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No.16.
pp. 77 - 80
In the section of the epistle now before us, the Apostle Paul is dealing with the various
gifts of the Holy Spirit, among believers of the Acts period, distributed according to His
will. We have seen the all-important gift of wisdom comes first, whereas the more
showy gift of tongues is put at the bottom of the list. The idea of some who have a
leaning towards tongue-speaking, that this is a mark of spirituality or of a special baptism
or filling of the Spirit, is shown up as false when one remembers that, of all the churches
Paul dealt with, the Corinthian assembly was the most carnal! We shall have more to say
about speaking in tongues later on.
The next evidential gift of the Spirit in chapter 12: is knowledge. That this was given
without human mediation is clear by the context, where the gifts come directly from the
Spirit of God. I John 2: 20 refers to this by saying, "But ye have an unction (anointing)
from the Holy One (i.e. The Holy Spirit) and ye know all things". And again in 2: 27,
"But the anointing which ye have received of Him abideth in you, and ye need not that
any man teach you".
One of the gifts of the ascended Christ for His Body is `teachers' (Eph. 4: 11), but
there is no mention in this epistle of any supernatural gift of knowledge without human
effort, such as existed in the church at Corinth. We may wish there was such today, but
now we find we have to search the Scriptures patiently, comparing spiritual things with
spiritual; we need to pray for enlightenment too before such Divine knowledge becomes
our personal possession. While there were teachers in the churches during the period
covered by the Acts, it is evident that some who had the special gift of knowledge were
independent of them, though not in a schismatic sense, for the will of God was for all to
work together as members of a body, in united witness.
Faith is the next special gift, and it is obvious this cannot be the initiatory faith of the
sinner believing in Christ as Saviour, for such a faith could not be possessed by some
believers but not others. It would be rather the faith of the pioneer, willing to undertake
new and possibly difficult work for Christ, not only in the assembly, but outside. We
have a modern example of this in George Muller and his work for destitute children.
Now follows gifts of healing, and the Act is full of concrete examples of this.
(Acts 3: 7, 8; 4: 16, 30; 5: 15, 16; 8: 6, 7; 9: 33, 34; 14: 8-10; 19: 11, 12;
28: 8, 9). Note that the healing was instantaneous and complete, and we may be sure
that there was no relapse! When modern healing campaigns are compared to this, their
pitiful inadequacy is only too obvious. And yet they claim to be fulfilling the same
ministry as obtained in the Acts! How folk can be so duped as to believe this only goes
to show the utter ignorance of the N.T. that abounds today.
The healing ministry we are dealing with has its roots in the O.T. in God's promises to
Israel: