Spiritual Gifts
While there is great debate and differences in thought and
practice regarding this subject, that never before stopped us from entering the
fray, so to speak. So it shall be with
this subject, as well. Volumes have
been written, and more volumes will be written on the subject of spiritual
gifts. Since this is basically a
position paper, we will try to keep our comment concise and focused, so as not
to bore or confuse the reader.
The phrase “spiritual gifts” occurs, I believe three times in
scripture. All three times are in the
book of First Corinthians, about whom Paul says:
I Cor 3:1 And I, brethren,
could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as
unto babes in Christ
It appears that the Corinthian church was agog with manifestations
that they considered spiritual gifts, but their problem was that they were
carnal, and might not be able to recognize a spiritual gift if, in fact, it
were to manifest itself. The exercise
of these gifts had caused problems in the church, which Paul was attempting to
rectify.
I Cor 12
4 Now there are
diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.
5 And there are differences of administrations, but
the same Lord.
6 And there are diversities of operations, but it
is the same God which worketh all in all.
7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to
every man to profit withal.
8 For to one is given by the Spirit the word of
wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit;
9 To another faith by the same Spirit; to another
the gifts of healing by the same Spirit;
10 To another the working of miracles; to another
prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues;
to another the interpretation of tongues:
11 But all these worketh that one and the selfsame
Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.
What is the purpose of spiritual gifts?
I Cor 14: 12 Even so ye, forasmuch as ye are zealous of
spiritual gifts, seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the church.
Spiritual gifts are for the church – the local, visible
assembly. The Spirit decides who gets
the gifts, and what gifts they get (I Cor 12:11). It appears that spiritual gifts fall into the following
categories:
Word of Wisdom
Word of Knowledge
Faith
Healing
Working of miracles
Prophecy
Discerning of spirits
Diverse kinds of tongues
Paul also indicated, while writing in the apostolic age, that:
I Cor 13: 8 Charity never faileth:
but whether [there be] prophecies, they shall fail; whether [there be] tongues,
they shall cease; whether [there be] knowledge, it shall vanish away.
So it would appear that some gifts were not meant to continue
forever.
We know, then, that spiritual gifts were administered by the
Spirit of God for the use of the recipients in the edification of the
assembly. They were not for personal
gain, an ego trip, or so one church member could say they had something that
someone else didn’t get. There is no
indication that any of these gifts were requirements for, or evidences of,
salvation. In fact, the opposite is
true:
I Cor 12: 30 Have all the gifts of healing? do all
speak with tongues? do all interpret?
The implied answer to these questions is an obvious “no.”
Paul chides the Corinthians for their carnality and says:
I Cor 13: 11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I
understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put
away childish things.
Becoming a man is a growing process that results in
completion. In this regard, he also
said:
I Cor 13:10 But when that
which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
Since he is talking about a more excellent way than the spiritual
gifts that shall pass away, many people (of which I am one) believe that gifts
such as direct revelation are no longer needed now that the Word of God is
completed. Many folks today seem to
have revelations (which they may call a Word of Knowledge or Prophesy) which
are found to contradict the Word of God.
Such cannot be the case, for God never contradicts himself – He is the
end from the beginning, the same yesterday, today, and forever.
So let’s simply take these gifts one by one and see how we should
apply them:
1.
Word of Wisdom and Word of Knowledge.
Since the Word of God is now complete,
and comprises all the wisdom and knowledge of God that He has seen fit to
reveal, this sort of direct revelation is no longer necessary and, if fact,
quite dangerous.
2.
Faith
Faith is always necessary. We are saved by grace through faith, and
faith is a gift of God (Eph 2:8-9)
3.
Healing
Healing was done in the bible by those
given the power to do so. In the church
age, we are told how to obtain the healing power of God:
James 5:14 Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the
church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the
Lord:
We are also reminded that it is not always God’s will to
heal even the most spiritual among us:
II Cor 12:7 And lest I should be exalted above measure through the
abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the
messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.
4.
Miracles
Although the saving of a soul is the most
awe-inspiring miracle of today, the things that people call miracles do not
seem to be recorded in the Bible after the book of Acts, nor do they seem to
have appeared in history until at least the 19th century. God, however, is still a God of miracles,
and I have seen many miracles performed through prayer – but not many through
men – especially those who took credit for it.
John, the last living apostle, does not seem to mention miraculous
things such as we see today.
5.
Prophecy
The Greek word for prophecy signifies the speaking forth of
the mind and counsel of God. This was
necessary in the New Testament churches before the Word of God was
complete. However, we now have the mind
and counsel of God, and prophets seem to have been replaced by teachers.
II Peter 2:1 But there were false prophets also among the people, even as
there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable
heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves
swift destruction.
In a sense, we still have the gift of
prophecy at work today in telling forth the mind of God, as long as we derive
the mind of God from the Word of God.
There were prophets and teachers at Antioch in the book of Acts (Acts 13:1), but by the time Peter wrote his
epistle, the ministry seems more devoted to teaching.
6.
Discerning of Spirits
We don’t see much emphasis placed on this
gift either directly in the New Testament or today. One would think that with as much emphasis as is placed on
tongues today, there would be at least as much interest in spiritual
discernment, but that does not seem to be the case. It may well be that spiritual discernment is lacking today
because we are too interested in the lowest gifts, as were the church members
at Corinth. Spiritual discernment comes
with spiritual growth, and today, spiritual growth comes with the study of the
Word of God. We are to try the spirits
(I John 4:1). The only way we can do
that today is by the Word of God. John
says we need to do that because many false prophets have gone out into the
world. If that was true in John’s day,
it is true in our day.
7.
Diverse kinds of tongues and interpretation of tongues
These are listed as two different gifts,
so I don’t want anyone to accuse me of trying to wrest the scriptures by
combining them. I recognize them as two
gifts, but it will be easier to study them together.
Spiritual gifts, or “spirituals,” the
literal interpretation, comes from the Greek word “charisma.” Perhaps you can recognize this as the root
word for “charismatic,” which is what certain groups are called today who
believe in what they call “speaking in tongues.” Please don’t say harsh things about me when I say that Baptists
should also be charismatics – that is, we should believe in the biblical
gifts. We just believe differently
about some of them. The gift of
teaching is a charismatic – a grace gift from God.
As we have pointed out before, the
distribution of these gifts is under the sovereign control of the Holy Ghost,
and not all people have all the gifts.
That means that to attend classes to learn to speak in tongues is to
frustrate the grace of God. If God
doesn’t give it, you don’t need it.
The term for the tongues movement is
“glossolalia.” That term comes from two
Greek words meaning language (glossa) and speech (lalia). Literally, then, it means to speak in a
language. The word “glossa” appears
many times in the New Testament. It is
used as the shape of the fires in Acts 2:3.
It is used as the physical organ in James 3:5. The rest of the time it always means a language.
In Acts 2:4, Luke uses the term “other
tongues.” He means tongues other than
those they normally used. Mark 16:17
uses the term “new tongues,” which means the same thing. These were languages that someone could
understand. The word tongue occurs
several times in the book of Revelation, and always refers to a language. At Pentecost (Acts 2:7-8), the word language
is “dialekto,” from which we get dialect.
That is an actual language. The
purpose was to spread the gospel so that all could understand. This is the gift of speaking in tongues as
God gave it.
There is some confusion of interpretation
about tongues which results from the fact that, in certain passages of
scripture, the term “unknown tongues” is used.
If you will look closely in your bible, you will see that, in every
occurrence of the term “unknown tongues,” the word “unknown” is in italics. That means it is not in the original
text. It was added by the translators
for clarification but, as we all know, mankind will confuse it if at all
possible. The word is simply “tongues,”
and it means languages. All of the
instances of Paul’s usage of the word mean “languages.” He gives rules as to how the gift is to be
used. There does not seem to be,
anywhere in scripture, an instance of tongues as being some unknown mumbling or
gibberish.
Tongues are for a sign TO THEM THAT
BELIEVE NOT.
I Cor 14:22 Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but
to them that believe not:
If I delude myself into speaking in some unknown mumbo-jumbo
to please myself, I am not using the gift of tongues. The gift was a sign to those that believe not – not to impress
those that believe. The Corinthians had
miss-used the gift, and Paul was correcting them. Paul even used Isaiah’s prophecy to prove his point about tongues
(Is 28:11) and said it applied to the present situation. The Jews always required a sign (I Cor
1:22). We are not to require such
signs.
Some say that tongues is a fruit of the Spirit, but the fruits of
the Spirit are given to us in Galatians chapter five, and tongues is not
mentioned.
Let us briefly make a couple of points about the instructions for
speaking in tongues:
1.
It was always done in a church setting (I Cor 14:12)
2.
They were temporary (I Cor 13:8)
3.
They were languages (glossa)
4.
The rules for speaking in tongues required an interpreter
I Cor 14:27 If any man
speak in an [unknown] tongue, [let it be] by two, or at the most [by] three,
and [that] by course; and let one interpret.
Now let’s think about this one for a minute. In order for me to speak in an unknown
tongue in the assembly, I ALREADY NEEDED TO KNOW THERE WAS SOMEONE WHO COULD
INTERPRET, and I would need to know who it was. Otherwise, I was to keep silence. If that rule was enforced today, it would do away with almost all
tongue-speaking in churches.
5.
Women were not to speak in tongues at all
I Cor 14:13 Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not
permitted unto them to speak; but [they are commanded] to be under obedience,
as also saith the law.
You will find today in “charismatic” churches, that women do a lot
of the tongue-speaking, in direct disobedience to the Lord’s command. This cannot be of God. It is an improper use of the gift.
If you insist on being carnal, you may speak in tongues between
yourself and God, and will accomplish little, except perhaps the edification of
yourself.
I Cor 14:4 He that
speaketh in an [unknown] tongue edifieth himself; but he that
prophesieth edifieth the church.
The purpose of speaking in languages is to edify the church. If I speak English (as I do, although
poorly), and I am to preach in a congregation that speaks entirely Spanish (as
I have several times), there must be an interpreter (which there was) or no
edification will take place. If no
edification takes place, the gift of tongues is miss-used, and is
unscriptural. No mumbling, no
mumbo-jumbo, no gibberish.
I have known many people who claim to have spoken in tongues when
they were saved, and I have seen many of those people turn their back on the
Lord and live like the Devil. Speaking
in tongues is not evidence of salvation, spirituality, or service. It is evidence of carnality and
will-worship It can be self-induced, it
can be group-induced, and it can be induced by those spirits that we have not
tested.
If you have never trusted Christ, and nothing else, for your
salvation, would you turn to Him now in repentance and faith, claiming His
promise that His death on the cross was sufficient for your sins? Let Him worry about giving the gifts. He’s the one in charge of that.
God Bless,
Doc Trin