul says as much to Timothy about elders: "If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task" (1 Timothy 3:1). Wanting to serve the Church as an elder is not necessarily pride. It is often the way God calls someone to that service and begins to equip them with the gift it requires. The church then recognises the gift, and the gift grows through practice and faithfulness. The same goes for other gifts: we can ask God for them, make ourselves available, practise, and serve wherever there is a need.
But we seek gifts in a particular way. First, in submission to God: it is the Spirit who distributes "as he wills". I can desire, ask and make myself available, but I cannot force God's hand, and I must receive with gratitude what he gives me, even if it is not what I imagined. Second, in faithfulness: being faithful with what I have already received, instead of looking enviously at my neighbour's gift. And the "higher" gifts, in the logic of this whole chapter, are not the most impressive ones. They are the ones that serve others most and build up the body.
Above all, Paul does not end with the gifts. He says: "I will show you a still more excellent way." A way: not one more gift, but a path along which all the gifts are to be sought and exercised. We will talk about that path next week.
