A Variety of Spiritual Gifts
by Sarah Wooten Corinth Missionary Baptist Church
This is our fourth week discussing spiritual gifts.
By way of review, spiritual gifts are for the spiritual – those who have been redeemed by God and have life in Him.
God generously gives gifts to His children for the common good of the church.
Man cannot obtain a gift that God has not given, nor can he bring about a desired outcome.
The opportunities to serve, the ability to serve, and the outcome of service are all dependent upon God’s sovereign plan.
This leads us to an important question: what are these spiritual gifts that we have only spoken vaguely about thus far?
Personally, I don’t think that question is so easy to answer.
Yes, Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12 provide lists of spiritual gifts, but the answer is more complicated than providing a list.
Consider the gift of mercy (Romans 12:8).
An unbeliever and a believer alike can provide food to a child in need.
Additionally, both can do so with gladness.
What makes it a spiritual gift to the believer, and not to the unbeliever? Is God not sovereign over and sustaining both individuals?
Yes, God most certainly is.
As we discuss spiritual gifts, we need to keep in mind that we aren’t only talking about individual abilities or actions.
Many of the physical actions we discuss can be performed by unbelievers – teaching, helping, showing mercy, etc.
What makes them spiritual gifts is that God is doing a spiritual work through His spiritual children that we cannot measure.
In other words, the difference is that God is performing His purposes through the life of His children for spiritual good.
The focus of these gifts shouldn’t be on what physical action is accomplished; rather, we should see how God uses these gifts for the common good.
That being said, let’s talk about broad categories of spiritual gifts.
In 1 Corinthians 12:8-10, Paul discusses three categories of gifts that God gives to His children: gifts of the Word, gifts of faith, and gifts of the tongue.
First, Paul points to gifts that deal with the Word of God.
He says that some people have been given by the Spirit of God the utterances of wisdom and knowledge (12:8).
These are people who God has gifted to communicate the truth of His Word to others and to understand His Word with great insight.
At that time in history, this included the apostles. Today, we might think of pastors, teachers, or anyone who God has gifted to faithfully and clearly communicate His Word to others.
Second, Paul mentions spiritual gifts of faith – healings, miracles, prophesying, and discernment (12:9-10a).
This category has caused much controversy throughout the past few hundred years.
Maybe in the future we will have a more thorough discussion on each of these gifts individually, but for now, it’s important to remember the purpose of these gifts of faith.
Through an extraordinary act of faith on the part of the believer, God is fostering faith in the lives of those witnessing the extraordinary faith.
If an unbeliever witnesses a miracle, shouldn’t he wonder about God’s power and be ready to listen to the truth of God’s Word?
If a Christian sees God provide through prayers of faith, doesn’t his trust in God grow?
The experience of power is not the end goal of gifts of faith; instead, the aim is the growth of faith in the lives of believers and unbelievers alike.
Lastly for today, Paul mentions the gift of speaking and discerning different languages (12:10).
Christianity spread during a very unique time in human history.
The Roman empire was full of people from all over the world who spoke different languages.
One of the ways in which God caused the gospel to spread to the ends of the earth was through miraculously giving people the ability to proclaim the gospel in foreign, yet known, languages so that an individual could hear and receive the gospel.
As you can see, God has given a variety of gifts.
Even when two people have the same gift, the outworking of that gift is not the same because we are incredibly unique.
And yet, we are all unified under One Person – the Lord Jesus Christ. By His grace, we utilize a variety of gifts
