Spiritual Gifts (Day 17)

Read 1 Corinthians 12:1-11
 
   Anyone can claim to speak for God, and the world is full of false teachers. Paul gives us a test to help us discern whether or not a messenger is really from God: Does he or she confess Christ as Lord? Don’t naively accept the words of all who claim to speak for God; test their credentials by finding out what they teach about Christ. 
    Instead of building up and unifying the Corinthian church, the issue of spiritual gifts was splitting it. Spiritual gifts had become symbols of spiritual power, causing rivalries. Some people thought they were more “spiritual” than others because of their gifts. This was a terrible misuse of spiritual gifts because their purpose is always to help the church function more effectively, not to divide it. We can be divisive if we insist on using our gifts our own way without being sensitive to others. We must never use our gifts as a means of manipulating others or serving out our own self-interests. 
All Christians have faith. Some, however, have the spiritual gift of faith, which is an unusual measure of trust in the power of God. Prophecy is not just a prediction about the future; it can also mean preaching God’s Word with power. Paul discusses speaking in unknown languages and interpreting them in more detail in chapter 14. No matter what gifts a person has, each gift is given by the Holy Spirit. We are responsible to use and sharpen our gifts, but we can take no credit for what God has freely given us. 
 
   The spiritual gifts given to each person by the Holy Spirit are special abilities that are to be used to minister to the needs of the body of believers. This chapter is not an exhaustive list of spiritual gifts (Romans 12; Ephesians 4; 1 Peter 4). There are many gifts; people have different gifts; some people have more than one gift, and one gift is not superior to another. All spiritual gifts come from the Holy Spirit, and their purpose is to build up Christ’s body the church.