Gifts exemplified in Scripture

The gifts of the Spirit are exemplified in Scripture. That first word is important: they are exemplified in Scripture. In the New Testament there are four main lists of gifts. There are references in other places, but if you want to study the subject, there are four passages, which indicate what the gifts are, that you have to look at: 1 Corinthians 12:28; 1 Corinthians 12:8–10; Ephesians 4:11 and Romans 12:6–8.

In these four passages approximately twenty gifts are listed. You will understand why I say approximately in a moment—it is not just that I cannot count. Apostles, prophets, teachers, miracles, gifts of healing, helping, administering, various kinds of tongues, the utterance of wisdom, the utterance of knowledge, faith, the ability to distinguish between spirits, the interpretation of tongues, evangelists, pastor teachers, service, exhortation, contributing, leading, and acts of mercy. Those are all the gifts described in those four lists.

Now, our first impression is that it all seems very haphazard. There does not seem to be much logic or order in these lists. For a start, the lists are all different. No two lists of the gifts are identical. Again, no list has all the gifts; in that sense they are all incomplete. Or again, there is no single gift which appears on all four lists. To make things even more confusing, there are other gifts which are mentioned elsewhere in the New Testament. For example, the gift of remaining happily and fruitfully single. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 7:7 where he is talking about marriage and celibacy, each has his own gift from God, one of one kind and one of another. The word which he uses for gift in the original is charisma, a spiritual gift. He says the ability to remain unmarried to the glory of God is a spiritual gift. And the ability to be married to the glory of God is also a charisma, a spiritual gift.

Now we might ask, why is there such apparent disorganisation? Why do we have varied lists, incomplete lists, and differing lists? Why does God not give us one clear list of gifts? Why is there not a chapter in the New Testament saying, these are the gifts of the Spirit and these are all the gifts of the Spirit? Then I would not have to write this article because there they would be.

Well, the answer is clear: these lists are not meant to be complete or exhaustive. These are examples of the gifts. The gifts of the Spirit are so many and so varied that all of them are not even mentioned in the Bible. These are illustrations; these are probably the chief gifts, the most important gifts. But there may well be others. To give you one example: I have often thought that there must be a special gift of intercessory prayer. We are all to pray for others, but there are Christians I know—and I am sure you also know some—who seem to have such a burden and such a passion for praying for others. They do it in an extraordinary way; they give themselves to it. It is a vital element in their Christian lives. The amount of time, intensity, earnestness, and perseverance with which they pray is remarkable. When I look at them and talk to them, I think to myself: they are gifted to pray for other people in a way that I simply am not. I believe they have been given the gift of the Holy Spirit, equipping them and impelling them to this wonderful ministry of intercession.

And there are many, many other gifts. So, we should not come to these lists of gifts in a rigid, mechanical way. We should not say these are all the gifts, and these are the only gifts. That is why I said they are exemplified in Scripture. We are given the chief gifts, the main examples. So, as we study them in this series, we must always remember that there may be other gifts, or even that some of these gifts may overlap. That is why I said, there are approximately twenty. There were exactly twenty; I read out twenty gifts, but for example, consider the gift of service and the gift of acts of mercy: are those two completely distinct gifts which have nothing to do with each other or are they different ways of describing the same general gift? It is not always easy to say. Therefore, some of the gifts may blend into each other, they may merge with each other.

But to simplify, we can say that the New Testament gifts fall into three main categories. The first category is what we could call sign gifts. I am thinking of gifts like miracles, healings, speaking in tongues, the interpretation of tongues. Secondly, there are speaking gifts: teacher, evangelist, the gift of exhortation. To do that we have got to open our mouths and speak. So, there are sign gifts, there are speaking gifts, and thirdly there are serving gifts. Serving, giving, administering, and showing mercy. It seems to be that these are the three main categories of gifts described in the church in the New Testament: sign gifts; speaking gifts; and serving gifts.¹

Edward Donnelly