The Spirit in the Epistles, Part 3: The Spirit of Power

The end of Tuesday’s post in this series unpacking the development of beliefs about the Holy Spirit brought us to the question of vocation and spiritual gifts. This is the final, but by no means least important, of the major themes in the New Testament about the role of the Spirit in the lives of the faithful.

This is a subject I’ve written about quite a bit over the years, so I won’t belabour it here. But, in summary (as I’ve previously written):

The most famous discussion of spiritual gifts comes from Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians. He writes:

To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 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 powerful deeds, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses. (1 Corinthians 12.7-11)

The New Testament provides several different lists of gifts, none of which matches completely, so we know that these are not exhaustive lists, but only representative of the ways God empowers us to contribute to the life of the community:

• • • Prophecy
    • Service (or Helping)
    • Teaching
    • Exhortation (or Encouragement)
    • Giving
    • Leadership
    • Mercy
    • Wisdom
    • Knowledge
    • Faith
    • Healing
    • Wonderworking
    • Discernment
    • Tongues
    • Interpretation of Tongues
    • Apostleship
    • Evangelism
    • Pastoring

If we include the rest of the biblical witness to the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, we can include:

• • • Celibacy
    • Fellowship
    • Hospitality
    • Intercession
    • Marriage
    • Craftsmanship
    • Dream Interpretation
    • Sacred Music and Poetry

These gifts are given not for the sake of puffing us up, but to help us contribute to the life of the community and thereby to help it work properly. I like what Diana L. Hayes says about this:

The diversity of our lives is important and necessary, but only if within that diversity we recognize our connectedness, that we are ‘co-created’ by Almighty God. It is that co-creation that calls us to live our lives in ways that make a positive difference in our world, regardless of whether we are bankers or paupers, lawyers or preachers, teachers or athletes. (No Crystal Stair, 34)

Just as a body couldn’t survive if it was only made up of hearts, but rather needs bone, blood, brain, kidney, and a host of other organs, fluids, and parts in order to be a living body, so does the church need a variety of skill-sets in order to function properly. This means that the church should welcome us and our gifts — they are there for its health — but also that we do the church (and ourselves by extension) a great disservice if we withhold our gifts.

An important corollary of this is that, while we are to seek out and use spiritual gifts, they are never for our own benefit, but always for the sake of others and community. A great teaching on this comes from Paul’s discussion of the relative merits of speaking in tongues and prophecy:

Pursue love and strive for the spiritual gifts and especially that you may prophesy. For those who speak in a tongue do not speak to other people but to God, for no one understands them, since they are speaking mysteries in the Spirit. But those who prophesy speak to other people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation. Those who speak in a tongue build up themselves, but those who prophesy build up the church… Since you are striving after spiritual gifts, seek to excel in them for building up the church. (1 Corinthians 14.1-4, 12)

Just as the Spirit always points to Christ, so too does it point to the Body of Christ, that is the community of faith, in its work in and through us.

This is entirely consistent with the teachings throughout the whole Scriptures about the particular gifts of the Spirit. Joseph’s dream interpretation got him into trouble when he used it for his own benefit (however naively in his youth), but was a great boon when he used it in service of the greater good. Likewise, the Judges and kings were given the Spirit in order to properly lead Israel, never for themselves. The difference of course is that now, in the aftermath of the coming of Jesus, this particular gift of the Spirit is not reserved for the few, but is available for all of the faithful.

We’ve now come to the end of this survey of how the Scriptures’ understanding of the Holy Spirit developed over the course of the the biblical narrative. While there is certainly evolution, particularly with the Prophets and the coming of Jesus, there is also a remarkable consistency. The Holy Spirit is the ‘breath of life’ and therefore the source of all goodness and wisdom in the world, for all creation. But there is also an additional gift of the Spirit, given to particular individuals for leadership over the community of faith. While this gift was originally only for the few, in the Christian Church after Pentecost, it is poured out on the entire community. The vision then is of a Church filled with leaders, each with their own calling and gift for the community’s wellbeing.

Over the next three posts, we’ll see just how well (or not) this vision, along with the other themes we’ve looked at, persisted and was developed over the history of the Church.