“To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” (1 Corinthians 12:7)
Read: 1 Corinthians 12:1-11
Devotion: Think of a gift you’ve received in the past. Was that gift for you or someone else? That seems like a dumb question because the answer is obvious. If a gift is given to you, it’s for you. But that’s the point of a rhetorical question: not to merely to illicit an answer to the question but to provoke you to think more deeply about it. When someone receives a gift, they are the primary recipient of benefit that the gift brings. Yes, the gift-giver may get a great satisfaction from seeing the recipient of the gift open it and enjoy it, but it’s the recipient who is to gain the most from the gift. And a good gift-giver purposes their gift so that this occurs.
I am not talking about a husband giving a bowling ball to his wife who has never bowled before because he hopes she ends up just letting them use the ball all the time. No, most of the time, the intention of giving a gift is so that the recipient of the gift is the one who is to receive the greatest good from it. Going beyond material gifts to our natural gifting, we tend to also think along the same lines. A person whom God has blessed with great hand-eye coordination may see that gift as a means to enrich and benefit themselves in becoming a great baseball player. Or a person gifted in the art of debate rightly may exercise that gifting to become a lawyer.
Again, the dominant view in people’s minds regarding their natural gifting is that they are the ones who should primarily benefit from those gifts. But because this is the way we naturally think about gifts, we may have the tendency to view our spiritual gifts in much the same way.
When we are saved, at the moment of our salvation, we are baptized and indwelt with the Holy Spirit who not only regenerates our hearts, but who also gives us spiritual gifts. God gives every single at least one spiritual gift at their conversion (1 Cor. 12:7). There are no believers who have zero spiritual gifts, and it is often the case that believers are given more than one spiritual gifts. The point is that we’re all gifted by the Spirit. Whether we have the gift of charity, helps, teaching, exhortation, or a combination of those gifts or others, we all have received gifts.
But who is to benefit the most from our gifting? If we approach this question in the natural way we think about gifts, we would assume that we should be the primary beneficiaries of our own spiritual gifts. After all, they are our gifts. However, God did not give us spiritual gifts primarily for our own benefit. As Paul writes in our verse above, the Spirit gives believers gifts for the common good. Other people are to be the ones who profit the most from the use of our spiritual gifts. I would argue that this is true for our natural gifting as well, but that’s a devotion for another day.
If we consider each gift individually, we can readily see this truth. Teaching, administration, charity, service, exhortation, and mercy are gifts that require other people to be properly exercised. Yes, you can serve and teach and exhort yourself, but is that really why the Spirit gave you that gift? No. The Spirit gave you that gift for the common good.
Who is Paul referring to when he says, “The common good?” Is he referring to the common good of the world, your family, or of the people who live in the houses next to you? While your spiritual gifting can benefit them, it is clear from the context of this passage that we have been gifted by the Spirit for the common good of the Church. That’s who Paul is talking to, and he’s about to start using the imagery of a body to describe the nature of the church as an organic unity. Our gifts are not for us to enrich ourselves, to heap honor and glory onto ourselves, or even primarily to make us feel good (although we will find great satisfaction in the right use of our gifts).
Will we benefit from the proper use of our gifts? Absolutely, and that may even include material blessings. However, our fellow saints are the ones who are to truly profit and benefit from our gifts. Therefore, this section of Scripture destroys any thought of being a lone-wolf Christian—the type who isolates themselves in a monastery or wherever to try and distance themselves from the world. This section also speaks against those who refuse to become members of a local church. It is in the context of the local church that the Spirit has intended us to our gifting the most.
Yes, our gifting can benefit saints the world over, but who are the saints we will see the most and have the most opportunity to bless with our gifting? Is it not those believers who we see every Sunday and potentially during the week for Bible studies? Should we then not want to be linked to them by covenant so at the very least we can hold one another accountable for how we’re respectively using our gifting— not just for our own good, but also for the good of our brother that he too would be a good steward of what the Spirit has entrusted to him (see Heb 10:24-25)? We must view our gifts properly so that we can use them properly. And a proper view of our gifts is having a proper view of the local church, for that is the context in which we are purposed to use our gifts.
Ponder and Pray: How does viewing our spiritual gifting selfishly harm not just
our churches, but ourselves as well? Finish by thanking God for His Spirit and for the Spirit’s
work in empowering the saints.
