What I would like to talk with you about today is something that seems to be a pretty huge ambiguous subject in the church today. What I have found is that a majority of churches preach on this subject regularly, but very few of them actually take the subject as a whole and apply it to our everyday lives. This is going to be a bit cursory rather than in depth, but I still feel that it is important for us to know, whether it is as leaders or training others to eventually lead. What I have generally found is that churches tend to lock into one gift category, and do not look at the others. For instance, the church I attend back home is locked into the 5 discussed in Ephesians. My experience with another church has shown me that they favor the Romans verse, but have referenced 1 Corinthians as well. What I find the most interesting is that people tend to group all of them together, which I find particularly dangerous due to the fact that they are used in different contexts. What I have found is that I think it is important to know that we can operate in all three categories, since they all have different purposes.
To start out with, I am going to give you three gifts. We will open one at a time, and then discuss what is in the box, why it is problematic and then how we apply it. Hands out the boxes and then opens the first one
Okay, so the first box is a box of Legos. The Legos are obviously there to form something, however, it is rather difficult to figure out what exactly it is forming since there are no instructions. The problem with the charismata are that we hear in church over and over again “use your spiritual gifts” but it is rarely ever explained or instructed. This is the case in Romans. Read Romans 12:3-8
To provide context, Paul is writing this message to the Romans because he is instructing them and telling them that they all need each other. As many of us know, the Roman culture was very individualistic, and many people did what they could to be recognized as individuals. This was done through self-glorifying acts that would draw attention to how great they are.
This is why the message of Paul is so counter-cultural. Instead of trying to succeed as individuals, Paul is telling them to succeed as a group. Instead of competing against one another, they should be celebrating their differences and working together towards a common good. This idea of being a living sacrifice would be completely foreign to them, thus, requiring instruction.
That’s where the Legos come in. When you look at the Legos, you need someone to come along side and explain where all the pieces come together. Without that instruction, it is just a pile of blocks that serves no purpose. When you begin to understand that Paul was trying to guide them, the verse makes more sense. What Paul did was he referenced virtues and commendable actions of Roman culture to form the spiritual gifts. These gifts are inherent to people and they are what motivates people to live out the Holy Spirit (to reference Discover your God-Given Gifts). Prophecy, serving, teaching, exhorting, giving, leading and compassion are the seven virtues that Paul shares. This was palatable to his audience and easy to understand, which is how they were able to apply what they learned.
This correlates to us today because often times we do not know where to start or know where we fall on the scale. Being that this was meant for a group of people 2,000 years ago, it can be difficult to digest. But the application that can be made is that we all possess at least one of these gifts, because that is what makes us want to do something for Christ.
Open the Second Gift
The second gift that we are looking at is a note that claims that a gift is on its way… when we consider this gift we find that it is not so reliable. The question we often ask is “when I really need it, will it actually be there?” Needless to say, it is rather anti-climatic and kind of confusing. When it actually arrives, it might be amazing, but you really have to put a lot of trust into it EVENTUALLY coming.
Read 1 Corinthians 12:7-11
When we consider this passage in 1 Corinthians, you will see that the list of gifts have a distinct nature to them. What we find is that they are sort of unpredictable, and they tend to be actions rather than the character traits that you see in Romans 12:3-8. Any guess why?
To give you some background on 1 Corinthians, one of the big issues that Paul had with them is that they were getting caught up in the gifts. Because of this, they were creating factions among themselves and they were being arrogant towards those who did not have that specific gift. This was a well-engrained idea in their society as it was because any individual could easily climb the social latter through money or intelligence. This idea was applied to spiritual gifts, and soon the Corinthian church was forming hierarchies. This is shown in 1 Cor 12:7&21 in which groups would isolate themselves.
In the fervor to have certain gifts, main doctrinal issues became marginalized in favor of ideas that are more self-glorifying. Tongues is an example of this being that this gift was viewed as being more angelic, so those that possessed the gift began excusing sins such as prostitution since it was bodily sin that they felt did not apply to them.
So how does Paul correct them? He explains to them that there are many gifts that manifest themselves in people. They are all important, and that they all have their place in the body of Christ. Interestingly enough, he mentions tongues as the last gift on the list. The significance to that is that in Greek writing, the last item on a list is considered the least important. This demonstrates the desire to have diversity in the gifts, and not be so focused on the one gift.
To conclude this section, it is worth establishing that these gifts are by no means permanent, such as the motivational gifts. These gifts come and go at the will of the Holy Spirit when a certain need is to be met, so that is why Paul mentions that the truly gifted members of the church are those that Love well and do not seek self glorification. For if you love consistently, then you will use your gifts to help others.
Open the Third Gift
The final gift that we opened is a guitar tuner, it is very one dimensional. It does not serve a huge purpose outside of itself. The limitations are so that if you do not have a guitar to tune, it is pretty much useless. This is what some people see as a problem with the third category of gifts.
Read Ephesians 4:11-13
This verse can be pretty confusing to a lot of people because it seems that they are very distinct and they deal specifically with the church. The initial thought that comes to mind is “what if I am not called to full time ministry?” Because much like that tuner, the gift becomes useless because there is no outlet to do use it. The truth is that it does not always have to be full time ministry, and that you can effectively use your gift in a lay setting or out in the world. Just because it says “pastor” does not mean that you have to be an official pastor. Pastoring is the act of shepherding people and taking care of them. Because you might come up as an “evangelist”, it does not mean that you need to be Bible thumping people on the street corner, now that I think of it, I hope that you never do that! But these are all ideas that can be used in every day life as well.
So you are probably asking, “why does Paul write so exclusively?” Paul is writing this to the church in Ephesus, which was a hotbed for the Imperial Cult. Ephesus was the home of the Temple of Artemis, which was one of the wonders of the ancient world, and was strongly influenced by the Romans. With this in mind, it made sense that Paul would write to the church in a way to help maintain a church and to remind them of their mission.
To do this, Paul wrote about the five gifts listed (four, in some circles) so that people would be able to focus on the main components of starting a church. The two categories that they can be broken up are internal and external. Pastors and teachers are considered the internal grouping, and this can be established by the way in which they are separated from the other three. Apostles, prophets and evangelists are considered heralds of the church and are outwardly focused. The intent is to equip and build up the church, which is run by a theocracy in which God is the head and is carried out by the Holy Spirit.
Finally, it was anticipated that the next group of believers needed to know how to run a church effectively. Being that the original apostles were beginning to die or get executed, Paul felt it was important to instruct them now before it was too late. What makes these gifts different than the other three is that they focus on the people, not personality traits or actions being done. These gifts are given “office names” so to speak. But the interesting thing is that even though these are offices, you do not need the title to be able to use the gifts.
Now that we have covered the three categories, I would like to return to the initial problem. If all of these gifts exist, why does Paul mention certain gifts in certain lists and leaves them out in other lists? It can be very confusing, but the fact of the matter is that they all function differently.
I am telling you this because often times people will claim that you can only have certain gifts, or my favorite is that you need to have a specific gift to prove that you are a Christian. Instead, I would like to give you the same encouragement that Paul gave to the churches, and that is that it takes many parts of the body to operate it properly. Also, I hope that you would not just look at one category and say “I have this!” and then limit yourself to that. I am not saying this as doctrine, but I firmly believe that we can operate in all three categories as the holy spirit prompts us.
For instance, I have been told that I am an exhorter and teacher from Romans, I get told a lot that I demonstrate the wisdom mentioned in 1 Corinthians, and I have received comments about being a teacher and an evangelist in the Ephesians verses. We all have our unique mix of gifts that the spirit gives us, and I would hope that you would be interested in learning about yours and that you spend time seeking the Lord in how you may properly use them. If you do not know where you stand, I have quite a few books (I have referenced Discover Your God-Given Gifts quite a bit) that will help you on your journey
So you are probably wondering how we know what we are good at. There are a few different answers that you can have. Can you think of any? You will want to talk with people that you trust so that you can figure out what you are good at. Sometimes we take for granted things that we do regularly, and it really means something to someone else. For instance, I never really knew that I made sound decisions and gave wise counsel until someone told me so. The reason is that I just always operated that way, and no one really told me until I was in my early 20’s. The second way that we could find out what we are good at is trying out new things. For instance, if you have felt compelled to pray for people, then you might have a gift that could be used on the prayer team. I found that I had a strength with evangelism because I put myself in situations where I could share my faith and share the love of Christ with others. This is not simply giving a tract or saying “God Bless” at the end of a greeting, this is talking with someone and trying to meet their need and trying to share the good things that are happening in my life. I found this because I decided that I was not going to shy away from people who did not believe what I believe. Another way to find out is to take a quiz or read a book and see what stands out to you. There are dozens of Spiritual Gifts Quizzes out there, so you might as well google search for some and see what comes out the most. Plurality is key here, because some are not as reliable as others. Reading scripture is the final way to see your strengths. Look at the different characters and see what you admire about them, or see what verses/books stand out to you. In my case, I found that Proverbs and James are my favorite books. This appeals to my interest in wisdom literature.
These are just ideas to jump start your interest if you are questioning what you are good at. So in conclusion, do you know what you are good at?
