The gifts are embodied in people

These gifts are embodied in people. Some of the gifts are people, pastors, pastor teachers, apostles, evangelists. Some are abstract for example, faith, serving, acts of mercy. But Paul is telling us here that you cannot think of the gifts apart from the people who use the gifts. When we are studying the gifts of the Spirit, we are not looking at a box of assorted abilities; we are not looking at a chest full of talents. We cannot just say, Well, now here are the gifts of the Spirit, and then take them out and pin them on people saying, You can have this gift and you can have that gift. No, the people and the gifts are intertwined. The gifts of the Spirit are people equipped to serve. There are no gifts apart from people. They do not exist apart from people. There is no gift of faith unless there is a man or woman who believes. There is no gift of teaching unless there is a man or a woman to teach. They do not exist apart from the people to whom they are given. We should never consider them abstract; we should never consider them impersonally. You can never separate the gift from the person using it.

Let me illustrate that. The elders of a church should never ask themselves, What gifts would we like to have in our church? I do not think they should even ask, What gifts do we have in the church? Their first question should be this: What people has God given us? Who has God brought into this congregation? Who are they? As you look at the people then, you see how they are gifted, and then you are able to plan the ministry of the church. Too many churches first draw up the program and then look for people to fit the program and to work the program. That is the wrong way around. First, look at the people and then design your program in the light of the people whom God has given you. Christ has his own reasons for bringing into this congregation all of the members. It is the task of the elders to look at the people whom he has brought and then say, In the light of the people he has given us, what is it that Christ wants us to be and to do?

More than that, these gifts are embodied in every believer. It is true. It is strongly stressed in every single main New Testament passage to which I have already referred. 1 Corinthians 12:7 says, To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit. 1 Corinthians 12:27 reads, You are the body of Christ, and individually members of the body. Romans 12:5 also reads, We, though many, are one body in Christ and individually members of one another. And lastly 1 Peter 4:10 says, As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another. Every single believer is gifted. Every single believer is a part of the body of Christ.

When I was a teenager, evolutionist doctors used to talk a lot about the vestigial remains in the human body. There are certain parts of the body, organs of the body, for which they could not see any purpose. When I was a boy the great craze was to have tonsils taken out, and nearly everybody had their tonsils taken out. People said, They do not serve any useful purpose; they are of no use. Get them out and you will not have sore throats. I better not talk myself into a fog of confusion, because I am not sure what tonsils are for, but I am sure they are there for a reason. Doctors are now saying that all the parts of the body have a purpose. There are no vestigial remains in the body of Christ. There are no parts without a purpose. Every one of us is gifted. Believe that. Every one of us is gifted; we are all charismatics. We are a charismatic church. Charismatic means the grace gifts of God. We are a Spirit‑filled, charismatic church where every single member is supernaturally gifted by God the Holy Spirit to glorify God and serve him in the world. You my friends are Christ’s gift to the church.¹

Edward Donnelly