[1] "Now about the gifts of the Spirit, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed."
[27] "Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. [28] And God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues. [29] Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? [30] Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues ? Do all interpret? [31] Now eagerly desire the greater gifts.
And yet I will show you the most excellent way."
These last verses are the precursor to the great chapter on Love, that many of us are very familiar with, however, I am just going to look at this list of ministries and gifts that Paul lists. I was thinking how interesting it is that we are not as familiar with this list as we are the list in Ephesians 4, where Paul lists what we call the Five-fold ministries, essentially the foundation ministries of the Church. Here are the verses from Ephesians 4:11-13 NIV:
[11]"So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, [12] to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up [13] until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ."
They are similar in purpose, talking about the Body of Christ, the important parts, even providing some "hierarchy" if you want to use that word. We are likely more familiar with the second list, and the thought of why that might be is the point of my reflection this morning. I felt like the Lord specifically highlighted the difference this morning, as relating to the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
First, I think it must be said that I am reflecting on this difference, coming from the mindset of the Western Church, which is both post Protestant Reformation, and less open to the Spiritual aspects of our faith. I would say its not that we aren't open to it, so much as we are more logical in our faith, rather than Spiritual. We like to be able to explain things, to have things make sense, and when we get into the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, we are on uncomfortable ground.
This was not the case in the early church, and Paul was giving some order and clarity to those who needed to understand some of what they were experiencing. As Paul wrote in 1 Cor 12:1 "I do not want you to be uninformed", and that was his basis for the discussion and final listing. Providing context, order and sanctioning of the gifts, and their use. In other words, they were seeing these gifts in use, and Paul was helping provide some order, and continues to do so in chapter 14 of the the same letter.
Back to the difference between the two lists - what is not in the list from Ephesians are the following, "then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues." We would mostly be comfortable with helping and guidance as being two gifts we can operate in without much Spiritual involvement, but miracles, healing and tongues are all well outside our normal church comfort-zone. We likely would want to see them (Miracles and Healing) but to call them normal experiences of church life, or Body of Christ life, would be untrue in much of the Western church.
I think we hear the list from Ephesians more often because it is easier to explain, we think. In much of the church we have lost a sense of what an apostle really is, and we have made that role similar to a general, someone who has authority over a large group of churches or people. For many of our churches we leave Prophets alone, and do not have a level of comfort with someone who says they hear from God. We embrace the last three, and for most churches we have some mix of these as our primary leadership.
Going back to the list from 1 Cor 12, we also don't see evangelists, pastors and teachers listed specifically, however, if we wanted to call helps, or guidance something similar we likely wouldn't be shouted out. That being said, they are definitely not the same as teaching, pastoring, or evangelism, they are the gifts of laying hold of someone, to give aid, and the gift of governing or administration. Again, we aren't sure how to classify all these gifts, and most likely don't have individuals in most churches who are operating as being recognized with leadership and skills to be called by those ministry names.
So, why the review and reflection this morning? I believe the Lord is highlighting to me, at least, these gifts, and wanting to see these more widely experienced and nurtured in the church. The gifts are there, for the Holy Spirit is the same today, and the needs of the Body of Christ are the same, and thus what was good for the first century church is good for us. We might try to convince ourselves that we don't need these anymore, that we have evolved and matured, and I just think telling the Holy Spirit we don't need His gifts anymore is not a wise path! Yikes!
I am encouraged today to pray for a greater release and recognition of the all the gifts in the Body of Christ today. We need all the gifts, all the ministries! We need the Holy Spirit engaging and directing us! We need miracles, healings, tongues, helps, administrations, pastors, teachers, prophets, apostles, evangelists and any other gift the Holy Spirit brings! Lord, restore these to Your church, bring a fullness of expression and engagement, leadership and understanding. Help us better represent You to the world!
Amen and amen!
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