What is the spiritual gift of healing?

And so you have this catalogue of diverse ministry which gives us the manifold manifestation of the Spirit: the word of wisdom, and the word of knowledge, both of which the apostle is careful to say are by the same Spirit. Then he says, "to another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit." Why do we find in this varied list the repetition, "by the same Spirit"? Because we are so apt to approve only of the particular gift that pleases us, forgetting the great variety in the Holy Spirit's operations.

The gifts of healing were sign gifts in connection with our bodies. The working of miracles, other than healings, would involve a display of power over material things and spiritual beings. (Compare Mark 16:17-18; Acts 13:11; Acts 16:18; Acts 28:5.)

There seems no need of dwelling on "gifts of healings in virtue of (ἐν) the same Spirit," further than to say that it is not more comprehensive, but less, than "faith." There was faith in him who exercised spiritual powers in healing the sick, but gifts of healings were restricted of course to their own peculiar domain. "Faith," as such, might be exercised in a great variety of ways besides that which strengthened some to be martyrs or confessors. Again, another might have "operations of powers" (erroneously rendered in the Rhemish and the Authorized Versions, "the working of miracles"), which were not "healings," but such superiority to things material, or beings spiritual, as we see promised in Mark 16:17-18, and illustrated in the Acts of the Apostles. "Prophecy" another might have given him, which was an energy of the Holy Ghost in the purely spiritual domain, enabling him to give out the mind of God as to the present or future. This definition embraces the twofold application of the term in scripture, whether to the narrow field of prediction, or to the larger one of declaring God's mind and will, so as to act on conscience with unfailing, divine conviction. (See for the latter 1 Cor. 14; for the former Acts 11) "Discerning of spirits" is another gift, which means the faculty of deciding, not between true and spurious professors of the Lord Jesus, but between the Spirit's teaching and that which simulated it by evil spirits. The general responsibility to try or prove the spirits if they are of God we see in 1 John 4, because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Here it is a special gift. The danger, or rather the fact, of misleading some is also foreshown in 1 Timothy 4. The designed distribution of these gifts is strikingly shown in the last two, where "kinds of tongues," or a variety of languages naturally unknown to the speaker we find distinguished from "interpretation of tongues" given to another, though 1 Corinthians 14:13 intimates the desirableness of their combination.

"To another, gifts of healing," etc. The apparent closeness of relation in which both this and the next mentioned form of manifestation stand to "faith," is such that both one and the other might be naturally described as particular expressions of that wonder-working gift. That such an estimate, however, would be a most erroneous one, we are taught by the careful manner in which they are distinguished by the apostle. Each gift of the Spirit is perfect in itself, and fulfils its destined purpose according to the will and power of the Giver. Thus, when handkerchiefs or aprons taken from Paul's body drove away diseases from the sick, there was an exuberance of this particular manifestation.9 Faith may have been active in the receivers of the benefit, but not, in any extraordinary degree, in the dispenser. Moreover, the exercise of this and similar gifts was never discretional. They were manifested only in their fitting season, and could only work effectually by the immediate will of God. Power is His, and always in His hands. If Trophimus were sick, the wish of Paul could not restore him.1 If the threatened loss of Epaphroditus, his thrice-endeared associate, filled his soul with heaviness, he carried in himself no remedy for his dis-tress.2 His refuge in the time of need must be sought, not in God's gifts, but in the faithful mercy of the Giver.

Let us remember that the Spirit of God gives all these things. We would probably like to possess the gift of healing; but the Spirit of God puts first the word of wisdom; and the word of knowledge comes before it, and the word of faith too. Faith is the power of taking hold of God, of laying hold of His word, and of counting upon Him in the face of every difficulty, and of every foe. There are those that have this faith which is given them by God the Spirit. We are all believers, but not every believer has the faith that is spoken of here — the faith that removes mountains, the faith that opposes Satan and quenches his fiery darts, the faith that is always triumphant, the faith that walks even upon the waves of the sea.

"The gifts of healing" now indicate compassion manward. In the early church these sign-gifts were evident. But more important than the sign-gift is that which it signifies. Bodily healing is all very well, if it is the will of God; but how much more vital is the spiritual healing of discord, ruptures, schisms among the saints of God! How precious indeed if one has a gift for this kind of work!

But the apostle tells us in 1 Cor. 14 that tongues were for a sign, not to those who believe, but to them that believe not. God had given to the assembly not only gifts for its own edification, but those whereby it might minister the grace of God to the world. First and foremost, tongues, by means of which every man might hear in his own dialect in which he was born the wonderful works of God. Nor were the bodies forgotten, but gifts of healing told that the gospel of God was not words only, blessed as they were, but active love to men; and we find consequently that while handkerchiefs from Paul's body healed the sick Ephesians (Acts 19:12), as a witness, accompanying the word which all Asia heard, yet Paul left Trophimus, himself an Ephesian, sick at Miletum (2 Tim. 4:20), and that when he was begging Timothy to come to him; not that some in the Church were not healed, as Dorcas, but the aspect of such gifts was to the world.

The exercise of the gift of healing and similar gifts was never discretional. They were manifested only in their fitting season, and could only work effectually by the immediate will of God. Power is His, and always in His hands. If Trophimus was sick, the wish of Paul could not restore him. Yet the believer can come to the Lord in prayer and claim his power. Our refuge in time of need must be sought, not in God's gifts, but in the faithfulness of the Giver.

But Paul adds that it was not only on Epaphroditus God had mercy, "but on me also, that I might not have sorrow upon sorrow." Well can we understand Paul's sorrow as he gazed on his brother, his fellow-workman, his fellow-soldier, drawing so near to death: and knowing it was for his sake. And, notice, he did not use the gift of healing to raise him up: nor is there a suggestion that this illness was due to any sin or failure: on the contrary, Paul exhorts them to honour very highly such as Epaphroditus. It was not that God's power could not have healed him in a moment: but perhaps God would teach us, on the one hand, that the gift of healing was a temporary gift: and on the other hand, that the one exercising it needed ever to be subject to the prayer: "If it be Thy will." And we have noticed what great losers you and I would be, had God miraculously healed Epaphroditus: for probably we would never have heard of him.

As we examine the Scriptures we find the gift of healing was abundantly exercised. The shadow of Peter was sought after by the sick (see Acts 5:15); handkerchiefs and aprons from the body of the Apostle Paul cured, under the hand of God, disease and exorcised evil spirits. Yet even Paul did not use his gift in every case. He says, “Trophimus have I left at Miletum sick” (2 Tim. 4:20); his bosom friend, Timothy, had “often infirmities”, yet Paul was content to advise the taking of wine as a curative agent. Indeed, we have no instance to Paul exercising this gift upon any of the Lord’s saints.

It seems as if these gifts that appealed to the senses and were visibly miraculous, were intended to carry conviction in connection with the establishment of Christianity, but now that need has passed, and moreover in face of the disunited condition of the church, its failure on every hand, its worldliness, it is no wonder that such a gift is not seen in vigorous manifestation. Apart from a system that exalts faith healing into a position Scripture never gave it, and which in reality degrades the whole Christian profession, there are instances in which, quietly and without ostentation, the prayer of faith has healed the sick.