1 Corinthians 9

Chapter 9. The Supernatural Gifts and the Ministries of the ChurchNow about spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant. (1 Corinthians 12:1)If there was clanger of ignorance concerning the spiritual gifts of the Church in the apostle’s day, how much greater the danger today! The tendency of modern religious thought is to eliminate the supernatural from the Bible, the Church and the life of the Christian, and reduce religion to a form of human culture and the Church to a religious club, bound together by social affinities, entertained by intellectual culture and sacred art, and moderately exercised and occupied in respectable forms to benevolence and usefulness. It is scarcely respectable to recognize any such thing as a personal or present Deity, the supernatural answer to prayer, or any extraordinary occurrence which claims to be miraculous and is not subject to scientific explanation. Meanwhile the devil is producing and exercising his supernatural girts, and so endeavoring, with not a little success, to palm himself off as God, to establish his claims on the credulity of those who will not receive the divine and holy religion of Christ. The only way to meet the counterfeit is by the true. The facts of spiritualism and its kindred errors are undoubtedly real, and they can only be met by the divine realities which are as much mightier than they as they are more pure and consistent with the character of God and the well-being of man. Closely related to the manifestations of Satanic power are the extravagances, fanaticisms and mistakes of honest and well-meaning Christians who are in danger of accepting delusions for divine manifestations, and thus throwing doubt upon the real facts of God’s supernatural power which do exist. On the one hand there is danger of utter naturalism, rejecting all that is supernatural; and, on the other, there is danger of a false supernaturalism, counterfeiting the workings of God’s power or substituting for them the workings of demon power, which are to be the most marked features of the last days. The only security for the balance of truth between these two extremes lies in our not being ignorant concerning spiritual gifts, but rightly understanding, exercising and exhibiting to the world the real power of God in harmony with the Scriptures and guarded from the extremes and extravagances of human error and Satanic delusion. Charismata

1. First we must look at the supernatural gifts bestowed upon the Church by her ascended Lord. The Greek word for these gifts is charismata, and it is used to denote the gifts of power for service which constituted the Pentecostal enduement of the Church. It was customary for Roman conquerors, when they entered the city in triumph, or for great potentates, when signalizing their coronation or entrance upon some great office, to distribute largesses and scatter costly gifts of treasure along the avenues through which they passed. So when Christ “ascended on high… [he] gave gifts to men” (Ephesians 4:8), and abundantly distributed to the waiting disciples the rich and varied gifts of the Holy Spirit. Jewels they were in the costly robes of His glorious Bride, the insignia and tokens of her high honor and fellowship in His kingly glory and mighty power. These charismata are specifically described in this chapter. The first of these gifts is wisdom (1 Corinthians 12:8), that divine quality which discerns the actual situation, and knows how to act under all circumstances. It is distinguished from knowledge, the next gift, in this respect, that knowledge has to do with truth and wisdom with conduct. Knowledge is intellectual; wisdom is practical. Knowledge enables us to understand God’s Word, wisdom, to apply it to the case in hand. The two together constitute our perfect investiture for intelligent and effective service. The next of these gifts is faith. This does not mean faith for our personal salvation, for that is the privilege and duty of all believers and, in fact, is essential to salvation. This is the special faith given by the Holy Spirit to enable us to exercise our Christian ministries, to claim the answers to our prayers and to take the power of God which is awaiting our appropriation. Then come the gifts of healing. They are spoken of in the plural. There are various forms and ministries of healing. They are distinguished from miracles in the next clause. These also are gifts of the Spirit. They are undoubtedly recognized here as included in the Church’s enduement of power. There is no hint here, or indeed anywhere in the New Testament, that the age of miracles is past. That is one of the axioms of modern theology, but it has no countenance from the Scriptures. God always intended His Church to be as supernatural and as divine as the host that marched through the wilderness of old behind the pillar of cloud and fire, and left the footprints of the Deity all along their unearthly way. But miracles and gifts of healing are not necessarily the same. There are many cases of healing that are not miracles, and there are some that are. There is a quiet, normal receiving of divine life for our physical frame which becomes as natural as breathing, and almost as spontaneous. It is not mere constitutional strength. It comes from God, but it comes through the operation of the spiritual law into which we may rise, and through which we can appropriate supernatural strength from our living Lord just as freely as we take the oxygen from the air and absorb the sunshine from the sky. A miracle is somewhat different. It is more bold and startling, involving a suspension of natural law and an effect so impressive as to become to all observers a distinct manifestation of the presence and power of God. These meteor flashes of supernatural power would lose their very emphasis if they were to become so frequent as to cease to be extraordinary. Both have a place in the economy of the Church and among the gifts of the Spirit. Then we have the gift of prophecy specially denoting the ministry which gives to men the direct messages of God. It is not always the power to foretell future events. A prophet is rather a divine messenger, the man who catches the mind of his Master, and gives it out to his fellowmen at the divine direction. He is not so much a teacher of the written Word as a messenger of the very thing that God would say at the time to the generation to which he speaks or the community to whom he bears witness. The definition of a prophet given by the apostle in the 14th chapter of First Corinthians is very satisfactory. “But everyone who prophesies speaks to men for their strengthening, encouragement and comfort” (1 Corinthians 14:3). The prophet, therefore, while including the office of teacher in this chapter, more especially carries with it, we believe, the idea of specially witnessing, in the immediate power and unction of the Holy Spirit, the messages of God to men. Then come the gifts of distinguishing between spirits and speaking in different kinds of tongues with the associated gift of interpretation of tongues, which was the power to translate and understand the message given by another in an unknown tongue. This makes it very certain that the language in which the ministry of tongues was exercised was not always the language of the people who were addressed. It could not, therefore, be a vehicle for missionary work. In that case no interpretation would be needed, and the necessity for an interpreter would obviate its very intention. It was not for this purpose that it was given, but rather as an expression of lofty spiritual feeling and the intense moving of the heart, the subject of this gift, by the divine Spirit leading him to express the state of spiritual elevation by which he was moved in some utterance, which, while not always intelligible, yet always left the impression of divine presence and power. This gift seems to have been abused from an early period and turned rather to the display of spiritual pride than to the edification of the Church, and appears to have been withdrawn, in a great measure, at least, at an early day. Its apparent revival in modern times has been associated with much confusion, and created grave doubts respecting its preeminent value as compared, at least, with other gifts of the Spirit. In the classification of the charismata at the end of this chapter it is quite significant that it is mentioned last, and we find the apostle himself declaring in another place, “I would rather speak five intelligible words to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue” (1 Corinthians 14:19). The Source
2. The Holy Spirit is the source of all these gifts, and is the divine Agent who exercises them in the Church and through its members. We are deeply thankful to the Holy Spirit for a single verse in this chapter which shuts out all possibility of spiritual pride and human glory in connection with the gifts and the ministries of the Spirit. It is the 11th verse, in which we are told that all these gifts “are the work of one and the same Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:11). Literally this means all these gifts the Spirit Himself works. The man is but an instrument. Even the gift is not a permanent quality in man, but the divine Presence uses him for the time in the exercise of the ministry in which God holds the power, and the subject is but His humble instrument. No man, therefore, can call these works his works, or these gifts his gifts, or this power his own. Very wisely the Master has said in anticipation of this very danger, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me…. I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:18, Matthew 28:20). He is the power and we have Him. Whenever, therefore, we see the spirit of self-display, human exaltation and adulation, the advertising of men and the disposition to glory in even the most honored servants of God, we may know that we are on forbidden ground and in danger of sacrilegiously abusing the very grace of God and worshiping the creature more than the Creator. Every gift and ministry is dependent upon our contact with the Holy Spirit every moment. We have no strength apart from Him, and if we had, our power would become our curse and our own weight would sink us where once the archangels fell through their own self-conscious brilliancy and self-centered pride. Receive and Use
3. The Holy Spirit in His supernatural powers is given to every disciple who will receive and use His supernatural powers for the purpose intended. “Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good” (1 Corinthians 12:7). This supernatural enduement is not an exclusive privilege of favor to the few. The Holy Spirit is poured today upon all flesh. You cannot have a private wire to your office or the use of a telephone without some expense, but every disciple can have the ear of heaven at any moment and draw from the infinite resources of the skies all needed strength for all emergencies and ministries. The mina in the parable of Luke 19, was given to all the servants equally; yet the time came when the single mina had, in the case of one of these servants, been multiplied to 10 minas. They all started on equal footing, but they did not so end their service or stand before their judge. What was the secret of the difference? The faithful and profitable servants invested their mina and added interest by trading. Is not this the meaning of the apostle in this chapter when he speaks of the manifestation of the Spirit being given to every man “for the common good” (1 Corinthians 12:7)? Does it not mean that we may use or neglect this great investment, and that it may become a spiritual fortune or a spiritual default as we improve it or neglect it? To each of us is given, not part of the Holy Spirit, not a touch of His finger, but the Holy Spirit Himself in His personal and undivided fullness. We may have just as much of this power as we will utilize and expend for His glory and the service committed to our hands. Those who wisely use it will find at last that their efficiency has multiplied tenfold, while those who simply hoard it will stand condemned before their Lord and lose even that which they for a little seemed to have. What a responsibility this truth throws upon us! Are we using all the possibilities of grace? Are we improving the investments of the Master committed to our hands? Are we growing in spiritual usefulness and efficiency? Are we going to meet our Master to hear Him say, “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things” (Matthew 25:21)? Diversities and Ministries
4. The diversity of spiritual gifts and ministries is very clearly pointed out in this passage. The apostle speaks of three different things—gifts, ministries and works or operations. He says there are different gifts. There are also different ministries or spheres providentially assigned to us; consequently there are different works performed by us. There seems to be a distinct allusion to the three persons of the Trinity in these three classifications of gifts, spheres and services. Some persons are specially fitted by their gifts for one line of ministry. Then, their providential environments are different and call them to various duties. Consequently their work will be different. One is called and fitted to be a businessman. To him is given wisdom, faith and service in the large field of usefulness, and it is not necessary for him to leave his sphere in order to exercise a Holy Spirit ministry. There is no need today so great in the Church as the need of men full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, like Stephen of old, and fitted to represent Christ in the place where business experience, wise counsels, wide influence, are of peculiar value. In our great missionary operations and in the magnificent work committed to the Church of Christ, God has likewise His chosen ambassadors to mankind. Another is called and fitted for the ministries of the home or school, or for the work of faithful helping and serving, or perhaps for superintending and the exercise of executive talent. There are no people so scarce as wise, well-balanced and sweet-tempered workers for the many departments of any great movement which requires capacity, and at the same time holy, loving character and unselfish fidelity and loyalty. Again, another is called to the special ministry of understanding and teaching the Word of God. Another is more girted for evangelistic work. Another is fitted to minister to the sick, and lead them to trust in God and take His healing power. Others again are called to the ministry of evangelization, to the bold, aggressive work of the foreign field, to the rescue home or mission, to the patient pastoral oversight of the flock of Christ, to the cry of the little ones, to the uplifting of the fallen. Each of these is legitimate, and for each of these the Holy Spirit supplies the necessary qualifications, and will accept and bless the works that follow. Let us, therefore, not lose our life in wishing we had some one else’s work; but let us find the sphere to which we belong, let us take the gifts that will fit us for it, and let us present the works to God as a sacrifice of a sweet smelling savor. Be yourself, and be your best, and God will use you much more than if you try to be somebody else. The Principle of Unity
5. The principle of unity in all this diversity is essential. We are to recognize the work of others as part of our own. The most truly spiritual people are the people who can get on best with others, and very often God places us in the most uncongenial and difficult associations for the very purpose of teaching us to adjust ourselves to everything. We cannot afford to meet with anyone along life’s pathway and fail to get along with them. He will probably keep us where we are until we have so learned His Spirit, and been rounded and mellowed by His grace, that we can keep rank in the host of God and walk in step with the most unsteady and uncongenial of our brethren. Long ago God taught David to rejoice in a work which he was to plan and another was to perform, and in one of his first lessons on service the Lord Jesus taught His disciples that “one sows and another reaps” (John 4:37), and he that sows and he that reaps must learn to rejoice together. The Order of the Gifts
6. The order of spiritual gifts is very instructive, encouraging and also humbling. The first-mentioned gifts are those of the apostles, prophets and teachers, the spiritual ministries of the Church. Next come the miraculous gifts of healing subordinate to spiritual ministry—important but not preeminent. Thirdly comes helps, people that just fit in, and by love, fellowship, prayer and often subordinate service, fill up the innumerable places and become the countless links without which all else would be in vain. After these, in a lower order, come the governments, the rulers, the people with authority, wisely placed near the bottom to keep them from falling over with the weight of their importance. No one can rule another until he has walked in the ranks and learned to keep his head low. The last in procession are the gifts of tongues, the showy gifts that sometimes turn the heads of ambitious disciples, and have been least honored of all the supernatural enduements of the Christian Church. A Right Ambition
7. A right ambition for the widest and highest usefulness is encouraged. “But eagerly desire the greater gifts” (1 Corinthians 12:31). God wants us to be ambitious for service, and not only for one kind of service, but for as many kinds as we can faithfully add to the record of a useful life. If we fulfill one ministry well He will add another if we can be trusted with it, and the one mina may at last grow to 10. It is right that we should recognize this life as full of unspeakable prospects and possibilities for the higher ministries and the eternal honors of the age to come. We are candidates for the great government appointments in the mighty empire of the future. Let us be ambitious to show ourselves fitted for the highest place. Our lot is cast in times of most intense interest and importance. We are on the threshold of the coming kingdom. We are in the midst of a mighty competition. Prophets and martyrs are already waiting for their appointments. Busy and earnest lives today are sweeping on in the power of the Holy Spirit. Don’t be left behind! May God arouse us from lethargy, apathy and trifling. We have a glorious crown to win. We have a living age in which to win it. We have one short life to accomplish. We have the mighty Holy Spirit to enable us to win the conflict and gain the prize. Let us eagerly desire the best gifts, and let all our being be invested in the one stupendous opportunity of a life for God, for humanity and for an eternal prize.