The gifts of the Spirit

in 1 Corinthians 12

This blog is a collection of Facebook posts in 2016. I will add to them from Romans 12 and elsewhere in due course. For now, before I get into the detail, I want to make some general marks about God’s gifts.

The first is that God gives varieties of gifts, both to Christians and non-Christians. Here we are talking about gifts given to the church, and to individuals within the church for the sake of the church.

1.      Some of these gifts are naturally endowed: birth gifts.

2.      Some are learned skills: sweat of the brow gifts.

3.      Some are supernaturally endowed: I’m not sure what to call these.

4.      Some are a mixture of the 3 things above.

So we mustn’t separate out gifts that come from God and gifts that come from ‘nature’. They are all God-given! Having said that, let’s start in earnest.

λόγος σοφίας

This week I’m going to celebrate the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Today: Wisdom, who speaks for herself in Proverbs 8. This is the gift that Stephen had which gifted him to speak so eloquently when appointed a deacon, and which led him to die for the truth he spoke.

“Ages ago I was set up,

at the first, before the beginning of the earth.

When there were no depths I was brought forth,

when there were no springs abounding with water....

...then I was beside him, like a master worker;

and I was daily his delight,

rejoicing before him always,

rejoicing in his inhabited world

and delighting in the human race.”

λόγος γνώσεως

The gift of knowledge is often trivialized as ‘a word of knowledge’ in an act of worship, through which someone identifies a person present who has a particular ailment or need. It may be that, but 1 Corinthians 12 uses the same word as 1 Corinthians 1, where ‘gnosis’ [knowledge] refers to the proclamation of Christ crucified. If I pray for this gift, I am most likely praying for the Holy Spirit to grant me the ability to teach and proclaim Christ our Saviour in a way that radically transforms the lives of those who listen. What a gift to pray for!

πίστις 

The third gift of the Holy Spirit in 1 Corinthians 12 is ‘faith’. This doesn’t refer to the faith that is common to all who are in Christ. It is a specific way of living out of that faith that touches the lives of others. Anthony Thiselton’s commentary says “Probably this gift promotes an ebullient, robust, optimistic acceptance of God’s sovereign love and mercy in such a way as to put heart into a troubled church in times of uncertainty.” I love this, but would add that it is a faith that holds others in its embrace, encouraging and enabling them to believe and hope when they are doubtful or spiritually weak. Thirdly, it is a faith which excites, energizes and propels others into the mission of God.

In the New Testament, Paul himself seems to me to have this gift. In the history of the church, such people are sometimes leaders but more often seem to be found among the ordinary, unnoticed, faith-filled folk. The question to ask yourself today is, ‘Where do I see this gift at work in our church?’

χαρίσματα ἰαμάτων

The fourth gift of the Holy Spirit in our list is plural: gifts of healing.

1.      These are gifts given for the building up of the church; we do not ‘possess’ the gifts, but we steward them. Some of us exercise the gifts of healing for a season, or on one occasion only. Some are called to carry the gift as a central feature of their Christian discipleship.

2.      These gifts are exercised in prayer. We ask for healing in the name of Jesus, and the Spirit of Jesus responds graciously through us.

3.      Healing has a sacramental character. Laying hands on the sick and anointing them are outward signs of the inward working of the grace of God. We who pray for the sick are also outward signs of God’s inward grace.

4.      The healing miracles of Jesus were exercised in compassion. But they are also signs of the end, when all will be well and there is no more pain. The church continues this earthly ministry of Jesus, and in doing so, gives hope. Healing is partial now; then it will be complete.

5.      For those who are in Christ, death is a healing journey, the entry point into the eternity of God

ἐνεργήματα δυνάμεων

Gift 5 is the working of miracles, better translated as works of power. If I pray for this gift, I am praying that God will do powerful things in Jesus’ name through me. Those powerful things might be dramatic, but they are just as likely to be hidden, quiet, behind the scenes. The reconciliation of two factions in a church, the repairing of a threatened marriage, a person restored from despair, another enabled to forgive oppressors, these too are works of power. So if you desire and pray for this gift, don’t pray for drama, pray for God to turn a little corner of the world the right way up through you. If God chooses to act dramatically, that’s fine. But to pray to be gifted with works of God’s power is to pray to be used transformatively, not dramatically.

προφητεία

Continuing with our theme of the gifts of the Spirit, prophecy comes next. There are some cautions here: if we call people with a gift of prophecy 'prophets', we may unintentionally suggest [a] that they are fortune-tellers or oracles; [b] that they are infallibly speaking with the voice of God, as spokespersons, or [c] that they have high rank or status. Perhaps that is why Paul doesn't describe such people as prophets here or in Romans 12.

More positively, this is a gift of forthtelling rather than foretelling: forthright speech to the church, calling it back to holy living, active proclamation and costly service. Some sermons, undoubtedly, show this gift at work. So does godly conversation, or wise books. And though in 1 Corinthians 12 the gift is 'for the church', prophecy may be addressed to groups and nations as well as individuals. I for one, believe that Desmond Tutu has been such a person (and of course that doesn't mean that I agree with all that he says). I do believe that his words have on more than one occasion been words forthtelling God's challenge to the church and to the society.

διακρίσεις πνευμάτων

The discernment of spirits is the next in our tour through the gifts listed in 1 Corinthians 12. It is relatively easy to cut through the thicket of opinions, perspectives and interpretations. To discern is to make a decision about the rightness or wrongness of something, to discriminate in the proper sense. As this is a gift of the Holy Spirit, this is an ability that is God-given rather than reasoned or intuitive, though of course God uses those faculties. What are the 'spirits'? They may be [a] the emotions and inner forces that pull us towards or away from God [consolation or desolation]; [b] the choices or claims we or others make in the name of God; and [c] actual evil spirits, the 'the cosmic powers of this present darkness'. It is of course a form of wisdom that we so desperately need in the church today. We always have done.

γένη γλωσσῶν + ἑρμηνεία γλωσσῶν

The last two gifts in the list in 1 Corinthians 12 go together. Paul here is not talking about the personal and private use of tongues, but about building up the church. Interestingly, in chapter 14, he says that this is a sign for unbelievers. I remember the unbelieving husband of a believing wife attending a service at which someone gave a message in tongues, followed by an interpretation from another. His remark afterwards was that this was the only thing that differentiated our church from the pub of which he was landlord!

Put simply, tongues are here

1.      addressed to God [14.2]: we ‘speak mysteries in the Spirit.’

2.      addressed to God in the church.

3.      addressed to God in the church for the sake of unbelievers.

It is as if unbelievers in church (are we bringing them in?) are invited to eavesdrop on our worship in tongues. And the interpreters must interpret what is happening, rather than what is being said. Interpretation is ‘spiritual explanation.’

More  importantly, our worship must be ‘in many tongues’ – God-breathed, inspired, ecstatic, supernatural, glorious praise, which does not dumb down. As we pray for these gifts, we are praying for our praise to be risky, to be open to the promptings of God, to be unbounded and unrestrained. It’s a prayer to ‘let God loose in our praise.’