Spiritual Gifts: What They Are and What They Aren’t

Spiritual gifts are not arbitrary talents that you may have. People misquote the parable of the talents in Matthew 25 without ever realizing that the talents discussed about in that passage were coins of currency (Mat 25:18). Someone’s singing voice, three-point shooting, or painting skills are not ever depicted in scripture as gifts given by God for the edification of the body of Christ. Hitting a buzzer beater brings glory to yourself, not God, and doesn’t perform any function of doctrinal edification that the gifts were given for in the first place (Eph 4:11-12). A gift is something freely given, not developed over years of practice and training.

Today, spiritual gifts have ceased (Eph 4:13-15, 1Co 13:8-12). While there is a separate discussion to be had about when and why the spiritual gifts stopped (see our other article about that topic), below is the complete list of spiritual gifts given at the instantiation of the body of Christ:

Different offices and gifts from Rom 12:3-8: Prophecy, ministry, teaching, exhorting, giving, ruling, mercy

Gifts by the Spirit in 1Co 12:8-11: Word of wisdom, word of knowledge, faith, healing, working of miracles, prophecy, discerning of spirits, divers kinds of tongues, interpretation of tongues

God set positions in a sequential order in 1Co 12:28-30: Apostles, prophets, teachers, workers of miracles, healing, helps, governments, diversities of tongues;

Gifts given for the edification of the body in Eph 4:11: Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers