All mammals are mammals, but not all mammals are the same. Christianity is like this. All Christians are Christians. We all share a common faith and salvation. We all have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins (Eph 1:7). We all have been adopted into God’s family as children (Rom 8:15-17; Gal 3:26-29). We all have been baptized in one Spirit into one body (I Cor 12:13). We all, thus, have access to God’s Spirit, heart, and throne.
But we are not all the same.
Paul says that we are a body with many members. Some are hands, some are feet, some are eyes, some are ears. The same blood flows through all members, and we all have the same spiritual DNA, but a hand is not an eye. We have different giftings and, thus, different functions.
No one possesses all the gifts. If people did, they would not need to be part of a body, for they would be a body unto themselves.
Paul addresses this idea of gifting in his letters (Rom 12, Eph 4, and most thoroughly in I Corinthians 12-14), and I want to use those letters to talk about spiritual gifts. Let’s begin with some basics.
What are Spiritual Gifts?
1. Spiritual gifts are spiritual. I don’t mean to state the obvious, but sometimes we miss the obvious. Spiritual gifts have a spiritual source and a spiritual purpose. We may say that Rachmaninoff was a gifted pianist, that Michael Jordan was a gifted basketball player, and that Einstein had a gifted intellect, and in all of those cases, we would be right, but their giftings are not spiritual gifts.
Spiritual gifts are not merely natural talents. They may involve talents like music or teaching, but spiritual gifts have a spiritual component. Natural talents by themselves are not spiritual. For this reason, unbelievers do not have spiritual gifts. They don’t know God, and because they don’t know God, they lack a godly spiritual presence in their lives. They may be good musicians, teachers or administrators, but they cannot use those gifts for God. Unbelievers don’t serve God.
When someone follows Jesus, the Spirit of God enters him. Only then can we begin to talk of spiritual gifts. The Spirit may take natural talents, empower them, refine them, and redirect them toward godly spiritual purposes, or the Spirit may grant completely new talents like spiritual wisdom, healing or prophecy. Either way, the one essential component is the Holy Spirit. Spiritual gifts are spiritual.
2. Spiritual gifts are gifts. Again, I don’t mean to state the obvious, but sometimes we miss the obvious. A gift is something you don’t earn. We do not acquire spiritual gifts by practice or hard work. God simply gives them to us. Spiritual gifts, thus, come by grace.
Since this is the case, no one should ever boast in his gifts. You did not do anything to receive the gifts you have. The Corinthians forgot that their gifts were grace, for they thought quite highly of themselves because they spoke in tongues. But they didn’t do anything to be able to speak in tongues. It was a gift.
What is the Purpose of Spiritual Gifts?
Paul says, “to each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good” (I Cor 12:7). The purpose of the gifts, then, is for the good of the body. The foot walks for the good of the body. The hand grasps, the eye sees, the ear hears all for the good of the body. Thus, the gift of evangelism is for the good of the body. Prophecy, teaching, service, and leadership are all for the good of the body (Eph 4:11-16). Different gifts contribute to the good of the body in different ways, just as the hand and the eye do. But any talent, any gift, that does not contribute to the building of the church is not and cannot be a spiritual gift.
