Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says “Jesus is accursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit. Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills. For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body - Jews or Greeks, slaves or free - and all were made to drink of one Spirit. 1 Corinthians 12:3–13
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As usual, there is much going on here as Paul teaches about the work of the Spirit in the church, the body of Christ. However, I’m only going to comment on one verse, and that’s verse seven.
To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 1 Corinthians 12:7
Each and every Christian has been given some ability or other by the Spirit. Now, please note that that is a fact. That means that it refers to you, Christian. The Spirit has certainly blessed you in this way. The second thing to notice here is that this ability has been given to you for the benefit of the others in the church. These are facts that are true of you.
Now, I say it in this way because I suspect that there are some who don’t believe that they have been blessed in this way, that they have anything of much worth to offer other Christians. And I’m thinking that their response is going to be something like, ‘I don’t feel as if I have anything to offer’, or ‘I’ve never done anything that could actually help another Christian’. To any such people all I need to say is that the Spirit speaking through the Scriptures says otherwise. We each and all have been given by Spirit some ability (manifestation) that the rest need (common good).
Now that I’ve established that, there are two questions that each of us should ask. ‘What ability has the Spirit given to me?’ and ‘How can I use this ability for the benefit of the rest of the church?’
Some have a hard time with the first question because they assume that any ability that the Spirit gives just has to be something dramatic, something that makes a big splash, and, of course, something ‘spiritual’. The other reason for difficulty here is that it is easy to think of the church merely in terms of the mechanics of the church. So, the response is, ‘I could never teach Sunday school or help out in any of the programs of the church’, or the like.
This is where it helps to think about the church not as an organization but rather as a community. You might even call it a communion of the saints. Using what the Spirit has given you for the good of the others isn’t about some program. It’s about relationships. Seeing the questions in this way helps in coming to some answers.
You don’t answer these two questions by sitting in some corner and thinking. You answer them first by prayer. ‘Father, what have You given to me? Help me to see it.’ You follow that up simply by living in the company of the other saints. It’s in that context that you will come to see the ways in which you are being helpful to the other saints. And it doesn’t have to be something dramatic. Some people have been blessed with the ability to just listen. (And don’t we need more listeners!) Pray and live and watch. The abilities that the Spirit has given you will become clear.
It is when we all work at this that the church will become the amazing community that Jesus will use to change the world.
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