By Robert L. Olsen, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Christian Studies, University of Mobile
Serving God’s People
1 Corinthians 12:4–12, 21–26
Diverse (4–6)
The Corinthian church had many divisions, and Paul was trying to bring unity to this group of believers. It seems like everything that could divide a church did divide this church. One of the divisions was caused by spiritual gifts. Spiritual gifts are special gifts given by the Holy Spirit to believers for the purpose of helping the Church. The gifts are given by God — they are not produced by Christians and therefore should not be a point of contention.
Specific (7–10)
Paul goes on to list examples of spiritual gifts. This list is not exhaustive because more examples are given in Scripture (Rom. 12:6–8, 1 Cor. 12:28–30, Eph. 4:11 and 1 Pet. 4:9–11).
The first gift Paul lists is that of wisdom. Along with knowledge, the second gift listed, wisdom was an important topic in Corinth. There is a difference between worldly wisdom and godly wisdom. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3:19 that the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. We see this around us every day — when we hear people in the news talk about what people ought to believe, we see their foolishness. This is especially true when people deal with spiritual issues. For example, many undermine the exclusivity of the gospel by emphasizing God’s love to the point that they believe no one goes to hell. This is a dangerous teaching indeed because it actually sends people down the wide gate that leads to destruction (see Matt. 7:13–14). Godly wisdom opposes this worldly wisdom.
As with wisdom, true knowledge is the knowledge of God found in Scripture. Worldly knowledge is good for some things, but spiritual knowledge leads to the edification of the body of believers.
Furthermore, Paul points out some had the gift to perform miracles, some prophecy, some distinguishing between spirits, others speaking in different tongues and some interpreting different tongues. These were used in the early church for encouragement and to show visual and verbal representations of the Holy Spirit.
Intentional (11–12, 21–26)
Why does Paul spend so much time dealing with spiritual gifts? The spiritual gifts are important for building up the Church. Paul uses the analogy of the human body to show the importance of each part of the body doing its job.
Living in Alabama, I like to use the illustration of football. Each position in football is vital. Some positions receive more attention than others but each position is crucial. If a team does not have a good offensive line, the offense will suffer. If the left tackle cannot protect the quarterback, the team will be in jeopardy. Likewise if the team’s defense is weak, the team will be unable to keep the ball out of the end zone.
Christianity is like this. Each person in the church has a vital role to play. Some are gifted speakers and teachers and they use their abilities accordingly. Others are gifted at cooking and are able to cook for the glory of God, providing food for occasions and offering hospitality. There is no gift within the church that is unimportant and as a Church we need to help people see their gifts and encourage them to use those gifts.
As believers, we need to be content with the gifts God has given us. All believers have gifts so it is up to us to do a self-inventory to discover what gifts God has given to us. This way we can be a part of edifying the body of believers.
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