1 Corinthians 12:1, spiritual gifts, watch what Paul does with the gifts themselves, because this is exactly where the modern reader tends to take a wrong turn, you want a list, you crave the definitive inventory of spiritual gifts, numbered and defined, neatly separated, so you can scan down the column and find yourself on it, an entire industry has grown up around that craving. There are quizzes and questionnaires and assessments designed to help you discover your spiritual gift, as if the gifts were a fixed set of labeled boxes and the only real question was which box you belong in. Answer these 30 questions and they will tell you whether you are a teacher or an encourager or an administrator.
The Bible quietly refuses to cooperate with that wish and the way it refuses is one of the most overlooked clues in the entire subject, hiding in plain sight, there are four main passages in the New Testament where these gifts get listed out. One in Romans 12:6-8, one in 1 Corinthians 14:1-32; 37, one in Ephesians 4:11-13 and one in 1 Peter 4:10-11, four lists from across the early church and here is the thing almost nobody points out from the front of a room, they do not match, not in their contents, not in their order, not even in their length, lay them side-by-side and they refuse to line up.
The list in Romans 12:6-8 reaches for the ordinary, prophecy, yes, but then serving, teaching, encouraging, giving, leading, showing mercy, several of those are so down to earth, you might not even call them supernatural, if you watch someone do them. The list in 1 Corinthians 14:1-32, by contrast, reaches for the dramatic end of the spectrum, a word of wisdom, a word of knowledge, faith, gifts of healing, the working of miracles, prophecy, the ability to distinguish between spirits, various kinds of tongues and the interpretation of tongues.
1 Corinthians chapter 14 is the headline grabbing list, the one most people picture when they hear the phrase spiritual gifts and it is worth slowing down on a couple of those, because even the dramatic ones turn out to be more grounded than the labels suggest. Consider the gift Paul calls a word of knowledge or the ability to distinguish between spirits, strip away the mystique and what the early church desperately needed was people who could tell the difference between a genuine message from God and a counterfeit. In a world swimming with self-appointed prophets and spiritual conmen, that gift was protective, it guarded the flock.
The Bible quietly refuses to cooperate with that wish and the way it refuses is one of the most overlooked clues in the entire subject, hiding in plain sight, there are four main passages in the New Testament where these gifts get listed out. One in Romans 12:6-8, one in 1 Corinthians 14:1-32; 37, one in Ephesians 4:11-13 and one in 1 Peter 4:10-11, four lists from across the early church and here is the thing almost nobody points out from the front of a room, they do not match, not in their contents, not in their order, not even in their length, lay them side-by-side and they refuse to line up.
The list in Romans 12:6-8 reaches for the ordinary, prophecy, yes, but then serving, teaching, encouraging, giving, leading, showing mercy, several of those are so down to earth, you might not even call them supernatural, if you watch someone do them. The list in 1 Corinthians 14:1-32, by contrast, reaches for the dramatic end of the spectrum, a word of wisdom, a word of knowledge, faith, gifts of healing, the working of miracles, prophecy, the ability to distinguish between spirits, various kinds of tongues and the interpretation of tongues.
1 Corinthians chapter 14 is the headline grabbing list, the one most people picture when they hear the phrase spiritual gifts and it is worth slowing down on a couple of those, because even the dramatic ones turn out to be more grounded than the labels suggest. Consider the gift Paul calls a word of knowledge or the ability to distinguish between spirits, strip away the mystique and what the early church desperately needed was people who could tell the difference between a genuine message from God and a counterfeit. In a world swimming with self-appointed prophets and spiritual conmen, that gift was protective, it guarded the flock.
