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In the church I attended in my youth,
little attention was paid to the gifts of the Spirit. I
don’t recall 1 Corinthians chapter 12 ever being the topic
of any sermon or Sunday school lesson. Our church
was…reserved. I was in high school before I ever saw
someone raise their hands in worship during the service.
I remember wondering if this person wanted the pastor to
call on him for something.
As I grew older, met new people and
attended different churches, I also discovered new ideas.
Well, these weren’t truly new ideas, but they were
to me. I found that some churches sing modern songs whose
lyrics are projected onto a screen or the wall. In fact,
some of these churches didn’t even have hymnals!
My quasi-liturgical roots were dangling loose below me as
I tried to adjust to the accompaniment of guitars – both
acoustic and electric – as opposed to the somber,
penetrating tones of the organ. I enjoyed this new form
of praise and worship, but admit that I felt grounded in
familiarity when we would sing the doxology following the
collection.
To me, healing, prophecy, and tongues
were ideas of flamboyant excess. These were the things of
early morning televangelism shows and tent revivals, and I
couldn’t see how they would or should fit in to a
respectful worship service. I was pious, and I didn’t
even know it. The odd thing is, I had never seen nor
heard anyone speak in tongues. My understanding (or more
exactly, misunderstanding) of the gifts of the
Spirit was based entirely on preconceived misconceptions.
The only thing I knew is that I was a cessationist. A
cessationist refers to someone who believes that the gifts
of the Spirit lived and died in the first century. There
are a lot of cessationists in the evangelical Christian
community.
Years later, I still have not heard
anyone speak in tongues. Jennifer and I enjoy singing
contemporary Christian praise songs in church, though you
can still catch us singing “How Great Thou Art”
around the house. My perspective on spiritual gifts has
changed, though. In this regard, I was influenced neither
by the Foursquare church I once attended, nor by the
Lutheran church in which I once worshipped. My
perspective changed when I read – and studied – the New
Testament. My teacher was Paul.
My reading of the New Testament
reveals that the churches of the time were steeped in
spiritual fervor. Speaking in tongues, prophesying,
healing, and miraculous works were commonplace in the
churches in Rome, Corinth, Galatia, and elsewhere. Paul
himself spoke in tongues, performed healings, and
prophesied. Perhaps the most clear passage regarding the
gifts of the Spirit is 1 Corinthians 12:1-11:
Now about spiritual gifts,
brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant. You know that
when you were pagans, somehow or other you were influenced
and led astray to mute idols. Therefore I tell you that
no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus
be cursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by
the Holy Spirit.
There are different kinds of
gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of
service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of
working, but the same God works all of them in all men.
Now to each one the
manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.
To one there is given through the Spirit the message of
wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of
the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to
another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another
miraculous powers to another prophecy, to another
distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in
different kinds of tongues, and to still another the
interpretation of tongues. All these are the works of one
and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just
as he determines.
While the above passage is perhaps
the most thorough, there is also mention of the gifts in
Romans 12:6-8:
We have different gifts,
according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is
prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith.
If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let
him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it
is contributing to the needs of others, let him give
generously; if it is leadership, let him govern
diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it
cheerfully.
The issue of the gifts of the Spirit can be a touchy one in the
Christian community. In the coming series of studies, we
will look at each of the gifts Paul described, and we will
examine their purpose and their relevancy in the church
today. Our position on this subject will not be taken
from any church denomination or affiliation. We will
simply present what the Lord gives us in His Word, and it
will be up to you to formulate your own opinions. As this
study progresses, we hope you will be like the Bereans,
and study your Bible to see if what we say is true (Acts
17:11).
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