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What the Bible says about Spiritual Gifts for Edification of Church
(From Forerunner Commentary)

1 Corinthians 3:6-8

When we are doing God's will and yielding to Him in obedience, God adds a miraculous element to produce spiritual growth. Verse 8 adds that, even though we have different functions, we are united in submission to God, but we will be rewarded individually. This proves that God is watching each person's conduct. To Him, we are not a faceless blob in a sea of church members. How could we be rewarded accordingly if our labors were not being individually noted?

God's work involves many individuals with a variety of gifts. To God there are no superstars, only team members called and placed to perform their own special role for which He has prepared them. When we fail to do our part, a slow separation begins, and because a part is not functioning as it should, the body suffers. Paul begins this epistle asking, "Is Christ divided?" (I Corinthians 1:13), and proceeds to discuss a variety of sins that produce division. Later, he teaches the application of the body analogy to the church, and in chapter 13 he stresses the main function of every member: to love.

John W. Ritenbaugh
Little Things Count!

1 Corinthians 12:7

Every part of the body is given a gift or gifts "to profit withal," that is, "for the common good." It is good for the person to whom the gift is given, as well as for the entire church. God expects us to use the gift not only for our own good, but also for everybody else's good too'the good of the whole body.

John W. Ritenbaugh
What Is the Work of God Now? (Part Five)

1 Corinthians 12:7

Asking for the gift of discernment or any other spiritual gift should not be to give us a more special or holier status than our brother or sister in Christ, but instead, to promote the common good for the entire body of Christ. If we think of it this way, it should deter us from corrosive pride, as we realize that each gift has a specific use, and one gift is not any better or inferior to any other.

However, suppose that one gift did contain more value or status than another. Did we do anything to deserve this status or recognition? Of course not! God Almighty distributes these gifts to each member specifically and individually as He wills, as we see in I Corinthians 12:11: "But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills."

We must also realize that all these gifts are meant to interact; no one individual, except for Jesus Christ, has all these gifts. Thus, we need other members of the Body of Christ, with their unique gifts, to complement our own God-given gifts. Christ's Body is meant to work together.

I Kings 3:9-10 records the wisest mortal man who ever lived making a request to God for discernment: 'Therefore give to Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people, that I may discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of Yours?' The speech pleased the LORD, that Solomon had asked this thing."

We learn from Ezekiel 44:23-24 that to discern spirits enables one to make distinctions between holy and profane as well as clean and unclean. The discerner can also make decisions according to biblical judgments, based on knowing the commandments, and if people should violate them, what the appropriate punishment should be. A discerner is one who habitually obeys God's laws and statutes and who faithfully keeps God's Sabbaths (cf. Psalm 111:10).

David F. Maas
The Gift of Discerning Spirits

1 Corinthians 12:15-21

Some of the least-understood diseases within human pathology are autoimmune diseases. By way of definition, autoimmunity is the failure of an organism to recognize its own components as part of itself, causing the immune system to turn against and attack the organism's own cells and tissues. Some of the better-known autoimmune diseases are Celiac disease, Type I diabetes, lupus, multiple sclerosis, and rheumatoid arthritis. In them, critical parts of the body are attacked after being misidentified as foreign. Depending on the exact autoimmune disease, this can include the small intestine (Celiac disease); the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas (Type I diabetes); the heart, lungs, blood vessels, liver, and kidneys (lupus); the central nervous system (lupus, multiple sclerosis); and the skin and joints (lupus, rheumatoid arthritis).

Many autoimmune conditions are quite debilitating, severely limiting the activities and overall lifestyle of those suffering from them. So interconnected is the human body that, when the immune system attacks an organ or system, it drastically affects the whole. What Paul says of the spiritual body is equally true of the physical body: "If one member suffers, all the parts share the suffering" (I Corinthians 12:26, Amplified Bible).

As dreadful as autoimmunity is within a physical body, spiritual autoimmunity far surpasses it in the power to debilitate and destroy. Spiritual autoimmunity—misidentifying other parts of the Body of Christ as enemies, or at least being highly suspicious of them—is affecting various quarters of God's church, causing the whole Body to function with tumult and inefficiency.

This autoimmunity often manifests itself in boastful or bombastic comparisons between one's own minister or group and another minister or group. We witness it in insinuations that another member of the Body is somehow less important or less spiritual or less converted if he sends his tithes to a different address or is on a different mailing list. Sadly, it is seen when leaders forbid members from having fellowship with another organization's members for no greater crime than the other organization has a different—foreign!—approach or administration.

To illustrate, we could continue Paul's line of questioning in verse 15: If the shoulder says to the ankle, "You are not of the Body," is the ankle therefore not of the Body? If the circulatory system says to the endocrine system, "You are Laodicean," is it truly Laodicean? If the stomach says to anyone who will listen, "I am Philadelphian," is it really Philadelphian? If the back tells the rest of the Body, "I am the only one God is using," does this make it true? Do the Body's parts have any authority to make such pronouncements? Paul answers in Romans 12:3-6:

For I say . . . to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them . . .. (Emphasis ours throughout.)

In the human body, the immune system is a vital part of the body's defenses. In the spiritual Body, defenses are likewise needed, as we can see in the many warnings about false prophets (Matthew 7:15; 24:11; Mark 13:22; I John 4:1), false apostles (II Corinthians 11:13), false teachers (II Peter 2:1), and false brethren (II Corinthians 11:26; Galatians 2:4). Truly, there are enemies—foreign invaders—who cause trouble for the church of God. The problem is improper discernment and judgment combined with a lack of forbearance that manifests itself in identifying enemies at every turn.

Autoimmunity in the human body often kicks in when there are no other infectious diseases to combat. A hair-trigger immune system in need of an enemy will find one—even if it is a vital organ. Likewise, members of Christ's Body who are blind to their spiritual state (see Revelation 3:17) tend to presume the moral high ground—rejecting all evidence to the contrary—and from that position, it is easy to identify all manner of "enemies" whose offense may be little more than disagreeing with them.

Paul outlines the responsibilities of the church leadership in his letter to the Ephesians. Notice where the focus is: "And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ" (Ephesians 4:11-13).

Here, apostles, evangelists, pastors, and other leaders are not given for the sake of adding to the Body. John 6:44 makes it clear that only God can do that. These positions, Paul writes, are given specifically for the sake of taking care of those God places in the Body. God adds them to the Body as He sees fit, tasking the leadership with caring for the Body: binding the wounds, cleaning the sores, anointing the bruises, setting the bones (see Isaiah 1:4-6).

With human autoimmunity, there are no good solutions. Science has not been able to solve why this happens, so its solutions are generally to suppress the immune system and/or treat the symptoms. But with the spiritual Body, the cure is simple, though the application may be exceedingly difficult: Focus more on the Head and less on the offending parts. Let the Head judge who is a part of His Body and who is not. Let Him decide who is best suited for each responsibility. Let Him determine what the Body should be doing at present. Beyond this, beseech the Head for the vision to see things as He does—including our own spiritual state. When the Body in spiritual health is working in concert—and not attacking itself—then Jesus Christ is glorified.

David C. Grabbe
Autoimmunity in the Body of Christ

1 Corinthians 15:10

Not only is our calling a gift of God, but God also abundantly bestows other gifts beyond that to enable us to carry out our responsibilities in the church. God has distributed such gifts to every member of the body (I Corinthians 12:7-11).

John W. Ritenbaugh
The Sovereignty of God: Part Six

Ephesians 4:11-13

A key to understanding God's intention for the church appears in the letter to the church of Ephesus. To understand the context for the word "gave" in verse 11, we must back up to verse 7: "But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore He says: "When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men" (Ephesians 4:7-8; emphasis ours throughout). In other words, the apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers are given as gifts by Jesus Christ. He gives these gifts to edify—build up—the Body of Christ.

One implication of this, however, is that as long as the Body needs edifying—as long as it has not achieved "the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God," and its members are not yet up to "the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ"—God will continue to work through such men to bring about that edification. The structure and cohesiveness may be more rigidly defined at some points in church history than at others, but where Christ's Body is found, there will be structure. Certainly, God works through isolation at times, but those times are limited, for members begin to die spiritually when severed from the rest of the Body.

The prophetic books of Zechariah and Revelation indicate that before Christ's return, a definite structure will be in place. Revelation records a vision of "the Lord's Day" (Revelation 1:10), that is, the time generally known as the Day of the Lord. As the vision begins, Jesus tells the apostle John to write what he sees and to "send it to the seven churches." Turning to see the Speaker, John sees Jesus "in the midst of the seven lampstands," symbolic of the seven churches. It is critical to notice that each letter contains language that ties it to the end time—the period around the Day of the Lord. Thus, one application of the letters found in Revelation 2-3 is that they are seven distinct groupings, all in existence during the Day of the Lord.

This end-time aspect of Revelation 1-3 is strengthened by a vision given to Zechariah:

Now the angel who talked with me came back and wakened me, as a man who is wakened out of his sleep. And he said to me, "What do you see?" So I said, "I am looking, and there is a lampstand of solid gold with a bowl on top of it, and on the stand seven lamps with seven pipes to the seven lamps. Two olive trees are by it, one at the right of the bowl and the other at its left." . . . Then I answered and said to him, "What are these two olive trees—at the right of the lampstand and at its left?" And I further answered and said to him, "What are these two olive branches that drip into the receptacles of the two gold pipes from which the golden oil drains?" Then he answered me and said, "Do you not know what these are?" And I said, "No, my lord." So he said, "These are the two anointed ones, who stand beside the Lord of the whole earth." (Zechariah 4:1-4, 11-14; cf. Revelation 11:3-4)

While we may not fully understand all these figures until they begin shaping up, it is plain to see that a definite structure to the body of believers exists at the end time. There are still churches—groupings, congregations, or other forms of organization. The seven lamps all receive their oil from the same place. This is not a description of complete dissolution or maximum entropy but one of order and providential care of the organized Body by the Head. To use the analogy in I Peter 2:4-5, the stones are fitted together here, not isolated or standing on their own.

The church of God is a spiritual organism, and though corporate designations will come and go, there will always be a unity of the Spirit (Ephesians 4:3). Also, Jesus' disciples will always be known by their love for one another (John 13:35). These attributes cannot exist in isolation. Physical organizations may be built up and dissolve away, but the church will prevail against the gates of Hades. Though all the living stones will never be in the same place until the resurrection, they will also never be very far apart.

David C. Grabbe
Will the Church of God Be Thrown Down? (Part Two)

1 Peter 4:10

The Greek word translated "minister" is diakonos, which is sometimes translated "deacon." It is most frequently rendered either "minister" or "servant."

Every Christian has received some gift in trust from God to be held and used for the benefit of the whole church. The gifts may vary widely, but the ministry or the service of each is to be according to the character of the gift. As in Paul's body analogy, the finger does not do the same job as the toe, but the fingers are a gift to the body so that the body can function. However, the toes are also a gift to the body so it can function better in another area. It contributes its part to the well being of the body, but it does not have the same characteristics as a finger does—or the nose, ears, eyes, or mouth.

Everybody has been given gifts by God, and He has given them to the person so that he can serve the Body, allowing the Body to function better than it would have otherwise if it did not have that part, or that gift.

We are to do this as a steward, and above all things, a steward must be faithful. One cannot be faithful unless he has faith. This is where faithfulness begins—with faith, with a belief. Then we carry through. As we minister the gift to the Body of Christ, we become faithful—reliable, trustworthy, responsible—in carrying it out. Thus, each Christian is responsible to follow through faithfully in his service to the brethren.

William Barclay's translation of I Peter 4:10 reads:

As each has received a gift from God, so let all use such gifts in the service of one another, like good stewards of the grace of God.

A good steward is a faithful steward. A good steward, or a good servant, is one who follows through with his responsibility. Being a faithful steward of God's gifts can at least appear to be a discouraging responsibility, given our knowledge of how weak we are, but we will never be faithful if our beliefs are or remain mere preferences. We must be convicted of the rightness of what we believe, or we will never be faithful.

John W. Ritenbaugh
Conviction and Moses


 




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