1 Corinthians 12:8–10

The faith here is not simple faith in the gospel. That is not a special gift which one believer may have and another may not. This is clear. It is the faith, the energy, that God gives. It overcomes difficulties. It rises above dangers. It faces them and is not alarmed by them.

Faith is the power to take hold of God, to take hold of His word, and to count on Him in the face of every difficulty and every enemy. God the Spirit gives this faith to some. We are all believers, but not every believer has the faith Paul speaks of here. It is the faith that removes mountains. It is the faith that stands against Satan and puts out his flaming arrows. It is the faith that always wins. It is the faith that walks even on the waves of the sea.

Scripture recognises specific faith about a specific thing. One of the people who received a miracle had faith to be healed (Acts 14:9). And 1 Corinthians 12:9 plainly teaches that there is a distinct spiritual gift of faith, which some have and some do not. Perhaps this is the special faith the Lord means when He says, "whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours" (Mark 11:24). Real, God-given faith is meant here, not mystical or imagined faith. Many have probably tried this promise as an experiment, only to be disappointed. But God does not give His promises and the power of His Spirit to be tested out of curiosity, or used to serve private ends.

Then he says, "to another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit." Why does this varied list repeat the words "by the same Spirit"? Because we so easily approve only of the one gift that pleases us, and forget how varied the Holy Spirit's work is.

No one could use the gift of healing, or gifts like it, whenever he chose. These gifts appeared only at the right time, and they worked only by the direct will of God. Power is His, and always in His hands. When Trophimus was sick, Paul's wish could not restore him. Yet the believer can come to the Lord in prayer and claim His power. In time of need we must seek refuge not in God's gifts, but in the faithfulness of the Giver.

It is worth noticing that the disciples never did miracles to save themselves from suffering, or to heal their friends when they were ill. Paul left Trophimus sick at Miletus. It was only God's mercy that healed Epaphroditus. The miracles the apostles did confirmed the testimony, and Christ glorified with the Father was the subject and source of that testimony.

Some teach that every believer who receives the baptism of the Spirit shows it by speaking in tongues. But that is not what Scripture teaches. 1 Corinthians 12:9-10 says, "to another [not to ALL] gifts of healing by the one Spirit … to another [not to ALL] various kinds of tongues."

Another might have "operations of powers." The Rheims and King James Versions wrongly render this as "the working of miracles." These were not "healings." They were power over material things, or over spiritual beings, as promised in Mark 16:17-18 and shown in the Acts of the Apostles.

Thinking of the Old Testament prophets, we may limit prophecy to foretelling future events. But that was only a small part of the prophet's work, even in Old Testament days. His great mission was to apply the word of God to the conscience and heart, to build people up. This is still the prophet's service in Christian times, and in this sense the gift continues.

A man surely builds others up when he strengthens souls by holding up Christ and making His love better known. So does the man who exhorts or teaches well. But none of these things is prophesying. Prophesying is that character of truth which puts a man's conscience in the presence of God. It gives the soul the certainty that His mind is in what is spoken. It strips and lays bare thoughts, motives, feelings, everything.

This gift is not about discerning whether or not people were Christians. It is about discerning whether the spirit by which they spoke was of God or of Satan.

This was one of the gifts in the early church, needed for "testing the spirits," because even then many false prophets had gone out into the world. 1 Cor. 12:10; 1 John 4:1-3. This gift was especially necessary at the time when the word of God was not fully written.

The deliberate distribution of these gifts stands out in the last two. "Kinds of tongues" means a variety of languages the speaker never learned. It is set apart from "interpretation of tongues," which is given to another, though 1 Corinthians 14:13 suggests how desirable it is for the two to go together.

Tongues, and the interpretation of tongues that completes them, come at the close of this list. That shows their relative importance from God's point of view. The primary gifts are always those that develop the church in love and faith and the knowledge of Christ. Scripture, on the other hand, always places the sign-gifts lowest on the scale, though people tend to value them differently and far too highly.

1 Corinthians 14 makes it clear that the gift of tongues was not only miraculous. It was also a sign to unbelievers, unlike prophesying, which was expressly for building people up. So it was forbidden to speak "in a tongue" in the Christian assembly, unless someone there could interpret the unknown language for the profit of the saints. The sign-gifts are the ones the Holy Spirit has seen good to withdraw. He still grants all the others that are needed for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, and for building up the body of Christ.

It is taught that every believer who receives the baptism of the Spirit shows it by speaking with tongues. But that is not the teaching of Scripture. 1 Corinthians 12:9-10 says, "to another [not to ALL] gifts of healing by the one Spirit… to another [not to ALL] various kinds of tongues."