It was a Friday night vigil in a church on the edge of Ikorodu, a little after one in the morning. The generator was humming outside, the fans were turning slowly, and the worship had settled into that quiet, heavy place where nobody wants to be the first to speak. Then a young man I will call Babajide walked to the front and took the microphone.
Babajide was twenty-four, and he loved God with everything in him. He had spoken in tongues since he was seventeen, and he prayed for hours when other young men his age were asleep. That night he began to pray in tongues over the microphone, loudly, for what felt like ten minutes. Nobody interpreted. When he stopped, he announced that there was someone in the room whose home was about to scatter, and that the Lord was calling that person out to the front immediately.
Nobody came. The silence after his words was very different from the silence before them.
Near the back sat a young woman who had come for the first time with a colleague from work. Her mother was in hospital, and she had come because someone told her that God answers prayer in this church. She did not know what tongues were. She did not know whether the warning about a scattered home was meant for her. She sat very still with her handbag on her knees, and her hands were shaking.
Two rows behind her sat Mrs Inyang, a retired nurse who had never once held the microphone at a vigil in thirty years. She noticed the hands. She got up, went to sit beside the young woman, and asked her name. Then she asked what had brought her. She listened, fetched her a sachet of water, and prayed with her quietly about her mother, holding her hand. Nobody on the platform saw any of it.
After the vigil, the senior pastor asked Babajide to stay behind. Babajide expected to be corrected and was ready to defend himself. “Pastor,” he said, “are you going to quench the Spirit?” The old man shook his head and opened his Bible at 1 Corinthians 12. “No,” he said. “I want you to understand what the Spirit gave you the gift for.”
One Spirit, many gifts
Paul’s teaching on spiritual gifts was written to a church that had plenty of them. He tells the Corinthians at the beginning of the letter that they “come behind in no gift” (1 Corinthians 1:7). They were gifted, eloquent and enthusiastic. They were also divided, proud and careless with one another. When Paul reaches the subject of spiritual gifts in chapter 12, he is writing to people who did not lack power. They lacked understanding of what the power was for.
He begins by reminding them of their past. “Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led” (1 Corinthians 12:2). In the temples of Corinth, people could be swept along by intense experiences that had nothing to do with the living God. So Paul gives a first test: “no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost” (1 Corinthians 12:3). The Spirit of God always exalts Jesus as Lord. Any experience that leaves Jesus smaller has already raised a question about its source. Then he describes the gifts themselves:
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. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; 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: But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.
Look at the shape of verses 4 to 6. Diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. Differences of administrations, but the same Lord. Diversities of operations, but it is the same God. Spirit, Lord, God. Paul cannot describe the gifts without describing the triune God who gives them. The word translated gifts is charismata, and it is built on charis, the word for grace. A spiritual gift is grace in action, a particular way in which God’s undeserved kindness becomes useful through a person.
Then comes the sentence that governs the whole discussion: “But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.” The phrase to profit withal means for the common good, for the benefit of others. The gift is a manifestation, a showing, of the Spirit. It is the Spirit making Himself visible in the life of the church through one of its members, for the good of the rest.
Notice too who decides. The Spirit divides “to every man severally as he will.” Nobody chooses his own gift from a menu, and nobody can boast about receiving one. Striking gifts such as miracles and tongues sit beside quieter ones such as the word of wisdom, and all come from “that one and the selfsame Spirit.” Paul refuses to rank them by spectacle.
PunchlineThat was the first thing the pastor showed Babajide. The gift was real, and precisely because the Spirit had given it, it had been entrusted to him for someone else.
A body that needs every part
Paul then reaches for the picture that dominates the rest of the chapter. “For as the body is one, and hath many members... so also is Christ” (1 Corinthians 12:12). By one Spirit every believer has been baptised into one body. That is where Paul locates gifts: inside a body, among members who need one another.
He imagines the parts of a body having a conversation. The foot looks at the hand and says, “Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body.” The ear looks at the eye and concludes the same. Paul’s reply is almost humorous. “If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing?” A church where everyone had the same gift would be a giant eyeball rolling down the aisle. Then he turns the conversation round:
But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him. And if they were all one member, where were the body? But now are they many members, yet but one body. And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary: And those members of the body, which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness. For our comely parts have no need: but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to that part which lacked: That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another. And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.
There are two errors here, and most churches know both. The first is the voice of inferiority. The foot decides that because it is not a hand, it does not really belong. This is the believer who says, “I do not prophesy, I do not lead worship, I am not on the platform, so my contribution does not count.” Paul’s answer is that God has set the members in the body “as it hath pleased him.” Your place was His decision. If you belong to Christ, you are not a spectator in His body.
The second error is the voice of superiority. “The eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee.” This is the gifted believer who quietly assumes that the church needs him more than he needs the church. Paul answers with one of the most surprising sentences in the chapter: “those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary.” Seem is the important word. Some members look less impressive. They are no less necessary. Every one of us depends daily on organs we have never seen.
God has deliberately “tempered the body together,” mixing it the way a builder mixes cement and sand so that the whole holds. And His purpose is stated plainly: “That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another.” Gifts are meant to bind the church together in mutual care. When one suffers, all suffer. When one is honoured, all rejoice.
Then Paul brings it home: “Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular” (1 Corinthians 12:27). His closing questions expect the answer no: “Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all teachers?” (1 Corinthians 12:29). Nobody carries every gift, so nobody is complete without the others.
That night in Ikorodu, the most visible gift in the building was Babajide’s. The most needed gift, for one frightened young woman, was Mrs Inyang’s. She would probably have said she had no gift at all. Paul would have disagreed. The list in verse 28 includes “helps,” and there is no more honourable word for what she did.
Entrusted for someone else’s good
Peter puts the same truth in the language of stewardship:
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.
A steward in the ancient world managed property that belonged to his master. He might hold the keys to the storeroom and distribute food to the whole household, but none of it was his. Peter says that every believer “hath received the gift,” and that each must “minister the same one to another.” The direction of a gift is outward. It travels from God, through you, to someone else.
This changes how we think about gifts in at least three ways.
It removes boasting. If a gift is received, then it proves the generosity of the Giver, not the maturity of the receiver. Paul asks the Corinthians directly, “what hast thou that thou didst not receive?” (1 Corinthians 4:7). A believer can operate in a genuine gift and still be immature in character. The Corinthians were the proof. They came behind in no gift, and yet Paul had to write, “ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?” (1 Corinthians 3:3). Gifts are given. Character is grown. We should never confuse the two.
It removes passivity. A steward who buries what he has been given is being unfaithful, however humble it feels. Paul tells Timothy to “stir up the gift of God, which is in thee” (2 Timothy 1:6), and the picture is of fanning embers back into flame. If God has given you something for others, they are poorer while you keep it in a drawer.
And it gives every gift dignity. Peter’s two broad categories are speaking and serving. “If any man speak... if any man minister.” The one who prophesies and the one who arranges transport for elderly members are both stewards of “the manifold grace of God.” The word manifold means many-coloured. Grace comes to the church in many colours, and every one is meant to be seen.
NuggetA spiritual gift is grace entrusted to you for someone else. It proves the generosity of the Giver, and it is measured by the good it does to others.
Love is the more excellent way
At the end of chapter 12, Paul writes, “But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way” (1 Corinthians 12:31). Then he writes the chapter that has been read at countless weddings. It belongs first in a church meeting:
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. 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.
Paul is still talking about gifts. Tongues, prophecy, understanding of mysteries, knowledge, mountain-moving faith, extravagant giving and even martyrdom are all named. Every one of them is good. And every one of them, without love, amounts to noise or nothing. “I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.” Corinth was famous for its bronze. The Corinthians knew exactly what a clanging piece of metal sounded like. It is loud, and it says nothing.
Paul does not set love against the gifts, as though we must choose one or the other. Chapter 14 opens with “Follow after charity, and desire spiritual gifts” (1 Corinthians 14:1). Love is the way in which gifts are meant to travel. Gifts are the vehicles. Love decides the route.
Read the description of love in verses 4 to 7 again, and picture a gifted believer in a church meeting. Love “suffereth long, and is kind,” so it is patient with people who are slow to understand. It “envieth not,” so it is glad when another member’s gift is used. It “vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,” so it does not need the microphone. It “Doth not behave itself unseemly,” so it considers how its actions will look to a visitor. It “seeketh not her own,” so it asks what will help others before it asks what will express itself. It “is not easily provoked,” so it can receive correction without accusing the pastor of quenching the Spirit.
That last line was the one that stopped Babajide. He told me later that he had read 1 Corinthians 13 many times without seeing that it was about him. He had assumed it was about marriage. “I thought love was for my future wife,” he said. “I did not know it was for the people at the vigil.”
Love is what gives a gift both its confidence and its restraint. Love will make you bold enough to speak a word of encouragement to a discouraged brother when you would rather stay silent. Love will also make you quiet when your contribution would confuse more than it helps. A believer governed by love asks one question before every exercise of a gift: will this build up the people in front of me?
Do the gifts continue today?
We cannot discuss the proper use of gifts like prophecy and tongues without asking whether they are still given at all. Sincere, Bible-loving Christians answer that question differently, and their views deserve to be set out fairly.
Those often called cessationists believe that certain gifts, especially prophecy, tongues and the gifts of healing and miracles, belonged to the foundational period of the church. They point out that the church is “built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets” (Ephesians 2:20), and a foundation is laid once. They note that Hebrews speaks of the gospel being “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” (Hebrews 2:3-4), as though those signs had a particular role in confirming the apostolic message. Some read Paul’s words about “that which is perfect” in 1 Corinthians 13:10 as a reference to the completed New Testament. Their deepest concern is a good one: to protect the sufficiency and final authority of Scripture.
Those called continuationists believe that all the gifts listed in the New Testament remain available until Christ returns. They point out that Paul links the gifts with “waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 1:7). They read “that which is perfect” in the light of the next verse, where Paul says that then we shall see “face to face” (1 Corinthians 13:12), which most naturally describes the return of the Lord. They note that Peter, on the day of Pentecost, applied the promise of the Spirit “to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call” (Acts 2:39), and that nowhere does the New Testament announce that some gifts will be withdrawn before the end.
I hold the second view gladly, and I hold it with deep conviction. I believe the Holy Spirit still gives every gift that Paul describes, including prophecy and tongues, and I have seen Him do so. Paul’s instruction still stands for the church today: “covet to prophesy, and forbid not to speak with tongues” (1 Corinthians 14:39). I also want to say clearly that many cessationist believers love Jesus deeply, preach the gospel faithfully and serve the poor with great sacrifice. We are not enemies. And they are right about one thing that every continuationist must hold just as firmly. No prophecy, vision or private word given today stands on the same level as Scripture. The canon is closed. Every word claimed in the Spirit’s name is tested by the written Word, and wherever it disagrees, the claimed word gives way.
That is why the same apostle who says “forbid not to speak with tongues” also says, in the very next sentence, “Let all things be done decently and in order” (1 Corinthians 14:40). Belief in the gifts and insistence on order belong together. The answer to misuse is right use.
Confidence and restraint in the gathering
Paul’s most practical instructions come towards the end of chapter 14. He has spent the chapter comparing tongues without interpretation, which edify the speaker, with prophecy, which “speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort” (1 Corinthians 14:3). His concern throughout is the edification of the church. Then he describes what a gathering should look like:
How is it then, brethren? when ye come together, every one of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying. 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. 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.
“Every one of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation.” The early church meeting was participatory. Many members contributed. Paul does not shut that down. He gives it a governing rule: “Let all things be done unto edifying.” Every contribution, whether a song, a teaching or a prophetic word, must be measured by whether it builds others up.
Then he gives limits. In the assembly, tongues should be “by two, or at the most by three,” one at a time, with interpretation. If there is no interpreter, the speaker should “keep silence in the church; and let him speak to himself, and to God.” Notice that Paul does not tell him to stop praying in tongues. He tells him where to direct it. Prophets should speak “two or three,” and the others should “judge,” which means weigh and test what is said. If another person receives something, the first speaker should give way.
And then comes a sentence that ends a great deal of confusion: “And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets.” The Holy Spirit does not overpower His people. A believer who says, “I could not help it, the Spirit took over,” has misunderstood how the Spirit works. Genuine gifts can wait. They can be held back, given later, offered privately or set aside if another is speaking. Self-control is part of the fruit of the same Spirit who gives the gifts. “For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.”
This is where Paul’s earlier warning matters. “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). Paul is thinking about the visitor at the back, the young woman in Ikorodu.
Paul, who could say “I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all” (1 Corinthians 14:18), adds at once that in the church he would rather speak five words with understanding than ten thousand in an unknown tongue. That is confidence and restraint in the same man.
Restraint must not become fear. Some churches, having seen disorder, have closed every door to the gifts. Paul never does that. His instructions assume that the gifts will be used, and he regulates them precisely because he expects them. The church that forbids all prophecy has not obeyed 1 Corinthians 14 any more than the church that allows everything without testing.
Discovering and growing in your gift
PunchlineHow does an ordinary believer discover how the Spirit wants to use him? Scripture gives us no spiritual personality test, but it gives us enough to begin.
Start with desire, rightly ordered. Paul tells the church to “desire spiritual gifts” (1 Corinthians 14:1). It is not unspiritual to ask God to use you. Jesus said that the Father will “give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him” (Luke 11:13). Ask Him, as a child asks a father, to equip you to serve His people.
Then serve where there is need. Gifts are usually discovered in use. Many believers have found their gift of teaching in a children’s class, or their gift of mercy while visiting the sick. Mrs Inyang had been practising hers for thirty years. She simply noticed people.
Listen to the body. Because gifts are for others, others are often the first to recognise them. When mature believers say, “Each time you pray for people, something happens,” or, “Your explanations make the Bible clear,” take it seriously. When they say, “Your words often leave people confused,” take that seriously too.
Stay accountable. A gift does not excuse anyone from correction. This applies with special force to leaders. A gifted preacher or prophet is not above the ordinary standards of honesty, sexual purity and kindness. Where a person uses spiritual authority to manipulate, exploit or abuse others, their gift offers no protection, and those who have been harmed should be supported and helped to safety, with the proper authorities involved where the law has been broken. Gifts are given to build people up. They are never a licence to tear people down.
Babajide did not take the correction well that night. He went home angry and did not come to church the next Sunday. But he kept reading 1 Corinthians 12 to 14, because the pastor had asked him to, and somewhere in the middle of chapter 13 something softened in him.
Years later, he leads the intercessory team in that church. At vigils he often prays in tongues, quietly, in his seat. When he believes the Lord has given him a word for the congregation, he takes it to the pastor first and lets it be weighed. Sometimes it is shared. Sometimes the pastor says, “Hold that one,” and Babajide holds it without offence. He trains young intercessors now, and the first thing he teaches them is to look for the people at the back.
The young woman still attends. Her mother recovered, and she gave her life to Christ a few months after that vigil. When she gave her testimony at a baptism service, she said she remembered very little of what was preached that first night. What she remembered was a retired nurse with a sachet of water who asked her name.
That is what gifts are for. The Spirit who gave Babajide his tongues and prophetic sensitivity also gave Mrs Inyang her quiet attentiveness, and He gave both for the same young woman. Whatever He has given you, it was never meant to end with you. Ask Him to show you who it is for, and then let love decide how you give it.
Teaching Companion
For Reflection
- Which voice have you been more inclined to hear: “I am not of the body” or “I have no need of thee”?
- How would you describe the gifts you have seen the Spirit use through you, and who has benefited from them?
- Read 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 slowly. Which quality of love most needs to shape the way you use your gift?
- Why do you think Paul places such careful order around gifts he clearly values so highly?
- Who in your church is like Mrs Inyang, serving quietly and seldom honoured? How could you honour them this week?
This Week
This week, ask the Lord each morning, “Father, who is my gift for today?” Then look for one person in your home, workplace or church whom you can serve with whatever the Spirit has given you, whether encouragement, prayer, practical help, teaching or a word of comfort. At the end of the week, write a short note of thanks to a believer whose quiet gift has blessed you, and tell them specifically what it did.
A Prayer
Holy Spirit, thank You for every gift You have given to the body of Christ, and for the place You have given me in it. Forgive me where I have either buried what You gave me or used it to be seen. Teach me to be a faithful steward of the manifold grace of God. Give me the confidence to speak and serve when love calls for it, and the restraint to wait when love calls for that. Open my eyes to the people at the back, and let everything I do build up the church You love. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Truth received brings freedom. Truth believed establishes the heart.
Scripture quotations are from the King James Version. · Illustrations using first names only are composites unless stated otherwise.