Spiritual Gifts

Paul opens his longest teaching on the gifts with a sentence that still fits most churches: “Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant” (1 Corinthians 12:1).

Ignorance about the gifts takes two opposite forms. Some believers have never been taught that the Holy Ghost gives them anything at all; they sit in a pew for decades thinking ministry is what the pastor does. Others have been taught a great deal, but much of it is not in the text: prophecy treated as a new word from God that no one may question, tongues treated as proof of salvation, healing promised on demand, and gifts used to build a name or a following. Both kinds of ignorance hurt the church. The first leaves the body weak. The second leaves it confused and, sometimes, deceived.

This paper takes the path the chapters themselves take. The gifts are real, they are given to every believer, and they are for the church today. And the same chapters that give them also guard them. Paul does not write 1 Corinthians 12 to stir up a church that lacked gifts. He writes to a church that “come behind in no gift” (1 Corinthians 1:7) and was still divided, proud and disorderly. His answer was not to take the gifts away. It was to put them under the Lord Jesus, under the word, under love and under order.

What this paper is

This is a study, not a gift inventory. It argues from the King James Bible first. Where a Greek word matters, it gives the word and its number in Strong's Concordance, so you can check it yourself. Where the history of the church helps, the paper quotes the church fathers and later writers from their own works, with the source. Where Christians have disagreed — and on this subject they have disagreed sharply — the paper says so and shows you the evidence.

Seven parts follow. Part 1 asks what the Bible means by a spiritual gift. Part 2 walks through the lists in Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4 and 1 Peter 4. Part 3 takes up the question whether the gifts are for today, with the history of that debate. Part 4 is the heart of the guardrails: how prophecy and tongues are tested and kept in order under Scripture. Part 5 deals with healing, miracles and deliverance, and what is not promised. Part 6 is practical: how an ordinary believer finds and uses a gift. Part 7 closes with love, which Paul calls “a more excellent way” (1 Corinthians 12:31).

Where this paper stands

I decided to read the Bible for one reason: to disprove it, so I'd have an excuse to stop going to church for good. It did the opposite. I came to faith in 2022, and my wife came to faith a month later. The rest of that story is at kylelauriano.com/about.

I say this so you know where I start: with the text. The gifts of the Spirit and deliverance from evil spirits are for today, and guests on my show testify to both. Every gift is tested by the word of God and kept within the limits the word sets. A gift that cannot be tested is not being used the way Paul taught.

A note on Scripture: every verse in this paper is quoted from the King James Bible. You can read it free in the 1611 Reader at kylelauriano.com/library. A KJV with Strong's Concordance is the best study tool most believers will ever need.

This part matters because the words shape everything after them. If a gift is a talent, then gifted people are simply capable people. If a gift is a badge of rank, then gifted people are better people. Scripture says neither.

Three words in one passage

Paul uses several words for the gifts in 1 Corinthians 12, and each one teaches something.

Spiritual things. The chapter opens, “Now concerning spiritual gifts” (1 Corinthians 12:1). The word “gifts” is printed in italics in the King James Bible because it is not in the Greek; the translators supplied it. Paul's word is pneumatikos (Strong's G4152), “spiritual”, which the King James renders “spiritual” in every one of its twenty-six occurrences.¹ Paul's first point is that these are things that come from the Spirit and belong to the Spirit. That is why he begins with a test of the Spirit's presence before he lists a single gift: “Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost” (1 Corinthians 12:3). Before the Corinthians ask what they can do, they must ask whom they confess.

Gifts of grace. Then he says, “Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:4). Here the word is charisma (G5486), from charis, grace. The King James renders it “gift” fifteen times and “free gift” twice.² The same word is used of salvation itself: “the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23). A charisma is grace given a shape. It is not earned, and it says nothing about the merit of the one who receives it.

A manifestation. Finally, “But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal” (1 Corinthians 12:7). The word is phanerosis (G5321), a showing or making visible; it appears only twice in the New Testament.³ A gift is the unseen Spirit made visible in what a believer says or does for others. The purpose clause matters as much as the noun: “to profit withal”, that is, for the common good.

The same Spirit, the same Lord, the same God

Paul sets the gifts inside the being of God Himself:

“Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all.” (1 Corinthians 12:4-6)

Gifts, administrations (that is, ministries or services), operations (workings): the Spirit gives, the Lord is served, God works. The variety is real, and so is the unity. No gift is a private possession; each is a way the one God works through one of His people.

And the Spirit decides who receives what. “But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will” (1 Corinthians 12:11). That one phrase, “as he will”, removes most of the pride and most of the envy that gather around the gifts. You did not choose your gift, and you cannot purchase one. When Simon of Samaria tried, Peter answered, “Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money” (Acts 8:20).

Every believer, not a few

The New Testament never imagines a believer with no gift. Peter writes, “As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God” (1 Peter 4:10). Paul writes, “But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ” (Ephesians 4:7). And in 1 Corinthians 12 he spends half the chapter on the body, because the Corinthians had begun to think some members mattered and others did not:

“If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?” (1 Corinthians 12:15-16)

The weaker-seeming members, he says, “are necessary” (1 Corinthians 12:22). The quiet believer who prays, gives, visits and helps is not a spectator to the work of the gifted. He is one of the gifted.

Gifts, talents and fruit

Three things are often confused, and it helps to keep them apart.

| | Natural abilities | Spiritual gifts | The fruit of the Spirit | |---|---|---|---| | Source | God as Creator, given at birth and developed | The Holy Ghost, given to believers “as he will” | The Holy Ghost, growing in every believer | | Who has them | Everyone | Every believer, differing gifts | Every believer, all of it | | What they show | That God is generous to all men | What a believer is equipped to do for others | What a believer is becoming | | Key text | Exodus 31:3; James 1:17 | 1 Corinthians 12:7, 11 | Galatians 5:22-23 |

Natural abilities are real gifts of God. Scripture says of Bezaleel, the craftsman of the tabernacle, “And I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship” (Exodus 31:3). The Holy Ghost often takes up what He made in us and turns it to the service of the church. But a natural ability is not the same as a gift of the Spirit. A gifted public speaker is not, for that reason, a prophet or a teacher of the church.

The fruit of the Spirit is a different thing again. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law” (Galatians 5:22-23). Gifts differ from believer to believer; the fruit is the same in all. And Scripture is plain that a person can have gifts without fruit. The Lord Jesus said:

“Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” (Matthew 7:22-23)

That is one of the most sobering verses in the Bible on this subject. Gifts prove that God is generous. Only fruit shows what a man is.

The city behind the letter

It helps to know what kind of church first received 1 Corinthians 12–14. Corinth had been destroyed by Rome in 146 BC and lay deserted for about a century. The Greek geographer Strabo, writing in the time of Augustus, records that it “was restored again, because of its favorable position, by the deified Caesar, who colonised it with people that belonged for the most part to the freedmen class.”⁴ It was a new city, a busy port between two seas, full of people making their way up in the world.

The letter shows that this spirit had come into the church. Believers lined up behind favourite teachers: “every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ” (1 Corinthians 1:12). They were proud of their knowledge, and Paul answers, “Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth” (1 Corinthians 8:1). They were divided at the Lord's table (1 Corinthians 11:17-22). And they were treating the most visible gifts, especially tongues, as marks of spiritual status. John Chrysostom, preaching on this chapter in the late fourth century, saw it the same way: tongues, he said, had become a cause of division among them, “not from its own nature but from the perverseness of them that had received it,” because those with greater gifts were lifted up against those with lesser ones.⁵

So when we read Paul on the gifts, we are reading pastoral correction to a gifted, proud, divided church. That is why the chapters are full of guardrails. The guardrails are not an afterthought. They are the point.

This part matters because many believers know the gifts only through a numbered list on a worksheet. The New Testament gives several lists, written to different churches for different reasons. No two are the same, and none claims to be complete. Reading each in its own setting keeps us from turning them into a catalogue.

The lists side by side

| Romans 12:6-8 | 1 Corinthians 12:8-10 | 1 Corinthians 12:28 | Ephesians 4:11 | 1 Peter 4:10-11 | |---|---|---|---|---| | prophecy | word of wisdom | apostles | apostles | speaking | | ministry | word of knowledge | prophets | prophets | ministering | | teaching | faith | teachers | evangelists | | | exhortation | gifts of healing | miracles | pastors and teachers | | | giving | working of miracles | gifts of healings | | | | ruling | prophecy | helps | | | | shewing mercy | discerning of spirits | governments | | | | | divers kinds of tongues | diversities of tongues | | | | | interpretation of tongues | | | |

Some gifts appear in more than one list (prophecy, teaching, tongues, miracles). Some appear only once (exhortation, giving, mercy, helps, governments, evangelists). Ephesians 4 lists people given to the church rather than abilities given to individuals. And Peter folds everything into two broad kinds: speaking and serving. The lesson is that the Spirit's giving is larger than any one list. The lists show the range; they do not draw the boundary.

Romans 12: gifts for ordinary church life

Romans 12 opens with the call to present your body “a living sacrifice” (Romans 12:1), and the gifts come as part of that sacrifice. Before he names a single gift, Paul warns against pride:

“For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office: So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.” (Romans 12:3-5)

Then the list, with a word of instruction attached to each gift:

“Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith; Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering: or he that teacheth, on teaching; Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness.” (Romans 12:6-8)

Prophecy, “according to the proportion of faith”. Even in this short list, prophecy is placed under a measure. Readers have taken “the proportion of faith” in two ways: as the measure of faith given to the one who prophesies, or as agreement with “the faith”, the body of truth already given. Either way, prophecy has a limit, and it is not left to stand on its own. Part 4 takes this up.

Ministry. The word is diakonia, practical service. The seven men of Acts 6 were chosen so that the apostles could give themselves to prayer and the word while others served tables; yet the qualification for the table was not small: “look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business” (Acts 6:3). Paul honours the house of Stephanas because “they have addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints” (1 Corinthians 16:15). Serving is a gift of the Spirit, not a lesser task for the ungifted.

Teaching. The teacher explains what God has said so that others understand and obey it. Scripture sets a weight on this gift: “My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation” (James 3:1). The word “masters” there is didaskalos (G1320), the ordinary word for a teacher.⁶ A teacher will answer for what he taught.

Exhortation. The exhorter comes alongside to urge, strengthen and comfort. The New Testament's clearest picture is Barnabas. His name was given to him by the apostles, and Luke tells us what it meant: “And Joses, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas, (which is, being interpreted, The son of consolation,) a Levite, and of the country of Cyprus” (Acts 4:36). We meet him already carrying that name, in the same paragraph in which he sells a field and lays the money at the apostles' feet. Luke does not tell us what earned him the name. What he does show is how Barnabas lived up to it afterward: he took the newly converted Saul, whom the disciples feared, “and brought him to the apostles” (Acts 9:27); at Antioch he “was glad, and exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord” (Acts 11:23); and he gave John Mark a second chance when Paul would not (Acts 15:37-39). Paul later wrote of Mark, “he is profitable to me for the ministry” (2 Timothy 4:11). Matthew Henry, commenting on Acts 4:36, set Barnabas beside James and John, whom the Lord surnamed “sons of thunder”, and drew the lesson in four words: “Each had his several gift.”⁷

Giving, “with simplicity”. The word means singleness of mind: without show and without strings. The Lord Jesus said, “But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth” (Matthew 6:3). All believers are called to give; some are given a particular grace for it.

Ruling, “with diligence”. The one who leads or presides is to do it with earnest care. Peter tells elders to lead “Neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being ensamples to the flock” (1 Peter 5:3).

Mercy, “with cheerfulness”. The one who cares for the sick, the poor and the suffering is to do it gladly, not grudgingly. Mercy given with a sigh wounds the one who receives it.

1 Corinthians 12: the manifestations of the Spirit

The Corinthian list is different in kind. It is more concerned with what the Spirit does through a believer in a given moment than with a settled role.

The word of wisdom and the word of knowledge. Paul does not define these, and honest readers should admit it. The phrase “word of” suggests speech: a word that brings God's wisdom to bear on a situation, or a word that brings understanding of the truth. In this same letter Paul contrasts the wisdom of the world with the wisdom God reveals by His Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:6-13), and he warns that knowledge without love “puffeth up” (1 Corinthians 8:1). Whatever the gifts are exactly, they serve the church and they are subject to the same tests as every other utterance.

Faith. All believers have saving faith. This is something more: a particular confidence in God for a particular work. Paul mentions faith “so that I could remove mountains” in 1 Corinthians 13:2, and then says that even that faith without love is nothing.

Gifts of healing and working of miracles. Note the plurals in the Greek, reflected in 1 Corinthians 12:28: “gifts of healings”. Part 5 treats these with their guardrails.

Prophecy. Speech prompted by the Spirit for the church's “edification, and exhortation, and comfort” (1 Corinthians 14:3). Part 4 treats it at length.

Discerning of spirits. The word is diakrisis (G1253), a judging through or distinguishing.⁸ It is the gift that tells the difference between what comes from the Holy Ghost, what comes from a man's own heart, and what comes from an evil spirit. In Philippi a girl “possessed with a spirit of divination” followed Paul crying out, “These men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation” (Acts 16:16-17). Every word was true, and the source was evil. Paul discerned it and cast the spirit out. Discernment is needed precisely because not everything spiritual is holy.

Divers kinds of tongues and the interpretation of tongues. The Greek glossa (G1100) is the ordinary word for tongue and language; the King James renders it “tongue” all fifty times.⁹ At Pentecost the tongues were languages that hearers recognised: “every man heard them speak in his own language” (Acts 2:6). In Corinth, Paul speaks of a tongue no one present understands without interpretation (1 Corinthians 14:2). Part 4 deals with how tongues are to be used.

1 Corinthians 12:28: an order, and a set of questions

Near the end of the chapter Paul gives a ranked list:

“And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues. Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all teachers? are all workers of miracles? Have all the gifts of healing? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret?” (1 Corinthians 12:28-30)

Two things stand out. First, the order puts the gifts that teach the word at the top and tongues, the gift the Corinthians most prized, at the bottom. Second, the questions expect the answer no. Not all speak with tongues. Any teaching that says every true believer must speak in tongues, or that tongues is the necessary sign of having the Holy Ghost, runs against the plain grammar of this verse. Paul says elsewhere that every believer has the Spirit: “Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his” (Romans 8:9).

Two gifts on this list are easy to pass over. Helps are acts of support and assistance; governments are the gift of guidance or administration. The word is kybernesis (G2941), found only here, and it is related to kybernetes (G2942), the “master” of the ship in Acts 27:11 and the “shipmaster” of Revelation 18:17: the one who steers.¹⁰ Neither is spectacular.

Ephesians 4: gifts given as people

In Ephesians the risen Christ gives gifts to His church, and the gifts are people:

“And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.” (Ephesians 4:11-13)

The purpose clause is the key to the whole passage. These leaders are given “For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry” (Ephesians 4:12). They do not do all the ministry; they equip the saints to do it. The goal is maturity and stability: “That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine” (Ephesians 4:14). A church whose gifts are working well is harder to deceive, not easier.

Apostles and prophets are named first, and Paul has already said what they were for: the church is “built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone” (Ephesians 2:20). A foundation is laid once. Part 3 returns to this.

Evangelists carry the gospel to those who have not heard it. Philip is called “Philip the evangelist” (Acts 21:8), and Paul tells Timothy, a pastor, to “do the work of an evangelist” (2 Timothy 4:5).

Pastors and teachers shepherd and instruct a local flock. The elders of Ephesus were told, “Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood” (Acts 20:28).

1 Peter 4: speaking and serving

Peter's list is the shortest and perhaps the most useful for daily life:

“As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.” (1 Peter 4:10-11)

Three words carry the teaching. A gift is a stewardship: it belongs to the Owner and must be accounted for. Speaking gifts are to speak “as the oracles of God”, which means saying what God has said, not adding to it. Serving gifts depend on “the ability which God giveth”. And the goal of all of it is that God, not the gifted person, “may be glorified”.

This part matters because believers who love the Lord and the Bible have answered this question differently for centuries, and the answer changes how a church worships and how a believer prays. The honest way to approach it is to look at the text, then at the history, and then to say plainly where the paper stands and why.

What the text says about how long the gifts last

Paul gives the Corinthians a time frame for the gifts. They “come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 1:7). The gifts belong to the time of waiting.

In 1 Corinthians 13 he says the partial gifts will one day end:

“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. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.” (1 Corinthians 13:8-10)

The question is what “that which is perfect” means. Some have read it as the completed New Testament: once Scripture was finished, the partial gifts were no longer needed. Others read it as the return of Christ and the life to come. Verse 12 seems to decide it: “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known” (1 Corinthians 13:12). “Face to face” and “even as also I am known” describe seeing the Lord, not reading a book. That is how this paper reads it: the gifts continue until “that which is perfect is come” at His appearing.

Peter at Pentecost quoted Joel to explain what the crowd was seeing, and he placed it in “the last days”:

“But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams” (Acts 2:16-17)

The New Testament treats the whole time between the first and second comings of Christ as “these last days” (Hebrews 1:2). And Paul's last word on the matter in 1 Corinthians 14 is plain: “Wherefore, brethren, covet to prophesy, and forbid not to speak with tongues” (1 Corinthians 14:39).

What the early church said

The earliest Christian writers after the apostles did not treat the gifts as finished.

Justin Martyr, writing his Dialogue with Trypho in the middle of the second century, told his Jewish opponent: “For the prophetical gifts remain with us, even to the present time.” In the same chapter he warned that “just as there were false prophets contemporaneous with your holy prophets, so are there now many false teachers among us.”¹¹ Notice that Justin holds both truths together: the gift is real, and so is the counterfeit.

Irenaeus of Lyons, writing Against Heresies about AD 180, said: “In like manner we do also hear many brethren in the Church, who possess prophetic gifts, and who through the Spirit speak all kinds of languages, and bring to light for the general benefit the hidden things of men, and declare the mysteries of God.”¹²

The Didache, a short early church manual usually dated to the late first or early second century, shows a church that had prophets and had already learned to test them. “But not every one that speaks in the Spirit is a prophet; but only if he hold the ways of the Lord. Therefore from their ways shall the false prophet and the prophet be known.” It adds a test that is still useful: “But whoever says in the Spirit, Give me money, or something else, you shall not listen to him.”¹³

The Montanist crisis

In the second half of the second century a movement arose in Phrygia, in Asia Minor, around a man named Montanus and two women prophets. They claimed new revelations and spoke in a frenzied ecstasy. The church historian Eusebius, writing in the early fourth century, preserved parts of the earliest books written against them. One writer said he had found the church at Ancyra in Galatia “greatly agitated by this novelty, not prophecy, as they call it, but rather false prophecy.” Another set out the test that exposed them: “the false prophet falls into an ecstasy, in which he is without shame or fear,” whereas none of the true prophets, old or new, was “thus carried away in spirit.” He named those true prophets: Agabus, Judas, Silas, the daughters of Philip, and two later Christians, Ammia in Philadelphia and Quadratus.¹⁴

This is important history. The church did not answer Montanism by denying that prophecy existed. It answered by testing prophecy, and the test it used was Paul's: “And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets” (1 Corinthians 14:32). True prophecy does not take a man out of himself. He can stop, wait and be weighed.

Chrysostom, Augustine and the idea of cessation

By the late fourth century, some of the church's greatest preachers were saying that certain gifts had largely passed. John Chrysostom, opening his sermon on 1 Corinthians 12, said: “This whole place is very obscure: but the obscurity is produced by our ignorance of the facts referred to and by their cessation, being such as then used to occur but now no longer take place.”¹⁵

Augustine, preaching on 1 John, said of the tongues at Pentecost: “These were signs adapted to the time.” He asked his hearers whether, when hands were laid on new believers, anyone expected them to speak in tongues, and he pointed them to another evidence of the Spirit: “If he love his brother the Spirit of God dwells in him.”¹⁶

These are the words of godly men describing what they saw in their own day, and Augustine's emphasis on love is exactly Paul's. But notice what they are. They are observations about their time, not exposition of a verse that says the gifts would end. Chrysostom himself calls the question of why the gifts no longer happened “another question” and sets it aside.

Calvin and the Reformers

John Calvin, in his Institutes, taught that of the five ministries Paul names in Ephesians 4, “only the two last have an ordinary office in the Church” — that is, pastors and teachers. But he did not say the others were gone forever. He wrote that the Lord raised up the other three “at the beginning of his kingdom, and still occasionally raises them up when the necessity of the times requires.”¹⁷

The Westminster Confession of 1646 stated what all sides of the debate should be able to agree on: that the whole counsel of God for faith and life is set down in Scripture, “unto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelations of the Spirit, or traditions of men.” It added that the supreme judge by which all controversies of religion are to be determined, and by which all “opinions of ancient writers, doctrines of men, and private spirits” are to be examined, can be “no other but the Holy Spirit speaking in the Scripture.”¹⁸

Where this paper stands

Here is the position this paper takes, and the reasons for it.

The gifts of the Spirit are for today. The text gives them for the time of waiting for Christ (1 Corinthians 1:7), says they last until “that which is perfect is come” (1 Corinthians 13:10), places them in “the last days” (Acts 2:17), and ends with “forbid not to speak with tongues” (1 Corinthians 14:39). No verse says they would stop at the end of the apostolic age. The early witnesses quoted above saw them in their own day.

Some things were given once, and are not repeated. The apostles who saw the risen Lord and laid the foundation of the church had no successors in that role. The replacement for Judas had to be one who had “companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us” (Acts 1:21), a witness “of his resurrection” (Acts 1:22). Paul calls himself the last to see the risen Lord, “as of one born out of due time” (1 Corinthians 15:8). The church is built “upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets” (Ephesians 2:20), and a foundation is not relaid in each generation. Missionaries and church planters do apostolic work in the broad sense of being sent; no one today holds the authority of the Twelve or of Paul.

Scripture is complete and final. Jude speaks of “the faith which was once delivered unto the saints” (Jude 1:3). The last book of the Bible ends with a warning: “If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book” (Revelation 22:18). Proverbs says the same of all God's words: “Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar” (Proverbs 30:6). Whatever prophecy is today, it is not more Scripture. It never stands beside the Bible, never corrects it, and never adds a doctrine to it.

So the gifts are for today, guarded. That is the only position that takes both halves of these chapters seriously: the giving and the guarding. The next two parts set out the guardrails in detail.

This part matters because more harm has been done in the name of prophecy than in the name of almost any other gift, and more confusion has gathered around tongues than around any other. Paul spends a whole chapter, 1 Corinthians 14, on these two gifts. Almost every verse is either encouragement or a rule. Both matter.

Paul's encouragement

Paul wants the church to prophesy. “Follow after charity, and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy” (1 Corinthians 14:1). He tells us what New Testament prophecy is for: “But he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort” (1 Corinthians 14:3). Building up, urging on, consoling. And he describes what it can do when an unbeliever walks into a meeting:

“But if all prophesy, and there come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all: And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest; and so falling down on his face he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth.” (1 Corinthians 14:24-25)

That is a picture of a church where the word comes home to a sinner's conscience and he worships God. It is not a picture of a stage performance.

Paul also values tongues: “I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all” (1 Corinthians 14:18). But in the same breath he puts them in their place: “Yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue” (1 Corinthians 14:19).

The governing rule: edification

Every instruction in the chapter serves one purpose. “Let all things be done unto edifying” (1 Corinthians 14:26). Paul tests the gifts by whether the church is built up:

“Even so ye, forasmuch as ye are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the church.” (1 Corinthians 14:12)

This is why prophecy ranks above uninterpreted tongues in the assembly: “He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself; but he that prophesieth edifieth the church” (1 Corinthians 14:4). It is also why Paul insists on the mind: “I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also” (1 Corinthians 14:15). The Spirit does not bypass the understanding of His people; He fills it.

The rules for tongues

Paul gives the Corinthians four plain rules for tongues in the assembly:

“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. But if there be no interpreter, let him keep silence in the church; and let him speak to himself, and to God.” (1 Corinthians 14:27-28)

1. A limit. Two, or at the most three. 2. Order. “By course”, one at a time, not all at once. 3. Interpretation. What is spoken must be made understandable. 4. Silence without it. With no interpreter, the speaker keeps quiet in the church and speaks “to himself, and to God”.

He also warns what happens when the rules are ignored: “If therefore the whole church be come together into one place, and all speak with tongues, and there come in those that are unlearned, or unbelievers, will they not say that ye are mad?” (1 Corinthians 14:23).

Two further points follow from the text. Tongues must not be forbidden (1 Corinthians 14:39). And tongues must not be required, since Paul has already asked, expecting the answer no, “do all speak with tongues?” (1 Corinthians 12:30). A church that forbids what Paul allowed and a church that requires what Paul did not require have both stepped outside the chapter.

The rules for prophecy

The rules for prophecy are just as plain:

“Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the other judge. If any thing be revealed to another that sitteth by, let the first hold his peace. For ye may all prophesy one by one, that all may learn, and all may be comforted. And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.” (1 Corinthians 14:29-33)

Read those verses slowly, because each line is a guardrail.

“Let the prophets speak two or three.” There is a limit. Prophecy does not take over the meeting.

“And let the other judge.” Every prophecy is weighed. The word for “judge” is the verb form of the same word used for “discerning” of spirits. The others present — the congregation, and especially those who lead and teach it — test what is said. A prophecy in the New Testament church was never beyond question. It was spoken in order to be tested.

“Let the first hold his peace.” A prophet can be interrupted and can stop. No one has the floor by divine right.

“The spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets.” The one who prophesies is in control of himself. This is the very test the early church used against the Montanists' ecstasies. A man who says he cannot help what he is doing, cannot stop, and cannot be questioned, has disqualified himself by Paul's rule.

“God is not the author of confusion, but of peace.” Disorder is not a sign of the Spirit's power. It is a sign that something other than the Spirit is at work, or that the Spirit's gifts are being misused.

And the chapter closes: “Let all things be done decently and in order” (1 Corinthians 14:40).

Prophecy stands under the apostolic word

Paul then does something remarkable. He places the prophets of Corinth under his own written word:

“If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord. But if any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant.” (1 Corinthians 14:37-38)

This is the deepest guardrail of all. A prophet in Corinth who contradicted Paul's letter was not to be believed, however spiritual he seemed. Today we have the apostolic word complete in the New Testament. So every prophecy, every impression, every dream and every “word” is subject to Scripture, and never the other way round. Isaiah gave the same rule to Israel: “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them” (Isaiah 8:20).

Testing the spirits

Two more texts make testing a duty for every believer, not only for leaders.

“Quench not the Spirit. Despise not prophesyings. Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. Abstain from all appearance of evil.” (1 Thessalonians 5:19-22)

Notice the balance. Do not quench; do not despise. But prove — test — all things. Hold fast the good, and let the rest go.

“Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God” (1 John 4:1-2)

John's first test is about Christ. What does this word say about Jesus? Does it honour Him as He is revealed in Scripture, God come in the flesh? Jesus said of the Holy Ghost, “He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you” (John 16:14). A word that draws attention to the prophet, or away from Christ, has failed the first test.

Moses gave Israel two tests that still apply. The first is truthfulness: “When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously” (Deuteronomy 18:22). The second is faithfulness, and it is the more searching. A prophet may give a sign that comes true, and still be false if he leads people away from the Lord:

“If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them; Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the LORD your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.” (Deuteronomy 13:1-3)

Accuracy is not enough. A word must be true, and it must lead toward God and His word.

The Lord Jesus gave the test of life: “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:15-16). The Didache's tests, quoted in Part 3, are applications of this one: a prophet who asks for money for himself, or who does not practise what he teaches, is false.

Jonathan Edwards, preaching on 1 John 4 at the Yale commencement in New Haven in September 1741, in the middle of a revival full of real conversions and also of excesses, set out what he called the distinguishing marks of a true work of the Spirit. Among them was this: “The spirit that operates in such a manner, as to cause in men a greater regard to the Holy Scriptures, and establishes them more in their truth and divinity, is certainly the Spirit of God.”¹⁹ His other marks, drawn from the same chapter, were that a true work raises men's esteem of Jesus, works against the kingdom of Satan and sin, leads into truth, and produces love to God and to men. Any word that loosens a believer's hold on the Bible fails Edwards's test, because it fails John's.

Agabus: what New Testament prophecy looked like

The book of Acts gives us a few clear pictures of prophecy in the church. Agabus, a prophet from Jerusalem, “signified by the Spirit that there should be great dearth throughout all the world: which came to pass in the days of Claudius Caesar” (Acts 11:28). The church responded with practical action, sending relief “every man according to his ability” (Acts 11:29). Judas and Silas, “being prophets also themselves, exhorted the brethren with many words, and confirmed them” (Acts 15:32). Philip had “four daughters, virgins, which did prophesy” (Acts 21:9).

The most instructive case is Paul's last journey to Jerusalem. Paul himself said, “the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me” (Acts 20:23). At Tyre the disciples “said to Paul through the Spirit, that he should not go up to Jerusalem” (Acts 21:4). At Caesarea Agabus bound his own hands and feet with Paul's girdle and said that the Jews at Jerusalem would bind the owner of that girdle (Acts 21:11). The believers wept and begged Paul not to go. Paul answered, “for I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus” (Acts 21:13). And he went.

What does this show? The Spirit revealed what lay ahead. The believers drew a conclusion from it — “don't go” — that Paul, weighing it before the Lord, did not accept. The prophecy was received, weighed and acted on with wisdom; it was not treated as an order that overrode Paul's own walk with God. That is how prophecy works under 1 Corinthians 14:29. It is weighed.

What this paper does not teach

Because these guardrails are so often ignored, it helps to set out plainly what the text does not support:

• No “thus saith the LORD” for today's prophecy. The Old Testament prophets spoke with that formula, and their words became Scripture. No believer today should introduce a word, impression or dream as “Thus saith the LORD”, or as words that cannot be questioned. A prophecy is offered to be weighed (1 Corinthians 14:29), and it may be set aside.
• No new doctrine. Nothing is to be added to the faith “once delivered unto the saints” (Jude 1:3). A prophecy that teaches something the Bible does not teach is false, whoever speaks it.
• No control. Prophecy is not to be used to tell another believer whom to marry, where to move, what to give, or how to vote. A believer may receive counsel; he answers to the Lord and His word.
• No money. A “word” attached to a request for money fails the oldest test the church has (Didache 11; Acts 8:20).
• No ecstasy that cannot be stopped. “The spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets” (1 Corinthians 14:32).
• No disorder. “For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace” (1 Corinthians 14:33).

A word on women and the assembly

Paul's chapter on order also contains these verses, which should be read as written:

“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. And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church.” (1 Corinthians 14:34-35)

In the same letter Paul assumes that women pray and prophesy: “But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head” (1 Corinthians 11:5), and Philip's four daughters prophesied (Acts 21:9). The text holds both, and these words are not to be dismissed as merely cultural. Churches that hold the Bible as their authority have applied the two passages in different ways — for example, some understand 14:34-35 as governing the weighing of prophecy and the teaching of the assembly, others as a wider silence in the gathered church — and this paper does not rule for the reader. Read 1 Corinthians 11 and 14 and 1 Timothy 2 together, with your own church's leaders, and obey what you find.

This part matters because the gifts of power are where the greatest hopes and the deepest hurts meet. A sick believer who is promised healing and does not receive it can be crushed. A church that never prays for the sick has stopped doing what James told it to do. Scripture walks between these.

The promises

The Lord Jesus sent His disciples out with power: “Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give” (Matthew 10:8). At the end of Mark's Gospel He said:

“And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.” (Mark 16:17-18)

These verses stand in the 1611 and the Received Text. Most modern versions mark Mark 16:9–20 as doubtful; you can see every such place at kylelauriano.com/library/changes. Note what the passage itself says: these are signs that “follow” believers as they preach (Mark 16:20), not tricks to be staged. Taking up serpents is not a command to handle snakes as a test of faith. Paul shook off the viper at Malta (Acts 28:3-5) without seeking it. To go looking for danger in order to prove a promise is to tempt God, which is what the devil asked Jesus to do at the pinnacle of the temple, and He refused.

James gave the church an ordinary, standing practice:

“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: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.” (James 5:14-15)

Notice who acts here: the sick man calls; the elders pray; “the Lord shall raise him up”. The healing is the Lord's. This is the church's normal work, and churches that never do it are neglecting a plain instruction.

What is not promised

The same New Testament that records healings records believers who were not healed, and it records them without embarrassment.

• Paul left a co-worker sick: “Trophimus have I left at Miletum sick” (2 Timothy 4:20).
• Epaphroditus “was sick nigh unto death: but God had mercy on him” (Philippians 2:27). Paul does not say he commanded the sickness to leave; he says God had mercy.
• Paul told Timothy, “Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine often infirmities” (1 Timothy 5:23). He gave him practical medicine, not a rebuke for lack of faith.
• Paul himself asked three times for his thorn in the flesh to be removed, and the answer was no: “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9).

From these texts come three guardrails:

1. Healing is never guaranteed. We pray in faith, and we leave the answer with God. No one may promise a sick person healing as a certainty, and no one may tell a sick believer that he is still sick because his faith is weak. 2. Doctors and medicine are not unbelief. Luke, who wrote a quarter of the New Testament, was “the beloved physician” (Colossians 4:14). Pray, and see the doctor. 3. The gifts are not for sale or for show. “Freely ye have received, freely give” (Matthew 10:8). A healing ministry that charges for prayer, or that stages healings for the camera, has left the New Testament.

Miracles and their purpose

Miracles in the New Testament confirm the word. The writer to the Hebrews says that the gospel “was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will” (Hebrews 2:3-4). “According to his own will” is the guardrail. God works miracles when He chooses, to point to His Son. A believer does not summon them.

Paul also speaks of “the signs of an apostle” (2 Corinthians 12:12) wrought among the Corinthians, which tells us the apostles had a fullness of these signs that marked their unique office. That is one reason we should expect the gifts of power today to be real but not routine, and never the centre of a church's life.

Deliverance

The Lord Jesus cast out devils, and so did His apostles. In Philippi Paul spoke directly to the spirit in the slave girl: “I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour” (Acts 16:18). Several things about that account guard us. Paul did not converse with the spirit, ask it questions, or let it preach for him, even though what it said was true. He commanded it once, in the name of Jesus Christ, and it went.

Every believer has authority in Christ against the enemy, and the basic practice is simple: “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7). The armour for the fight is set out in Ephesians 6:10-18, and its only weapon of attack is “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Ephesians 6:17).

Some things the text does not support, and this paper does not teach: interviewing or holding conversations with evil spirits; treating words, declarations or formulas as if they work by themselves; commanding or summoning angels; promising guaranteed outcomes; or teaching that a born-again believer, sealed by the Holy Ghost (Ephesians 4:30), can be owned or possessed by a devil. Believers can be tempted, attacked and oppressed; the New Testament is full of that warfare. But a believer belongs to Christ.

And the Lord gave His disciples a warning about the joy of power: “Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven” (Luke 10:20). Salvation is the greater wonder.

Jackie VanTine told the story on The King Is Coming Show (TKIC #16), Faith, Deliverance, and Marriage Under Christ. Watch it in Jackie's own words: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjU6N7arAbA Jackie's account of what happened, shared as testimony — weigh it for yourself.

This part matters because most of the gifts in the New Testament are not spectacular. They are teaching, serving, giving, leading, encouraging and showing mercy. Most believers who serve the church faithfully for a lifetime will never prophesy in a meeting or see a miracle, and they are no less gifted. The question for most of us is not “Which rare gift do I have?” but “How has God equipped me to serve the people in front of me?”

Start with what the New Testament commands everyone

Almost every gift on the lists corresponds to a command given to all believers. Not all have the gift of giving, but all are told “God loveth a cheerful giver” (2 Corinthians 9:7). Not all are evangelists, but all are to be ready to give an answer (1 Peter 3:15). Not all have the gift of mercy, but all are to “Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love” (Romans 12:10). Not all are teachers, but all are to teach and admonish one another (Colossians 3:16).

This is the most practical way to find a gift. Obey the commands that are given to everyone, and watch where the Lord gives you unusual grace, joy and fruit. A gift is often discovered in the doing, not before it.

Five ways a gift becomes clear

1. Serve where there is need. The seven men of Acts 6 were not chosen because they had taken an inventory. They were chosen because there was a need, and they were men “of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom” (Acts 6:3). One of them, Stephen, became the first martyr; another, Philip, became an evangelist. Their gifts showed themselves in service.

2. Think soberly. Paul's instruction before the Romans list is “not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly” (Romans 12:3). That cuts both ways. Do not claim a gift you do not have, and do not deny one God has plainly given. Sober judgment looks at the evidence.

3. Listen to the church. Gifts are given for the body, and the body is often the first to recognise them. Timothy's gift was recognised publicly: “Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery” (1 Timothy 4:14). Ask the mature believers who know you where they have seen God use you. Their answer is worth more than any questionnaire.

4. Look for fruit. A teaching gift produces people who understand the Bible. A gift of mercy produces people who feel cared for. A gift of leadership produces a group that moves together in a good direction. If something you do regularly builds others up, and others say so, take note.

5. Look for joy without pride. A gift often brings a deep gladness in the doing. But be careful: the gladness of being seen is not the same thing. The test is whether you would do it with the same joy if no one ever thanked you.

A word about gift tests

Many churches use written spiritual gift inventories. They can be a useful prompt for self-examination and conversation. But they are not in the Bible, they are only as good as the self-knowledge of the person filling them in, and they cannot tell you what the Holy Ghost has given. Use one, if your church does, as a set of questions, not as an oracle. The New Testament way is the one above: serve, think soberly, listen to the church, look for fruit.

Stir it up

A gift can lie unused. Paul wrote to Timothy, “Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands” (2 Timothy 1:6). The picture is of fanning a fire into flame. Gifts grow with use, with study, with faithfulness in small things. The Lord's word to the faithful servant was, “thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things” (Matthew 25:21).

A gift also brings accountability. “For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required” (Luke 12:48). Peter's word “stewards” (1 Peter 4:10) means we will give account for what we did with what we were given.

A hypothetical example

Suppose a believer in a small church has never thought of herself as gifted. She notices that when someone in the church is in hospital, she is usually the first to visit; that people tell her things they tell no one else; that she can sit with grief without rushing it. An older woman in the church tells her, “When you visit, people feel the Lord has come.” She has not taken a test. But the commands she has obeyed, the fruit that has followed, the joy she has in it and the word of the church all point the same way: the Spirit has given her a gift of mercy. The next step is not a title. It is to keep doing it, more faithfully, and to let the church's leaders know so they can send her where she is needed.

That is how most gifts are found.

Women and men alike

The New Testament records women serving the church with their gifts. Paul commended “Phebe our sister, which is a servant of the church which is at Cenchrea,” and added, “she hath been a succourer of many, and of myself also” (Romans 16:1-2). Philip's daughters prophesied (Acts 21:9). Joel's prophecy, quoted at Pentecost, says “your sons and your daughters shall prophesy” (Acts 2:17). The Spirit gives gifts to women as well as men. How those gifts are used within the order of the gathered church is governed by the passages quoted in Part 4, which churches apply in different ways.

This part matters because Paul put it in the middle of his teaching on the gifts, on purpose. Between 1 Corinthians 12 and 1 Corinthians 14 stands the chapter on love. Without it, everything else in this paper is noise.

Gifts without love

“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3)

Look at what Paul names: tongues, prophecy, knowledge, faith, giving, even martyrdom. Every gift the Corinthians admired, and more. And without love the verdict on each is the same: noise, nothing, no profit. Gifts do not measure a man. Love does.

Then Paul describes love, and every line is a correction of Corinth:

“Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.” (1 Corinthians 13:4-7)

The Corinthians envied one another's gifts; love “envieth not”. They were proud of their spirituality; love “vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up”. Their meetings were disorderly; love “Doth not behave itself unseemly”. They used gifts to raise themselves; love “seeketh not her own”.

Five ways gifts go wrong

From these chapters come five warnings that every gifted believer needs.

Pride. “For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?” (1 Corinthians 4:7). A gift is a gift. Boasting about it is like boasting about a present.

Comparison. The foot that says “Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body” (1 Corinthians 12:15) has believed a lie. So has the eye that says to the hand, “I have no need of thee” (1 Corinthians 12:21). Envy and contempt are two sides of the same sin.

Division. God set the members in the body “That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another” (1 Corinthians 12:25). When gifts become a reason for factions — the tongues people and the teaching people, the prophetic church and the Bible church — something has gone badly wrong.

Self-promotion. “For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake” (2 Corinthians 4:5). A gift used to build a platform, a brand or a following is a gift turned against its purpose.

Gifts without holiness. The most frightening warning is the one already quoted: “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name?” (Matthew 7:22). Power is not proof of salvation. Only Christ is that, and the fruit He produces.

The gifts pass; love abides

Paul ends the chapter by looking ahead. The gifts are partial and temporary: “For we know in part, and we prophesy in part” (1 Corinthians 13:9). When the Lord comes, prophecy will not be needed, because we shall see Him. But love will go on for ever.

“And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.” (1 Corinthians 13:13)

That is why Paul's next sentence is “Follow after charity, and desire spiritual gifts” (1 Corinthians 14:1). In that order. Pursue love; desire gifts. The gifts are tools for loving the church well. Love is the goal.

The Holy Ghost has not left His church without gifts. He gives to every believer, as He wills, for the good of the body. Some gifts speak; some serve. A few are striking; most are ordinary. All of them are grace.

And the chapters that give the gifts also guard them. Every gift confesses Jesus as Lord (1 Corinthians 12:3). Every gift is for edification (1 Corinthians 14:26). Prophecy is weighed (1 Corinthians 14:29), tested (1 Thessalonians 5:21; 1 John 4:1), and stands under the written word (1 Corinthians 14:37). Tongues are interpreted or kept private. Healing is asked for in faith and left with God. Deliverance is done in the name of Jesus Christ, without conversation and without formulas. Nothing is added to Scripture. Everything is done “decently and in order” (1 Corinthians 14:40). And over all of it stands love.

What to do next

• Read 1 Corinthians 12–14 through in one sitting, then Romans 12 and Ephesians 4. Use the 1611 Reader at kylelauriano.com/library and a KJV with Strong's Concordance.
• Obey the commands that are given to every believer — giving, serving, encouraging, praying for the sick, sharing the gospel — and notice where God gives you unusual grace and fruit.
• Ask two or three mature believers in your church where they have seen God use you.
• Test everything you hear by the word: “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good” (1 Thessalonians 5:21).
• Pursue love first.

An invitation

If you are reading this and you do not yet know Christ, the gifts are not where you begin. The greatest gift is not a gift of the Spirit at all; it is Christ Himself. “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). The apostles preached “repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 20:21), and on the day the Spirit was poured out, Peter said, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost” (Acts 2:38).

Here is the turning point of my story, in my own words. Then one day I got on my knees and prayed: "Jesus, if you are real, show me — and I'll serve you." He is the same Lord today, and His promise stands: “him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37).

And if you know Him, you have the Spirit, and you have a gift. Stir it up, use it in love, and keep it under the word.

“As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.” (1 Peter 4:10)