Program / Course 9: Christology and Pneumatology / Lesson 7.1
What you will learn
- Read the three main gift passages and list the gifts each names.
- Explain the image of the body and the purpose of the gifts in each passage.
- Describe the problems in Corinth that 1 Corinthians 12 to 14 addresses.
- Identify the questions the lists leave open, including whether they are complete.
The big idea
The New Testament says that the Spirit gives each believer a gift for the good of the whole church. Three long passages describe these gifts: Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12 to 14 and Ephesians 4. The lists overlap but are not the same, and none claims to be complete. They are joined by common themes: the gifts come from one Spirit, are given for the common good, are to be used in love and make the church a body with many members. Later disagreements concern how to read the lists, not whether the Spirit gives gifts.
Key terms
- Charisma (plural charismata)
- The Greek word for a gift of grace, from charis, grace. Used by Paul for the Spirit’s gifts to believers.
- Spiritual gift
- In Christian use, a capacity or ability given by the Spirit to a believer for service to others.
- Prophecy
- In Paul’s letters, speaking under the Spirit’s prompting to build up, encourage and console the church (1 Corinthians 14:3). Whether it includes foretelling and how it is tested are discussed.
- Tongues (glossolalia)
- Speaking in a language not learned by the speaker, which in 1 Corinthians 14 needs interpretation. Its nature, whether human languages or ecstatic speech, is discussed.
- Apostle
- One sent. In the New Testament it names the Twelve and others, including Paul. Whether the office continues is disputed.
- Body of Christ
- Paul’s image of the church as a body with many members, each needed, with Christ as the head.
- Edification
- Building up. In 1 Corinthians 14, the purpose by which gifts are to be judged.
Background
Paul wrote about gifts in letters to churches with particular situations. Romans, to a church he had not founded, gives a brief list inside an appeal to humility. First Corinthians, to a church marked by division and pride in spiritual display, gives a long discussion that argues for order and love. Ephesians, a letter addressed in a more general way, gives a list of persons given to the church for its growth.
Because the passages were written for different purposes, they are best read one at a time. Only afterward can a reader ask how they fit together. A reader should also remember that Paul does not use the word gift in only one sense, so the lists are not a technical inventory.
Step-by-step explanation
Step 1: Romans 12:3-8
Paul begins by warning against thinking too highly of oneself, and says each has a measure of faith. Then he uses the image of the body: many members, one body, each with a different function. The gifts he lists are prophecy, ministry or service, teaching, exhortation, giving, ruling or leading, and showing mercy. Each is to be used in a fitting way: giving with simplicity, ruling with diligence, mercy with cheerfulness.
The list includes gifts that might seem ordinary, such as giving and mercy, and it says nothing about miracles. It shows that Paul counts practical service and generosity among the Spirit’s gifts. The emphasis is humility and mutual dependence.
Step 2: 1 Corinthians 12 to 14
The Corinthian church was gifted and divided. Paul writes that there are varieties of gifts, services and activities, but the same Spirit, the same Lord and the same God (1 Corinthians 12:4-6). He lists the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, faith, gifts of healing, working of miracles, prophecy, discernment of spirits, kinds of tongues and the interpretation of tongues. He adds that one and the same Spirit distributes them “to every man severally as he will” (12:11).
He then returns to the body, saying the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you (12:21), and gives another list that includes apostles, prophets, teachers, miracles, healings, helps, governments and tongues (12:28). He ends the chapter with the promise of a more excellent way, which is the chapter on love, where he says that tongues, prophecy and knowledge are nothing without love (13:1-3).
Step 3: Order and intelligibility in 1 Corinthians 14
In chapter 14 Paul compares prophecy with tongues. A person who speaks in a tongue speaks to God and builds himself up, while one who prophesies builds up the church (14:2-4). He wants all to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy (14:5). In the assembly, tongues must be interpreted, and he allows only two or three speakers, taking turns, and says prophets are to be tested (14:27-29).
He closes with the principle that God is not the author of confusion but of peace, and that all things are to be done decently and in order (14:33, 40). The passage shows that the gifts were active in the church and that Paul wanted them regulated by love and the aim of building up others.
Step 4: Ephesians 4:7-16
Ephesians says that to each is given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift, and quotes Psalm 68 about Christ ascending and giving gifts. The gifts are persons: some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers. Their purpose is to equip the saints for the work of ministry and the building up of the body until all attain unity of faith and maturity (4:11-13).
Here the focus is on those who lead and teach so that all the members can do their work. It differs from 1 Corinthians in listing roles and not manifestations. Interpreters differ on whether pastors and teachers are two roles or one, and on whether the first two roles continue today.
Step 5: What the lists leave open
The lists overlap a little and differ a great deal. Only prophecy and teaching appear in more than two of the lists. This suggests that none is a complete catalogue, and that Paul adapted his examples to each situation. First Peter 4:10-11 adds a simpler division: speaking and serving, each to be done by the strength God supplies.
Interpreters raise further questions. Are the gifts new abilities or the Spirit’s use of natural talents, or both? Are they all for every age? How do gifts relate to offices? Which are spectacular and which ordinary? The next lessons describe how the traditions have answered.
- What does the image of the body teach about the use of gifts?
- Why does Paul place the chapter on love between his two chapters on gifts?
- What do Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12 share and where do they differ?
- What does Paul prefer, prophecy or tongues, and why?
- How do the persons named in Ephesians 4 differ from the manifestations in 1 Corinthians 12?
- What does it mean that the lists are not complete?
Examples
The church in Corinth
Corinth was a busy port city, and the church there seems to have been proud of its gifts while neglecting each other. Paul wrote with direct correction and with praise. The letter shows that spiritual abundance and spiritual immaturity can exist together.
Hands and eyes
Paul’s image of the body mocks the idea that one member can do without another. A group study often asks each person to name a gift they depend on in others. The exercise follows the point of 1 Corinthians 12:21.
A constructed assembly
A small church follows 1 Corinthians 14: two people share a prophetic word, one speaks in a tongue and another interprets, and the others weigh what is said. Another church reads Romans 12 and organizes service and giving. Both are applying the same chapters differently. (A constructed example.)
Different perspectives
Catholic
Catholic teaching, at Vatican II and in the Catechism, holds that the Spirit gives gifts, both extraordinary and ordinary, for the good of the church, and that these are to be tested and ordered by those who lead. It stresses that charisms serve the whole community.
Orthodox
Orthodox theology sees the gifts as the Spirit’s presence in the church, with an emphasis on the sacramental life and on the gifts of holiness. It regards miraculous gifts as real but rare, and prefers humility and testing.
Protestant
Protestants read the lists as describing real gifts for the church, and differ on which continue today. Many stress that every believer has a gift, and that the church is a priesthood of all believers.
Pentecostal and charismatic
Pentecostal and charismatic Christians hold that all the gifts in the lists continue and should be sought and used, especially tongues, prophecy and healing. They read 1 Corinthians 12 to 14 as a pattern for church life.
Critical scholarship
Historians note that Paul’s lists differ and that the gifts reflect the settings of different communities. They debate how far the Corinthian practices were typical of early Christianity and what tongues were.
Why it matters
The gift passages are the basis for everything the churches teach about the Spirit’s work in congregations. A student who has read them closely can see where each tradition finds support for its practice and where the text itself leaves room for disagreement.
Common misunderstandings
Misunderstanding: The New Testament gives one authoritative list of gifts.
Correction: It gives several lists that differ. Interpreters take them as examples. No list claims to be complete.
Misunderstanding: Spiritual gifts are only the spectacular ones.
Correction: Romans 12 lists giving, mercy and service, and 1 Corinthians 12 includes helps and governments. Paul treats the ordinary and the dramatic as gifts of the same Spirit.
Misunderstanding: Paul forbade tongues.
Correction: He says he speaks in tongues more than all of them and wishes all would, but he sets rules in the assembly and prefers prophecy because it builds up others (1 Corinthians 14:5, 18-19).
Knowledge check
Name five gifts from 1 Corinthians 12:8-10.
The word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, faith, gifts of healing, working of miracles, prophecy, discerning of spirits, kinds of tongues and the interpretation of tongues. Any five with the reference is a good answer. Paul says one Spirit distributes them to each as he wills.
What does Paul say about the purpose of gifts?
He says that the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each for the common good (1 Corinthians 12:7). In chapter 14 he says that gifts should be used to build up the church, and in Ephesians 4 that they equip the saints for ministry and lead the body to unity and maturity. Love is the way in which they are to be used.
How do the three passages differ in what they list?
Romans 12 lists functions such as prophecy, service, teaching, giving, leading and mercy. First Corinthians 12 lists manifestations such as wisdom, healing, miracles, tongues and discernment. Ephesians 4 lists persons given to the church: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. The overlap is small.
What rules does Paul give for tongues and prophecy in worship?
Tongues need interpretation, and only two or three should speak in turn. Prophets also speak in turn, and others weigh what is said. Paul says that God is not a God of confusion but of peace and that all things should be done decently and in order. The aim is that the church be built up.
Think it through
- What gift do you most depend on in others?
- Why does Paul speak of gifts in the same breath as love?
- Do the differences between the lists suggest that gifts vary by community?
- How should a church decide which gifts to welcome and how to order them?
Independent assignment
A table of gifts
In your own notebook, write 400 to 600 words. Make a table with columns for Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 4, and list the gifts in each. Mark overlaps. Then write a paragraph on what the table suggests about whether the lists are complete, and one on how the purpose of gifts is described in each passage. Do not send this to anyone.
Further study
- Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart, How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth Use it for help in reading Paul’s letters in their setting.
- John Chrysostom, On the Priesthood Read selectively for the early view of ministry and gifts.
- Catholic Church, Catechism of the Catholic Church Read the passages on charisms.
- John Wesley, Sermons on Several Occasions Read selectively for the Methodist view of the Spirit’s work.
- Romans 12:6 Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us.
- 1 Corinthians 12:7 The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.
- 1 Corinthians 13:1 Without charity, tongues are as sounding brass.
- Ephesians 4:11 Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers.