The gifts of the Spirit were shared, or given, to believers to help one another.
The idea behind the gifts of the Spirit suggests that we have frailties and areas of weakness that need to be helped.
If there were no weaknesses, there would be no room left for the gifts to operate. They would have nothing left to do.
It is good to have gifts so that you are able to supply help to one another. Gifts exist because need exists. That’s the whole reason they were given in the first place.
But the plan for the body of Christ is not to keep having believers who will always need help.
The goal is for every believer to grow in God to the point where they don’t need help anymore.
This is God’s mind and plan for everyone.
At that point, the gifts of the Spirit will have done their work. They will simply have nothing left to attend to, because what they were sent to fix will no longer be there.
If I don’t need help, why would I need someone to use a gift on me?
So, when Apostle Paul was addressing the Corinthian church, he told them the gifts are good, but he also told them the gifts are not the climax or apex of Christian living.
He said, “covet the most excellent gift, but I look at something bigger than gifts” (1 Corinthians 12:31).
Then he goes on to tell them about love.
That means Paul ranked love as a higher experience for the believer than gifts of the Spirit. Gifts show what you can do for someone. Love shows who you are becoming.
He also brought in love to help them use the gifts well, because it seemed some were abusing them. He wanted to set decorum, or order, in their use of the gifts. Without love guiding how a gift is used, a gift can easily become a performance, a display, or worse, a weapon.
So he said, if he had mighty gifts and had no love, he was nothing (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
Note that all the time he contrasted love with a gift of the Spirit, the consequences of the lack of love were directed at himself, not at the recipients.
1 Corinthians 13:1: “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I AM BECOME as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.”
1 Corinthians 13:2: “And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I AM NOTHING.”
This is in contrast to gifts. With gifts, others are the recipients of the consequences. For instance, if you didn’t give a word of prophecy, the consequence is felt among those the word was meant for. You’re building others up, not exclusively yourself. But if you didn’t have love, even if your actions were targeted at other people, it’s your own self that becomes nothing, empty, and hollow, not others.
They miss out on “help,” but you miss out on “growth.”
I’m saying the actions of love are targeted at other people, but the rewards are targeted at you.
And what is this reward? Transformation. To be conformed to the image of the person of Christ.
So Paul placed love above spiritual gifts. This is not to say don’t have gifts. This is to say, have gifts, but don’t build your identity around them. Focus on growth. You already have gifts, by the way. As you grow in love, you’ll help others better, because you’ll be learning to help the way God helps, not just doing what a gift enables you to do.
But here is the thing.
You must strive to take others from being gift-dependent to being grown and no longer needing gifts to get by.
Apostle Paul himself said gifts will fade away, but love does not fail.
What does that tell you?
It means gifts are temporary. They’re for “babies.” Sons and daughters have inheritances. They have everything, including what was once given to them as gifts. They have the kingdom itself, not just pieces handed to them along the way.
In fact, Paul called gifts “part” and called love “perfect.”
1 Corinthians 13:9: “For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.”
1 Corinthians 13:10: “But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.”
So he was contrasting “part” versus “perfect.”
He said gifts were a part. That is, gifts only show us a part of the big picture. The big picture is perfection, or maturity, where you no longer need a part. You will see the whole picture of the body of Christ and understand what God’s mind is and what He is doing.
This lines up with what Paul told the Ephesians too, that the ministry gifts were given “for the perfecting of the saints... till we all come in the unity of the faith... unto a perfect man” (Ephesians 4:12-13).
The gifts were never the focus. They were the scaffolding put up around something being built unto perfection. This perfection is shrouded in love. God is love. Knowing God fully is having love fully. So when perfection comes, that’s when we become fully mature in the person of Christ. At that point, gifts, which only reveal a part of God’s goodness and might, will be done away with. Not because they were bad, but because you’ll no longer need a piece when you have the whole.
So, why would anyone leave the substance to chase shadows?
Every time you disregard study, you’re leaving the substance. And every time you talk down on knowledge and exalt gifts and manifestations beyond what is necessary, you’re chasing shadows.
Paul said it himself: when he was a child, he talked, reasoned, and thought as a child, but when he grew, he put away childish things.
A gathering where prophecies, miracles, and healings are the core activity day in and day out, without sound teaching, is only breeding believers who will remain babies forever. Activity is not the same thing as growth. A church can be busy and still be weak.
Healings and miracles are good, but what if no one needed healing or a miracle because they were already whole, already healed, already had their needs met?
That sounds better to me, not gonna lie, and that looks like the picture Paul was pointing to all along.