Gifts Given, Gifts Shared: A More Excellent Way

If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? <.p>

And if the ear shall say, Because I not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?

As Paul wrote to the Corinthians (12: 4-31), Christians in the city needed to settle their differences and realize that God had blessed them with diverse gifts so they could each contribute to work and progress of the whole. They were, he taught, like members of a body: all had gifts, from the “same spirit” to serve the “same Lord,” who “worketh all in all.” Gifts given were to contribute in equity to the function of the whole.

This scripture is well known and often cited—as it should be. Still today we need to be reminded of the Lord’s “more excellent way.”

Equity

On the Christian site crosswalk.com, Roger Barrier defined a spiritual gift as “a God-given ability, distributed to individual Christians by the Holy Spirit” for lifelong service to the mission of the church. All believers receive one gift or more. He added that receiving a gift “is a call to exercise it.” The specific gifts mentioned in 1 Corinthians were wisdom, knowledge, faith, and healing, along with abilities to discern spirits, speak in tongues, and interpret tongues.

Paul’s analogy of diverse gifts to body members emphasized equity, likely a problem with the Corinthians. Paul explained, “God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him.” Members that seem “more feeble” are “necessary.” Parts misjudged as “less honourable” deserve “abundant honour,” and parts appearing “uncomely” actually have “abundant comeliness.”

Those who sometimes feel like a big toe or an ear lobe may recall that when more conspicuous parts break down, a big toe can assume more weight than expected and more “importance” as it keeps the rest of the foot aligned and protects smaller toes—perhaps a little more comely. Ear lobes may seem to be “more feeble” members, as they have no bones or cartilage. But their concentrated blood supply enables them to contribute to keeping ears warm and to helping the body maintain its balance. Cold climates or dizzy days require effective ear lobes.

Diversity

On the worldwide Bible site enduringword.com, David Guzik taught that God “works through the diverse gifts,” that “God has a glorious diversity in the way He does things. We should never expect it to be all according to our own emphasis and taste.” Gifts given by God are in God’s infinite understanding and purpose.

Addition by Need

In a time sequence, Paul’s emphasis on gifts of the spirit began with the Galatians. Many were turning away from the Christianity they once embraced, and he pleaded with them to “stand fast” in their faith in Christ. The body comparison would come later, but he wrote of “the fruit of the Spirit”—love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, and faith,” along with meekness and temperance. He urged, “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit” (5:16-25).

Only faith was repeated in the well-known image of body members Paul gave to the Corinthians five years later. Christianity in Corinth needed guidance for leading and sustaining its organization, so with faith Paul included wisdom, knowledge, and healing, along with capacity to discern spirits, speak in tongues, and interpret tongues heard.

Christians were a small group in the massive Roman empire. Paul sought to strengthen Roman Christians’ confidence: repeating the body parts analogy, adding that “all members have not the same office,” explaining that the gifts differ “according to the grace that is given to us,” and counseling each to do his best with his gift(s). He mentioned so many new gifts that we borrow the classifications of Christianity.com.

• Ministry gifts involve serving and meeting others’ needs; for Romans these included ministering, ruling, being fair in business, and meeting needs of enemies.

• Manifestation gifts tend to be more visible; Romans were counseled about prophesying, teaching, exhorting, showing affection, and hoping with rejoicing.

• Motivational gifts move people to action; to Romans Paul mentioned giving, showing mercy, hoping with rejoicing, weeping with others who weep, rejoicing with others who rejoice, treating all with respect, and living peacefully with all. (12:4-8)

Beginning four years later, Paul communicated with the Ephesians, who were embroiled in bitter conflicts with sellers of graven images. Reassuring them, he returned to the body comparison, mentioning diverse Christian callings as well as knowledge and truth. He concluded, “the whole body [is] fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part” (4:11-16)

Purpose and Function

Today’s circumstances, challenges, needs, and requirements for service are very different from those in Galatia, Corinth, Rome, or Ephesus during the time of Paul. But with gifts given by the same God with same Holy Spirit, we navigate our diversity and puzzling challenges. Those who strive seven days a week to serve within a Christian lifestyle desperately need God’s guidance.

In 2017 John C. Pingree told a worldwide Christian audience of our responsibility to find what our spiritual gifts are and use them to “identify, perform, and enjoy” what God wants us to do, promising that God will bless us with “strength beyond our natural abilities.” To the biblical lists he added living in compassion, relating to people, organizing skillfully, and being able to persuade in speech and/or writing. We are to ask God with faith and “real intent.” 5 God gave us those gifts, and He wants us to use them.

Authors on the site crosswalk.com cautioned readers,

[Gifts] are distributed not according to the will of man, but as the Spirit of God wills . . . as He wills . . . Sometimes if not often, the will and wisdom of God is different than our will and wisdom . . . [and] we should never assume the gifts are distributed as we would distribute them.

These authors cautioned that “God can and does, for His own glory and purpose, distribute spiritual gifts to those who are not especially spiritually mature or close to Him.” Believers can accept these manifestations in faith naturally.6 God knows infinitely better than we could possibly know where specific gifts are most needed when, and who will be best able to use them effectively.

Unity

Gifts given must be gifts shared. Paul consistently emphasized that people are to live in unity and gifts are to be used to benefit all. “The members should have the same care one for another . . . ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.” In 1st Peter 4:10 is the phrase “good stewards of the manifold grace of God.”

Crosswalk.com authors and editors expressed a “critical” need for Christians to use their spiritual gifts if the Church is “to function properly in society.” Congregations, they noted, become “spiritually impotent when the members do not freely and responsibly allow the Holy Spirit to manifest God's ministry and power through the gifts He has given.“

Another Metaphor

World-acclaimed author and speaker David A. Bednar compared Christian unity and activity to a rope, made up of strands of material (plants, fabric, wire etc.) “individually twisted or braided together.” Though the materials may be quite ordinary, “woven together” they may be “exceptionally strong,” becoming an “extraordinary” tool. The strength of a rope is its “intertwined individual strands.”

Paul counseled the Ephesians (1:10) to “gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him.” Even with the gifts given, some Christians may think of themselves as “ordinary,” but bound and interactive as a group—service group, study group, educational group, musical group, committee, congregation, larger unit of congregations—they can become extraordinarily strong tools for the Lord who created and gifted all of them.

A Warning Parable

Crosswalk.com connected spiritual gifts to Christ’s parable of the talents. 9 Christ was not concerned with financial matters, but the people were, and He knew most future readers would be also. Financial gifts tested the servants in this parable, but the parable isn’t about money, as the the parable of the soils is not about dirt quality. Christian writers seem to agree that effort, work, wisdom, trust, and accountability are among its messages.

The Savior showed how important His gifts to us are. A talent in New Testament times weighed about 75-100 pounds and would have been worth $1,000 to $30,000.11 Not easy to bury that in the ground. Scholars do not agree on weight or value (obviously) but they do agree that even one was equivalent to many years of wages.

We admire those who valued their gifts, used them wisely, and doubled their worth. The lord knew his servants and distributed the gifts according to what they could (and should) do. All were accountable, but he did not judge them by the same criteria 12 (two more talents vs. five more talents). His praise and rewards were the same.

About the third servant? A gift from God is “use it or lose it”—a good lesson for all of us. God doesn’t take away His gifts, but they tend to disintegrate when buried in the ground.

Barrier and colleagues wrote that those who minister well with their gifts “may ask God for other gifts under the direction of the inner promptings of the Holy Spirit.” They add their own metaphor: “spiritual gifts may operate as a toolbox full of tools” to be used for “a particular need in the body of Christ.” 13 Weak or raveling fibers damage Christian ropes.

The epistles of Paul emphasize God’s love, Christian love, and Christian unity. Gifts given by God are to be gifts shared among His children. Communication by Paul was intended to keep Christians of his day together as they willingly shared their spiritual gifts to move His work forward. As we read Paul’s words today, we must freely share the gifts given to us by God in Christian unity and Christian service.