SPIRITUAL GIFTS

Are they all still around?

In the Bible, spiritual gifts are special abilities granted to Christians for service in the church. The Greek word most commonly used for spiritual gifts is charisma–the emphasis being on the grace (charis) by which such abilities are granted. It's easy to remember where the key passages are: Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4, and 1 Peter 4. First Corinthians 12-14 has the fullest explanation of the purpose and source of spiritual gifts. In summary, the Holy Spirit distributes these abilities to various believers as He chooses, so that each one has a gift by which to serve, and no church lacks any gift necessary to carry out its God-given task. Everything about spiritual gifts is church-directed: edification (building-up) of fellow believers–not of one's self–is the sole proper use of spiritual gifts. No one should look down on a believer for having one of the less "spectacular" gifts. They are all to be used in an orderly fashion for the benefit of all. And as the famous 13th chapter of 1 Corinthians explains, gifts and acts of service are nothing without love.

No one place in the Bible gives a comprehensive list of the gifts, or goes into much detail about what they mean. If the apostles addressed such matters, they evidently did so in their preaching rather than in their canonical writings. But observe the following lists that describe what are, were, or are thought to be, spiritual gifts:

In addition to these are a few other talents or dispositions the Bible describes as gifts from the Holy Spirit: craftsmanship (Exod. 31:2-6), celibacy (1 Cor. 7:7), the mysteries, poverty, and martyrdom mentioned in 1 Corinthians 13:1-3, and worship-oriented abilities in music, preaching, and drama. Some also classify the hospitality of 1 Peter 4:9 as a spiritual gift. Exorcism is never spoken of as a gift in the Bible.

Various Gifts Defined

1. Craftsmanship: In Exodus 31:2-6, God speaks of Bezalel, a man from the tribe of Judah: "I have filled him with the Spirit of God in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge, and in all [kinds of] craftsmanship." God would use Bezalel to design the metalwork, stone cutting, and woodcarving for the Tabernacle at which the Israelites would worship God. He also appoints and equips the Danite Oholiab and other skillful men for the work. This is long before the Holy Spirit was generally available to God's people (Num. 11:29), but we may think of it as a foretaste of spiritual gifts in general. The obvious contemporary parallel would be the creative ability involved in designing and constructing church meeting houses and worship centers.
2. Prophecy: Throughout the Bible, this refers to receiving verbal revelation from God to report to other people. The prophets of the Old and New Testaments spoke with absolute truth and authority–about God, about the people's sins, about the future. Some of the harshest judgments in Scripture are pronounced on false prophets: those who depart from previously revealed ethics and doctrine, or whose predictions fail to come true (e.g., Deut. 13:1-3; 18:19-22; Jer. 23:9-40). But true prophets speak so faithfully that their words are to be regarded as the very words of God. Ephesians 2:19-22 speaks metaphorically of the apostles and prophets of the New Testament as the foundation of God's house, the church.
3. Service, or ministry, is the Greek word diakonian, which can identify the office of deacon but more generally anyone who performs a service. Because of the broad scope of this word, we should not tie it to too specific a gift. What we can expect from one with this gift is a spirit of volunteering and willingness to serve.
4. Teaching is the word didaskalia, and has to do with doctrine–the facts about God, salvation, the Bible, the church, etc. Teaching carries with it great responsibility, and is one of the main tasks of elders or overseers. All teaching must be in accord with what has been handed down by the apostles in Scripture.
5. Exhortation, sometimes translated "encouragement," is paraklesei. It does not have to do with cheering up, but with urging or advocating a particular action. This would be the application side of teaching: how to live our lives. It is therefore this gift that is most similar to the task of preaching sermons.
6. Giving (more precisely translated sharing) is to be carried out with generosity. In light of Paul's use of the word in ministry contexts (e.g., 2 Cor. 8-9), the giving of money is implied, but by extension one can speak of giving time and other things of value to the work of the church.
7. Leadership ultimately comes from God in every sphere of life (Rom. 13:1). There is a place in the church for leadership and authority, but it must be carried out in a humble, Christlike manner. Leaders should also be diligent about their duties–not slow or sloppy. It should be noted that ambition to lead is a good thing for a leader to have, but ambition in itself does not mean one has the gift of leadership. The essence of leadership is motivating others toward the change and work necessary to reach a goal.
8. Mercy is the manifestation of compassion. To show mercy is to demonstrate a care for someone in difficult circumstances by actively helping them, even if the sufferer deserves his suffering. Romans 12 instructs those with this gift to exercise it not with teary sentimentality, but with cheerfulness.
9. Celibacy, as discussed in Matthew 19:10-12 and 1 Corinthians 7, is a gift not given to all men, or even to all clergy, but apparently enables some people to serve God more effectively without a spouse than they would if they were married. If we take this as a spiritual gift in the sense of 1 Corinthians 12, we should remember that it is for the good of the church, to allow more attention to ministry, and not simply for the good or convenience of the individual.
10. The words of wisdom and knowledge appear only in a gifts list (1 Cor. 12:8) and are perhaps hinted on one other occasion (1 Cor. 13:2). They are perhaps applicable to Romans' gifts of exhortation and teaching, respectively. Biblical wisdom is associated with Christian character and has to do with living rightly before God. Knowledge leads to maturity and understanding but can instead lead to pride if used solely for one's own benefit.
11. Faith, as listed among the gifts, cannot mean saving faith (which all believers possess by definition), but a particular kind or degree of faith we might identify as an extraordinary confidence in God's faithfulness to His church.
12. Gifts of healings is a peculiar phrase (we would expect simply "healing"). We might infer several types of healing gifts, or else that each instance of healing is a special gift granted in that situation. We can be sure from the nature of spiritual gifts that this refers not to the gifted one healing himself, but healing others.
13. Miracles are acts of power (Greek energemata dunameon) that demonstrate God's attentive presence and usually serve to testify to the ministry of the one performing them. In the Bible, miracle workers are almost exclusively prophets or apostles.
14. The distinguishing of spirits, often called the gift of discernment, most likely has to do with knowing whether a particular prophecy or miraculous event is associated with the Holy Spirit or a demonic spirit. We are not told whether this has to do with applying the tests of 1 John 4 or with an "intuitive sense" of whether something is of God.
15. Speaking in tongues is technically "kinds of languages" (gene glosson; tongues and languages are the same word in Greek.), and so there is not a specific tongues-language that all believers speak. In fact, according to 1 Corinthians 12:30, not all Christians even in Corinth spoke in tongues.
    Acts 2 describes the first such act, when the first Christians spoke and the hearers from all over the Roman Empire heard the gospel in their own native language. Paul speaks in 1 Corinthians 14 of the fact that many could not understand what was spoken in tongues, and that these utterances had to be interpreted. To explain the purpose of this gift, Paul cites Isaiah 28:11-12, a prophecy that God would pronounce judgment on Israel in other languages, since they would not listen to the appeals He made to them in their own tongue. They are thus a sign to the Jewish unbelievers (1 Cor. 14:22) that God has given the gospel to the Gentiles. Acts indicates that tongues-speaking occurs at the key points where the gospel spreads to new parts of the Gentile world (10:46; 19:6).
    From this we can conclude (and for this insight I thank Dr. Bruce Ware) that this gift refers to speaking or praying in (unlearned) Gentile languages in the presence of the Jews as a confirmation that the gospel was truly for all nations. It is likely that Paul's tongues-speaking (1 Cor. 14:18) occurred when he went to the synagogue upon first arriving in a new city. Certainly such an astonishing ability would have a tendency to make the speaker prideful on one hand (14:4) and cause confusion on the other (14:23).
16. Interpretation of tongues would be necessary whenever the audience did not itself understand the language being spoken, and is required if someone is to speak in tongues in the church.
17. Apostles are listed in 1 Corinthians 12:28-29 in the context of gifts, but apostleship is not so much an ability as an appointment to a particular station. Compared to the other gifts, the circle of apostles was quite small. The original apostles were the twelve designated by Jesus: Simon Peter and Andrew, James and John of Zebedee, Matthew Levi, Thomas, and Philip, Nathanael Bartholomew, Judas Iscariot, Judas son of James, Simon the Canaanite, and James son of Alphaeus (Luke 6:13-16). After Judas' betrayal, the other eleven chose Matthias to replace him (Acts 1:21-26), and Paul was appointed an apostle at his conversion (Gal. 1). Close associates of these, such as Barnabas (Acts 14:14) and Silas and Timothy (1 Thes. 1:1; 2:6), are also called apostles. John Mark and Jesus' half-brothers James and Jude are also regarded apostles for their writing of books of the New Testament (see also Gal. 1:19).
    The early church agreed that there were no apostles after the time of the New Testament; the concept of "apostolic succession" arose later. According to the Bible, a full apostle had to be a man who was a witness of Jesus' ministry and resurrection. (Some question whether even Matthias was qualified, since his appointment was not commanded by Jesus.)
18. The helps and administrations of 1 Corinthians 12:28 are rare words, and so their meaning is somewhat obscure. (The word helps occurs elsewhere in Matthew 7:2, but with a different meaning). They appear to be parallel to the mercy and leadership of Romans 12:8. If not, helps may have more to do with assisting others in their ministries, and administration with the nuts-and-bolts work of managing the church's work (i.e., executive duties).
19. Mysteries and knowledge in 1 Corinthians 13:2 are sometimes said to be separate revelatory gifts, but as the verse reads, it is apparent they are simply a poetic extension of prophecy.
20. Voluntary poverty and willing martyrdom, as mentioned in 1 Corinthians 13:3 are acts of obvious self-sacrifice that appear like the most noble demonstrations of love, but can yet exist in the absence of it if done for personal glory and fame. Despite the spiritual-gifts context, it is not clear here that Paul is suggesting anyone has the "gift of martyrdom" as such. I think it more likely that Paul is presenting an extreme example of the gift of giving, as he does with tongues in verse 1 and prophecy in verse 2.
21. Evangelism is called a gift for two main practical reasons: (1) The past couple centuries have seen some extraordinary numbers of conversions coming from the ministries of certain mass evangelists (e.g., Dwight L. Moody, Billy Sunday, Billy Graham). (2) The vast majority of American Christians are apathetic about evangelism, making those who are interested appear specially equipped just because they care. But the biblical mention of evangelists in Ephesians 4:11 has to do with church offices or professions. The only two people in the New Testament said to be evangelists are Philip (Acts 21:8) and Timothy (2 Tim. 4:5), both of whom were ordained ministers.
    The biblical use of the term does not signify merely a passion about soul-winning–which ought to be universal–but a task to take the gospel to peoples who have never heard it. The modern equivalent would be international missionaries.
22. "Pastors and teachers" is an expression designating a single office with two facets. Pastor here represents the Greek word for shepherd. Pastors not only teach their congregations, but also care for them as a shepherd does his sheep. Special instructions for pastors are given in 1 Peter 5.
23. Hospitality is commanded of ministers in 1 Timothy 3:2 and Titus 1:8, and of all believers in 1 Peter 4:9. This was one of the most important virtues in ancient cultures, and guests were to be treated even more dearly than family. It is beyond me why some people consider this a spiritual gift, but I include it here because of its appearance on other lists.
24. Peter speaks of only two types of gifts: speaking and serving (1 Pet. 4:10-11). It seems here that he is classifying all the gifts into these two categories.

Conclusions

And so we see at least fifteen spiritual gifts identified in Scripture. Following Peter's cue, I think it best to group the spiritual gifts into categories based on the type of activity involved:

1. Miraculous/revelatory gifts include prophecy, healings, miracles, distinguishing of spirits, speaking in tongues, and interpretation of tongues. The offices of apostle and prophet were also associated with miraculous activity and revelation.
2. Speaking gifts include teaching (=knowledge, incl. music, drama, etc.) and exhortation (=wisdom=preaching). The offices of evangelist (=missionary) and pastor-teacher (=elder=overseer) also fall primarily under the domain of speaking.
3. Service gifts include giving, ministry, mercy (=helps?), and leadership (=administrations?). If craftsmanship, celibacy, voluntary poverty, and martyrdom are also counted as spiritual gifts, they fall under this category, as does the office of deacon.

The primary controversy over spiritual gifts has to do with the first category. Should tongues, prophecy, healing, and miracles be an integral part of church life? It is not a new issue. Augustine, living around A.D. 400, noted that the activities mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12-14 were absent from the orthodox church, and he wondered where they had gone. The New Testament gives us most all we know about miraculous gifts, and claims to prophetic or healing ministries died out as the church became predominantly Gentile. Stories and legends about saints developed over the Middle Ages, and heretical groups such as the Montanists employed the spasms and ecstatic utterances known among the cults, but there was no documented, orderly operation of miraculous gifts for many centuries. Some intuitionist and apocalyptic groups, such as the Quakers and Shakers, pointed to the miraculous gifts as models for their openness to spiritual manifestations. Then in the twentieth century, Pentecostalism exploded, followed by charismatic movements across most Christian denominations. The claim was not so much that these gifts had continued throughout history, but that they had been restored as a preparation for the last days. Problems with abuses on one hand and critics on the other have left many Christians wondering whether the charismatic gifts are legitimate works of the Spirit.

There are five primary reasons I believe that what is going on in the Pentecostal/charismatic/Third Wave movement is not the work of God (none of which involve 1 Corinthians 13:8-10, by the way):

1. The New Testament prophets and apostles formed only the foundation for the church, and that foundation was laid in the first century. In Ephesians 2, Paul is speaking about God's uniting of Jews and Gentiles into one body, one building. They are "God's household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner [stone], in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit" (2:19-22). The church is still growing, but the early days of its development are over. In its beginnings, the church as an organized and united institution had to have a standard for teaching and practice, and that was given through the Spirit's revelation to the apostles generally and to prophets locally. That which God wished to have preserved as the enduring foundation for the church is (in this context) the New Testament. (That Paul is speaking here of New Testament prophets as opposed to the ancients is confirmed by his use of the same phrase in 3:5 to name the recipients of knowledge unknown to previous generations.)
2. We would therefore expect that true apostles and prophets would cease after the establishment of the New Testament church, along with the miraculous ministries that testified to their legitimacy (2 Cor. 12:12). We would also expect the end of the miracles that confirmed the extension of the gospel to Gentiles (Acts 10:45-46), since the church was now predominantly Gentile anyway. In fact, this is exactly what history records. We can disregard the appearance of the supernatural among certain fringe or heretical groups, since it is impossible to distinguish from similar activities and claims in wholly pagan religions, where predictions, frenzy, ecstatic utterances, and reports of healings are also common.
3. There are no New Testament prophecies of an outpouring of miraculous activity yet to be accomplished. Old Testament prophecies such as Joel 2:28-32 were fulfilled at Pentecost, as Peter himself explicitly says in Acts 2:16-21. We must remember that in biblical terms, the last days began with the first coming of the Messiah, and many prophecies were fulfilled with His ministry, the sending of the Holy Spirit, the establishment of the church, and Israel's rejection. There remain some prophecies of the end that are still future–Jesus' return, Armageddon, the mass conversion of Israel, a peaceful kingdom on earth under Christ's rule, etc. But logic itself requires that the foundation be laid at the beginning of the church age, not the end.
4. Wherever people practice the charismatic gifts, they do not do so in accordance with biblical instruction. Prophets whose predictions fail to come true are false prophets, and yet churches are in awe of prophets who are only 90% right. Faith healers are demonstrated to be frauds yet continue their ministries. Leaders loudly condemn those who test them by Scripture, warning critics not to "touch God's anointed." Spectacular gifts are not supposed to be treated as superior, but "signs and wonders" are the very cornerstone of the charismatic movement, and are a litmus test as to whether one is a mature Christian. Worship leaders encourage congregants to let the Spirit bypass their minds and to lose control of their bodies, but Paul says to worship with the mind and says "the spirit of the prophet is subject to the prophet," even listing self-control as a fruit of the Spirit. How many churches have people "speak in tongues" in a real human language they have not learned, with interpretation, one at a time, in an orderly fashion, as dictated in 1 Corinthians 14? Supposedly Spirit-focused and Spirit-filled churches show as much a lack of holiness as the rest of the church, and egregious errors of understanding how the Holy Spirit works in salvation. Anecdotes and dreams are commonly accorded greater credence than the Bible's clear teachings. In short, there is no evidence that any of the miraculous gifts are present today, and much evidence that what we see is, at best, of human origin.
5. The church's only rule of faith is the Bible. We accept what it says because the words of the Bible are the words of God. This is how the Hebrews were supposed to treat the words of their prophets. This is how the early Christians treated the Old Testament, plus the written and spoken words of the apostles and New Testament prophets. If there is continuing prophecy today, we must accept not only the Old and New Testaments, but also continuing prophecies, as the absolute, inerrant, infallible word of God. Not even most charismatics are willing to do that, because today's purported prophecies are so hit-or-miss. Besides, it appears that for many charismatics, experience often supersedes even written Scripture as an authority, at least on a practical level. We must understand that the reason the early church had prophets was that necessary doctrine and practice had to be given from God for the church to operate. As Jesus promised, "I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear [them] now. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth" (John 16:12-13). But we now have the full revelation of God, closing with warnings not to add or subtract from it (Rev. 22:18-19).

The remaining spiritual gifts continue, and must, in order for the church to operate. Those who occupy the continuing church offices of pastor/elder/overseer and deacon, along with our missionaries, have important tasks of leadership and service, but it is also important for every member to find what gift he has been given and use it for the building up of the church, and ultimately for the glory of God. We should also remember that God's gifts and callings are irrevocable (Rom. 11:29), but that gifts can be used in a corrupt manner (1 Cor. 13). The fruit that the Spirit produces as He works through a believer's life are first of all love, then joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness, and self-control (Gal. 5:22-23), as well as righteousness and truth (Eph. 5:9). These fruits, and not our particular abilities, are the true indicators of whether we are living the Spirit-filled life.

One final issue to address is the difference between particular gifts and universal responsibility. It is all too easy to assume that because we lack a certain gift, we have no obligations to the tasks with which it is associated. But if we take our Christianity seriously, we know that the Christian life involves much more than just our individual giftedness. Not all have the gift of giving, but all should give. Not all have the gift of teaching, but we should be ready to help new believers learn. Not all are evangelists, but all should evangelize. Not all have the gift of mercy, but all should be merciful. Everyone needs to take on some service and some participation in worship. As we direct the bulk of our ministry toward our gift, let's not neglect the duties we all share to better reflect God's desire for the church.

Appendix: What Then of Miracles?

As a cessationist, I do believe miraculous spiritual gifts have ceased, but not that all miracles have ceased. Many miracles recorded in the Bible took place before the Holy Spirit was given to God's people (and therefore before anyone had spiritual gifts). I also recognize the freedom and power of God to do what He wishes, including activities similar to the miracles that occurred in the early church. So, for example, the Spirit might, perhaps, momentarily empower a believer to speak in an unlearned language to allow the gospel to come to someone in that language. But we should not expect anyone to have that ability permanently for use as a ministry–at least not commonly enough for us to consider that a spiritual gift given to the churches at large. The same applies to the gift of interpretation. God may work through either natural or supernatural means to heal, bring war or peace, change the weather, control natural disasters, prevent auto accidents, etc. But we would not expect any particular believer to be a frequent tool by which God works those miracles. The God who ordains or permits all things can certainly arrange a person's dreams on occasion, although they are usually random and meaningless. The Spirit may even give impressions, premonitions, suspicions, and other "nudges." Indeed, it is the internal witness of the Spirit that gives us our greatest assurance that our faith in God and in His Word is real and true. This kind of Spirit-leading is evident in Romans 8:16; 1 John 3:24; 4:14, and elsewhere–but we must also remember to test our intuitions and desires by Scripture rather than assume that they must be Spirit-brought. But we should be very careful about sensational stories of miracles performed through statues, esoteric or ecstatic experiences, resurrections from the dead, or "healing ministries" in which hundreds are supposedly healed on a weekly basis. And we ought firmly to resist any claims of further revelations, either from angels* or visitations from Jesus Himself. Such claims are usually associated with the grossest of doctrinal and moral errors. In this post-New Testament age, until the return of Christ, the Bible is the only authoritative special revelation from God. God speaks to no one in words except through Scripture. Miracles may happen, and God may choose to perform a miracle through a faithful minister–perhaps even an unfaithful one (1 Kgs. 13). But any claimed experience of prophecy, and any ecstatic loss of control, is either fabricated, faked, or demonically or psychologically produced. Those abuses are against Scripture and cannot be from God.

Jonathan Edwards, in his analysis of the revivals of his day, once outlined five marks of a true work of the Spirit of God: It produces a higher esteem of Jesus Christ, a wariness of temptation and sin, a greater regard for the Bible, a passion for true doctrine (and factual truth in general), and a spirit of love toward God and man above one's own well-being. (The work is titled "The Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God" and draws its conclusions from 1 John chapter 4.) These principles provide a good check on most of the claims floating around today. Whether or not you agree with me on the question of charismatic gifts, I hope that you will evaluate all experiences and reports of miracles on the basis of Scripture, truth, and love.

* Please note that I'm not here denying that angels still minister to us, or that they ever appear. But the angel stories I've heard from sound-minded believers have to do with rescue and assistance, not with new revelation. Likewise, there are many accounts in Muslim lands of dreams being used to prepare people to hear the gospel. However, these dreams are reminiscent of Cornelius' in the Book of Acts and neither tell the person how to be saved nor give revelation such as tours of heaven and hell.

For a concise statement of my beliefs about the Holy Spirit and His gifts, see my Declaration of Faith.

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