The Gifts of the Spirit

The Gifts of the Spirit are much more acceptable in the churches today but I wonder what the purpose of the gifts of the Spirit is. Paul makes clear to us the purpose of the gifts in:

1 Corinthians 12:7 (NIV)

Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.

Each one of us who is a part of the body of Christ has been given a spiritual gift or gifts, these gifts are the evidence of the Spirit's working in our lives. All the gifts are intended to build up the members of the Christian community (see 1Pe 4:10-11). They are not to be used for selfish advantage, as some in the Corinthian community apparently were doing but for the common good. The purpose of the gifts then is to strength the Church and not to weaken it.

With some of the more spectacular gifts like tongues, healing and prophecy they have become a focus for division rather than for unity and building up the church.

In 1 Corinthians 12 Paul speaks about the gifts of the Spirit but look how he does that the first section of the chapter (12:1-11) is all about the gifts; the second stage (12:12-26) is all about the body of Christ; and the final stage (12:27-31). Paul’s strategy is to talk about the gifts of the Spirit as a corporate way rather than an individual way, to build up the body of Christ.

One bible scholar put it this way:

Let it be firmly said that the Church cannot be fully or freely the Church without the presence and operation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. What is depicted therefore in 1 Corinthians – and requiring in our day – is in no sense a peripheral matter but is crucial to the life of the Church. For the resurgence of the charismata of the Holy Spirit signal’s the Churches’ recovery of its spiritual roots and its emergence with fresh power and vitality.[i]

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