Spiritual gifts

Gift of Faith (1 Cor. 12:9)

The gift of faith should probably be included among the gifts closely related to the practical life and development of the church. These spiritual gifts would naturally strengthen the believers in their faith, and convince the unbelievers of the authenticity of the church's message. The Spirit's gift of faith could effect mighty things (Matt. 17:19 - 20), and keep believers steadfast in persecution. These five spiritual gifts, then, had special reference to the practical aspects of the church's life, the physical well being of believers, and orderliness of their worship and conduct.
The remainder of the gifts of the Spirit concern the ministry of the word of God. To that extent, they were more important than the foregoing; but the latter were, nevertheless, spiritual gifts. In origin and nature they were the result of special endowments of the Spirit.

Apostleship

Concerning the gifts especially meaningful for the preaching of the word, Paul gives pride of place to the grace of apostleship: "God hath set some in the church, first apostles" (1 Cor. 12:28). The designation "apostle" began to be applied to NT personalities other than the Twelve, especially to Paul. So highly did he value the gift of apostleship which the Holy Spirit had conferred upon him that on occasion he was at pains to prove its validity (cf. I Cor. 9:1ff.; Gal. 1:12). The apostles conceived that they had received this spiritual gift to enable them to fulfill the ministry of the word of God; nothing, therefore, should be allowed to prevent their fulfilling that all important function (Acts 6:2).
We also gather from Paul that the gift of apostleship was to be exercised principally among unbelievers (1 Cor. 1:17), while other spiritual gifts were more closely related to the needs of believers. Paul's apostleship was to be fulfilled among Gentiles; Peter's ministry of the word was to be exercised among Jews (Gal. 2:7 - 8). Obviously the Spirit's gift of apostleship was not confined to a strictly limited group of men whose gift of apostleship made them ipso facto special units of a divine grace or authority.

Their function was doubtless conceived to be the most important so far as the ministry of the word was concerned, but we shall see presently that theirs was only one of a number of such spiritual gifts. The church was built upon prophets as well as apostles (Eph. 2:20), the first ministering in the word to the church, the latter preaching the word to non Christians. Since, then, the gift of apostleship was spiritual, so also was the authority of the apostles. It remained the prerogative of the Holy Spirit and never became official in the sense that one could communicate it to others of his own volition. The authority exercised by the apostles was exercised democratically, not autocratically (Acts 15:6, 22). They were careful to include the elders and brethren when substantiating the validity of the directives they were issuing to the church. Even when Paul was asked to legislate for the churches he had founded, his authority was not his apostleship but a word from the Lord (1 Cor. 7:10).

Prophets

Prophets stand next in importance to apostles in Paul's enumeration of the spiritual gifts (1 Cor. 12:2ff.). The gift of prophecy has already been differentiated from the grace of apostleship on the ground of the sphere in which each was exercised. In a sense Moses' desire (Num. 11:29) had been realized in the experience of the church as a whole (Acts 2:17 - 18; 19:6; 1 Cor. 11:4 - 5), but some individuals seem to have been specially endowed with this grace (Acts 11:28; 15:32; 21:9 - 10). These prophets in the NT church seem often to have been itinerant preachers. Moving from church to church, they built up believers in the faith by teaching the word. Their ministry would probably be characterized by spontaneity and power, since it seems to have included speaking by revelation (1 Cor. 14:6, 26, 30 - 31). In these passages, however, the prophet's utterances were clearly understood compared with the utterances in tongues.
On occasion God would make his will known through the prophet (Acts 13:1ff.), or a future event would be foretold (Acts 11:28; 21:10 - 11); but the prophet's special gift was the edification, exhortation, consolation, and instruction of the local churches (1 Cor. 14). In the subapostolic period the prophet could still take precedence over the local minister, but the day was not far off when this gift of prophecy passed to the local ministers who preached the word to edify the members of the Christian fellowship.

The nature of this gift of prophecy was such that the danger of false prophets must always have been present. The Spirit, therefore, communicated a gift that enabled some among those who listened to the prophets to recognize the truth or falsity of their utterances. This was not natural insight or shrewd judgment but a supernatural gift. Paul describes this spiritual gift as a "discerning of the spirits." The fact that the prophet spoke by revelation made the appearance of false prophets almost inevitable; while, therefore, Paul urged his converts not to despise prophesyings, they were, nevertheless, to prove all things (1 Thess. 5:20 - 21).