The Holy Spirit

The Gifts of the Spirit

The gifts of the Spirit are the abilities the Holy Spirit gives to believers for the good of the whole church: teaching, serving, encouraging, giving, leading, showing mercy, and more. Paul says the Spirit distributes them as He wills, that they are meant to build up the body of Christ, and that without love even the greatest gift is nothing.

But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.1 Corinthians 12:7 (KJV)

Gifts for the common good

When Paul writes to the Corinthians about spiritual gifts, his first concern is not to make a list but to correct an attitude. Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit, he says, and, the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. The gifts are not trophies to make one Christian feel superior to another. They are given for profit, for the common good, so that the whole body is built up. The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of thee.

So every believer has something the Spirit has given, and no believer has everything. Some are given to teach, some to serve, some to encourage, some to give generously, some to lead, some to show mercy, and the Spirit divides to every man severally as he will. The point is never to prize the gift but to use it for others, and to honor the Giver.

The love without which the gifts are nothing

Right in the middle of his teaching on gifts, Paul writes the greatest chapter on love in the Bible. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass. Though he had all knowledge and all faith and gave all his goods to the poor, without love it profited him nothing. This is the frame around every gift: love is greater than all of them, and any gift used without love has missed its whole purpose.

This is why a quiet Christian full of love may be far more useful to the church than a gifted one who is proud. The gifts are the tools; love is the hand that must hold them. Paul says that gifts will one day cease when we see face to face, but love never fails. Seek the gifts, he says, but above all follow after love.

An honest word where Christians differ

Here Christians who love the same Lord hold different views, and it is only fair to say so plainly. Some, often called continuationists, believe that all the gifts named in the New Testament, including prophecy, healing, and tongues, continue in the church today. Others, often called cessationists, believe that certain miraculous gifts belonged especially to the founding age of the apostles and the writing of Scripture, and that their role changed once the New Testament was complete. Both sides love Christ, honor the Bible, and want the church built up. This page takes no side and asks that we not divide over what Scripture leaves for humble study.

What all agree on is that the Spirit still gifts His people, that gifts are for serving and not for showing off, that they must be exercised in an orderly way, and that they are worth nothing without love. Whatever your convictions on the debated questions, use what the Spirit has given you to build up His church.

One body, many members

Paul's favorite picture for the gifts is the human body. For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. The foot cannot say it is not part of the body because it is not a hand; the eye cannot tell the hand it has no need of it. Every member matters, and the parts that seem weakest are often the most necessary. So it is in the church: every gift, however quiet, is needed, and no one is dispensable.

This dismantles both pride and envy at a stroke. No one may look down on another for lacking their gift, and no one may despise their own gift because it seems small. God has set the members in the body as it pleased Him, and the health of the whole depends on each part doing its work. The gifts are given not to make some Christians stars but to make the whole body strong.

Seek the gifts, but chiefly love

Paul does not tell the Corinthians to stop caring about gifts. Covet earnestly the best gifts, he says, and elsewhere, desire spiritual gifts. The gifts are good, given by a good Spirit for the good of the church, and it is right to want to be useful. But he sets over them all a more excellent way, the way of love, without which every gift is empty noise. The measure of a gifted church is not how impressive its abilities are but how deeply its people love.

So the healthy pursuit is twofold: to use whatever the Spirit has given, and to pursue love above all. A church that seeks gifts without love grows proud and divided; a church that seeks love will use its gifts to build one another up. However these questions are worked out in different congregations, love is the thread that must run through them all.

Gifts, and the Giver above the gifts

It is easy, when we talk about gifts, to become more interested in the gifts than in the Giver. Paul will not let that happen. All these, he says, worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will. The gifts are not possessions we own or powers we control; they are entrusted to us by a Person, to be used as He directs and for the ends He chooses. Behind every genuine gift stands the sovereign, generous Spirit of God.

That keeps us humble and thankful at once. Humble, because whatever we can do for the church is a gift we did not earn and cannot boast in. Thankful, because the God who gives is far greater than any of His gifts. The mature Christian does not chase experiences or abilities for their own sake but seeks the Giver, content to be used however He wills, and glad above all simply to know Him. For a fuller study of the individual gifts and how each serves the church, see the deeper treatment of the gifts of the Spirit.

In the end the gifts are simply love made practical. The Spirit hands out abilities so that the family of God can be served, strengthened, and built up, and so that a watching world can see Christ in His people. Whatever He has given you, however ordinary it seems, receive it with thanks, use it in love, and let it point beyond you to the Giver. A church where every member serves in this way is a church where the Spirit is honored and the Lord is made known.

Gifts that point to Christ

The gifts are never meant to draw attention to the gifted. Like the Spirit Himself, they point away from us and toward Jesus. Paul says the whole body, joined and knit together by what every part supplies, grows up into Him who is the head, even Christ. The purpose of every gift is that the church might become more like her Lord and make Him known.

This is only an overview. For a fuller study of the individual gifts, drawn from Romans 12, First Corinthians 12, and Ephesians 4, and how each serves the church, see the deeper treatment of the gifts of the Spirit. However He has gifted you, receive it with thanks, use it in love, and let it serve the glory of Christ.

Related: The gifts of the Spirit, in depth · The fruit of the Spirit · The work of the Holy Spirit · The Holy Spirit