To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit;
Faith and the gifts of healing are two distinct gifts given by the same Holy Spirit, who divides different gifts among different people as He wills so that believers do not all receive the same gift. The different gifts serve one body of Christ with many members and different offices, where no member is self-sufficient and none may say to another that there is no need of them. God's plan is unity in diversity, with different operations brought into perfect harmony under one Master-worker and all working under the selfsame Spirit. Faith and healing were placed in the church for its edification and instruction to the end of time, and with pastors, teachers, helps and governments they continue still. They are given for service and the good of all rather than to glorify their possessors, and are received and kept effective by faithfulness, abiding in Christ, and dependence on God rather than human wisdom. Their right use requires meekness, humility, patience, forgiveness and loving one another as Christ loved, for without that love all activity is worthless.
Wording and Distribution
To another is given faith by the same Spirit, and to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit, as two distinct endowments from one Holy Spirit. These stand among the Spirit's gifts to the church, and every servant is promised some gift of the Spirit though believers do not all receive the same gifts. Each gift serves the one body, so no member is to treat another as unnecessary or to measure one gift against another. The gifts are entrusted for united service and work alongside other gifts, distributed as He wills and according to His own choice. They belong in the church for service and the good of all rather than to glorify their possessors, representing truth and helping others carry out their work, and when neglected God may revive them to encourage the fainthearted and to correct and reprove those who err.
The Spirit divides different gifts among different people as He wills, so believers do not all receive the same gift and no one person receives all gifts. God has set every member in the body as it pleased Him and placed every man at his post of duty with a given work, and all are not required to have the same gift. It is God's order that some shall be of service in one line of work and others in other lines, all working under the selfsame Spirit for the good of the whole body. God's plan is unity in diversity with different kinds of work rather than the same work for everyone, bringing different operations into perfect harmony under the Master-worker who knows what each one should do. Recognizing this order guards against rivalry, pride, envy, contempt, carnal emulation, measuring one gift against another, and treating another member as unnecessary, and it strengthens unity and mutual love.
Faith and healing belong with the wider diversity of gifts worked by the same one and selfsame Spirit, including wisdom, knowledge, miracles, prophecy, discerning of spirits, tongues, and interpretation of tongues. Faith is one gift God gives to some workers as part of His distribution of different abilities for ministry, alongside wisdom, knowledge, speaking, writing, prayer, singing, and clear explanation of the word of God. Faith and healing are also among the best gifts to be earnestly coveted, along with the talent of speech and intellectual ability, good taste, skill, refinement, and true elevation that God uses in His work. Each gift becomes a power for God because He works with the laborer, and all who receive different gifts are to work together under the same Head, with diversity of gifts leading to diversity of operations by the same God. Coveting earnestly the best gifts does not mean seeking to be first, but striving earnestly for power to follow Christ's example as heralds of His gospel, first placing abilities under His jurisdiction with His presence as controlling power so the heart blending with Christ's heart is conformed in desires and practices to Christ's will.
The faith given is a living, working principle to be exercised, the faith that works by love and purifies the soul. Each gift is to be used in service to God, and its value comes not from human ability or appearance but from God working through the worker. Even a small gift can advance God's cause when its possessor has faith in Him, since Christ's church has a variety of gifts and each member has a distinct gift to use. Believers are to let faith and intelligence arouse into sanctified action, and those who have had light upon the Scriptures and advanced from light to greater light with the Holy Spirit shining upon the Word have no reason for uncertainty about truth or for going back to uncertain faith, for the foundation of God stands sure though doctrine however true is powerless to save without living faith in God.
One Body in Christ
The gifts of faith and of healing come from the same Spirit who gives different gifts to different members, and each gift serves the one body of Christ with its many members and different offices. No member is self-sufficient, for two members do not act the same part, and all are closely related as parts of a great whole that cannot become detached and independent. Jesus is the center, source of life and power pervading the whole, and the Head in whom the body is headed and centered. The diversity reaches in destined order from the highest angel down to finite mortals, each to fill a proper place according to ability and to promote the happiness of all, so that each is a necessity to the welfare of the other and one servant's strength need not be another's. This diversity meets varied needs and minds, with the manifestation of the Spirit given to every person for profit and divided to each severally as the Spirit wills.
Because members do not all act the same part, no member may say to another that there is no need of them, and differences in gifts give no ground for measuring one gift by another. Among members there is to be no crowding, no judging, no pulling down, and no despising or envying of another's gifts and work, but each is to use faithfully what has been entrusted. The gifts are assigned as God pleases for the good of the whole body, with some of service in one line of work and others in other lines, including teaching others to fit them for service, all working under the selfsame Spirit. Recognizing this order guards against carnal emulation, rivalry, pride, envy, and contempt, and strengthens unity and mutual love.
God's plan is unity in diversity, with different kinds of work rather than the same work for everyone, and different operations brought into perfect harmony under one Master-worker who knows what each should do. Faith by the Spirit and healing by the Spirit belong with wisdom, knowledge, miracles, prophecy, discerning of spirits, tongues, and interpretation, all worked by one and the selfsame Spirit and entrusted for service alongside one another as the Spirit distributes as He wills. Perfect unity must exist in the diversity, with all guided and controlled by the same Spirit and contributing to the church's united work. Different gifts are precious in their proper places, no one person has all the wisdom or ability to manage the work alone or to claim an exclusive field, and those with humble, teachable spirits can work together even when views and plans differ. Ministry and medical missionary work are therefore not to be haphazard but ordered by this understanding, with different workers communicating truth in different ways yet united in love without dissimulation, kindly affectioned and preferring one another.
The chapter sets forth simple organization and church order ordained for the unity and perfection of the church, in which God has set every member in the body as it pleased Him and placed every person at a post of duty with an individual work and given work in the great whole. God gives diversities of gifts and to every person moral and spiritual capital to be appreciated and traded upon, with none accountable for talents never received and none to complain of smallness but each to work where able in connection with fellow laborers. No one receives all gifts, and no one is to work out a problem of private invention in raising means, supporting schools, or sustaining the ministry, but each has liberty of expression blended in pledged union, earnest prayer, and love so that unity in diverse expression makes a complete whole. One holding office stands as leader, adviser, counselor, helper in bearing burdens, and leader in thanksgiving, but is not appointed to order and command fellow laborers with kingly authority, for the Lord is over His heritage and will lead His people, and those carrying responsibility are to treat others with the consideration they would wish to receive.
The figure of the members composing the body represents the church and the relation its members should sustain to one another, and the subjects given in 1 Corinthians 12 and 13 should be committed to memory and written in mind and heart. Those brought together in church capacity who consider them understandingly and intelligently will be united, and the instruction of chapter 12 is to be read alongside the teaching on love in chapter 13 in addressing divisions. It is God's message showing unceasing tenderness and calling believers to reveal the same tenderness in counsel by speaking good words to help and strengthen brethren instead of standing apart in self-confidence to criticize and condemn, uniting in service as genuine Christians true to faith and duty and jealously guarding one another's interests even when mistakes are made. The portion must be studied and applied for continual humbling of self, beginning with self-examination and denying self and taking up the cross of self-denial, self-humiliation, and self-sacrifice rather than laying it on another. That teaching should have more weight when believers are tried and tested, shutting them in with the Lord of heaven so the wicked one has no power over them.
Continuance Through Time
Faith and the gifts of healing were placed in the church for its edification and instruction to the end of time, fulfilling the promise of Christ to send the Holy Spirit as Comforter and guide to lead into all truth. The same gifts of the Spirit given to the apostles continue to workers in this age, each laborer given his own place in the work according to his gift. Once that place is found, the laborer should stay in the appointed work and not step out to take other duties that would interfere with it.
Faith, healing, and prophecy were set in the church at the beginning together with pastors, teachers, helps, governments, and the rest named to the Corinthians and Ephesians. All were equally set in the church at the beginning, so since pastors, teachers, helps and governments are still acknowledged as continuing, faith, healing and prophecy continue also. No one is competent to draw a line keeping some and setting others out.
The gift of prophecy is an endowment of the church given through the Holy Spirit, by which things to come are shown to Christ's followers. Faith and healing are given by the same Spirit, with prophecy named in the following verse among the gifts in the church, and God distributes them among members as He chooses rather than exercising them through every individual. When even one member receives a gift the church has that gift, so the gift of prophecy can be present through one or more members, and the last generation is described as having the testimony of Jesus identified with the gift of prophecy. The gifts of the Spirit are to be manifested in the church in the last days, and in connection with the work of the third angel's message the Lord through the Spirit of prophecy communicates to His people a knowledge of His will, giving light in warnings, reproofs, and encouragement. Making it known that this light did not originate with human minds arrests the attention of a large class who believe in the manifestation of the gifts, convicts and converts, impresses many, and reaches those who would not otherwise be reached, while concealing that fact to make truth received more readily is mere human reasoning from hearts and minds not receiving the Spirit of divine grace.
Faith and gifts of healing belong in the church by the same Spirit, and when they have been neglected God may revive them to encourage the fainthearted and to correct and reprove those who err. The same Spirit still gives the gifts of healing to believers when they go apart with the sick, anoint with oil, and pray over them, and God hears and heals every whit, whether slow fever in an adult or severe sickness in a child, with the power of God falling so that the healed falls prostrate. Teaching on the gifts of the Spirit belongs where the church is sickly and has lost power, calling for wrongs to be confessed, prejudice and division to be put away, and sweet union and love to be restored.
The gifts of the church are genuine operations of God's Spirit, and after leading people into fanaticism Satan may push them to the opposite extreme of denying the Spirit's gifts, which is a danger. The gifts and the Spirit's operations should not be dismissed because false visions, fanaticism, mesmerism, or other deceptive imitations have led people to doubt them. Gifts given by the Spirit are distinguished from counterfeit practices, for unintelligible speech, noisy excitement, and other exercises manufactured by people are not gifts God has placed in the church, and such claims are tested by their fruits, not by the intensity of the feelings they produce.
Gifts are placed in the church for its benefit, and visions are one of these gifts intended to strengthen the church. Opposition to them can endanger others.
Receiving Gifts Faithfully
Gifts of the Spirit are not effective apart from the Spirit's presence, for learning, talent, eloquence and every other natural ability cannot by themselves touch hearts or bring sinners to Christ. When even the poorest and least educated disciples, the poor and illiterate, are connected with Christ and have the Spirit's gifts, God can work through them with powerful influence upon hearts, and His wisdom and power in giving different gifts are revealed in the humble, devoted worker who lives his religion as truly as in the labors of the talented and eloquent minister. God employs human agencies to cooperate with Him in His work for the salvation of men, giving a variety of agencies with different gifts who are to cooperate harmoniously, each filling his own God-given sphere of action. Faith and the other gifts are given not for judging fellow men but for working for their salvation by showing what the Lord has done in the transformation of character, so that faith, sympathy, forbearance, love, gentleness and temperance in all things shine as a light in a dark place.
Faith and the gifts of healing are given by the same Holy Spirit, and these are among the Spirit's gifts to the church; believers do not all receive the same gifts, but every servant of Christ is promised some gift of the Spirit. To every person God entrusts certain gifts according to His wise purpose, since all are not constituted alike, and members of the church are not expected to have the same abilities or reach the same level of training, for God has work for each person who is willing to serve humbly and trust in Him. No teacher, physician or minister can ever be a complete whole in himself, for God ordained men to be associated in His service so the varied talents of many minds may be blended, mind quickening mind and increasing capability, with the deficiencies of one laborer made up by the special gifts of another. When physicians and teachers thus unite in imparting their knowledge, the youth under their training receive a symmetrical, well-balanced education for service. The God who made the world and guards the interest of every soul gives diversities of gifts, giving to every man his own work so that all are laborers together with Him, and every person holds moral and spiritual capital entrusted by God that should be appreciated and never treated with indifference. No one is accountable for talents he never received and none should complain about the smallness of his gifts, but everyone must trade upon what God has entrusted to him, working where he can and doing the best possible service for the Master, appreciating and rightly using every God-given endowment.
The gifts differ, but God works through them all, and faith is a gift given by God to one worker among many different workers, each gift to be used in service of God with all working together under one Head. Faith and the gifts of healing are distinct gifts given by the same Spirit to different people, given for service and not to glorify their possessors, to be used for the good of all by representing the truth and helping others carry out their work. The Holy Spirit thus equips people for service, qualifying consecrated workers for the responsibilities they bear. God graciously bestows varied gifts, including faith and healing, upon His believing servants for the promotion of His kingdom, and every endowment is bestowed for the holiness and happiness of those united with the great Master-Worker in preparing a people to stand in the day of the Lord. These gifts lay believers under obligation to be meek and lowly in heart, patient under trial, willing to forgive injuries, and determined to preserve the unity and harmony God declares should exist among His people. Their purpose is to make believers laborers together with Christ in perfecting a Christian character, bringing the experience of the joys of salvation with His joy remaining and made full, and faith and healing are among the various gifts the same Spirit has placed in the church to be appreciated and used, with every professed son or daughter of God giving evidence of a heart impressed by the Holy Spirit and doing an appointed part in the grand finishing work of this earth's history. Right use of the gifts depends on communion with God, the sanctifying power of His grace on the human heart, submission to the will of God, and willingness to engage in the work He appoints, and a Spirit-impressed heart means everything to success in labor.
The best gifts, including faith and healing together with the talent of speech and intellectual ability, good taste, skill, refinement and true elevation that God uses in His work, are to be earnestly coveted. They must first be placed under His jurisdiction with the Lord's presence as a controlling power, so that the heart blending with the heart of Christ is conformed in desires and practices to the will of Christ. Coveting earnestly the best gifts does not mean seeking to be first, but striving earnestly for power to follow Christ's example to be heralds of His gospel, which is true religion, walking straight forward in His blessed, holy light despite temptations and suspicion and evil surmising that make it hard to preserve the spirit of the higher life. Gifts are not the same for everyone and are given by God, not created by those who receive them, and they are to be used for God's glory without pride or self-credit. They are received by being faithful to the grace given, continuing in His love, and abiding in Christ as the branch abides in the vine, and their recipients depend on God's power through faith to remain faithful and effective rather than on their own ability or wisdom, uniting their efforts and faith in prayer and counsel.
The gifts of healing are still by the same Spirit, and no human agency works the miracle. Earnest prayer for the sick with laying on of hands in the name of the Lord and anointing with oil brings healing when the Holy Spirit works the miracle in answer to prayer, raising the sick up often from a hopeless condition in multiplied, wonderful cases. The human agent only calls upon Christ the miracle worker, and He answers in a remarkable manner, raising up from severe illness and even bringing back from death to life, filling the room with the light of His Spirit, sometimes prostrating those touched by the power of God while their hearts and lips are filled with praise and glorify God. Whether slow fever in an adult or severe sickness in a child, God hears and heals every whit when believers go apart with the sick, anoint with oil, and pray over them, with the power of God falling so that the healed falls prostrate. Teaching on the gifts of the Spirit belongs where the church is sickly and has lost power, calling for wrongs to be confessed, prejudice and division to be put away, and sweet union and love to be restored.
Working Together in Ministry
No single worker is complete in himself or able to carry the whole work alone by personal gift and method, for the Spirit distributes varied gifts and agencies so that no one mind molds the work after special ideas. What one cannot accomplish another may supply, each filling a God-given sphere and making up the deficiency of a fellow worker who left alone would think himself a complete whole. This requires harmonious cooperation in proper places with humble, teachable spirits, where those of careful thought check exaggerated action and steady counsel guards against both hasty excess and slow delay that loses precious time. The church itself is to be encouraged to work and educated to bear responsibilities, which lifts burdens from ministers and lengthens the life of the worker who cooperates with God.
Workers with varied gifts are to blend their capabilities in team service under Christ the Head, controlled by the same Spirit though talents differ in marked degree, each following his own line while looking to Jesus and revealing kindness and love. Mind quickens mind and capability increases when deficiencies of one are met by special gifts of another, as when physicians and teachers unite to impart knowledge so youth receive a symmetrical, well-balanced education for service. By different gifts truth is proclaimed to varied minds and one line completes another through counsel and influence, as steady mission work completes work that arouses slumbering senses. So for needs such as city camp meetings and large gatherings several of the very best workers are to be brought together, each doing his part in proclaiming truth in the Spirit's power including teaching of health principles, with no one claiming prerogative to do all the important work.
It is God's order that some serve in one line of work and others in other lines, all for the good of the whole body under the selfsame Spirit who bestows one gift upon one person and another upon another as He pleases. This includes teaching others to fit them for service, those so called going cheerfully to their field following divine leadings, with each laborer assigned a place and work. Once found, that appointed place is to be kept without stepping out to take other duties that interfere with it, for one line makes another more complete rather than competing with it. Recognizing this plan guards against carnal emulation, pride, envy, and contempt and strengthens unity and mutual love.
Gifts are never to be used to separate believers, form parties under different heads, control another's judgment, or exercise presumptuous human authority that forbids work God has bidden. No one's gift or judgment gives right to rule conscience, gain experience for another, or arbitrarily say you shall not do this or you must do that. Where gifts are used to divide, reformation is needed, dissension born of narrow unsanctified conceptions must be investigated and called by its right name, and the voice of rebuke lifted against rulership over God's heritage.
True unity respects the individuality God has given, for the Spirit works through each person's own mind and no one has all the light. God forms heart and mind to opinions of their own, so each is to use God-given judgment and conscience, form and express opinions, and share and receive counsel rather than wholly relying on another's plans or becoming an echo of another's thoughts, words, and manners. No one is to work another's mind as a machine, submerge identity in himself, or sustain all his own ideas as infallible, for that does not raise a person in God's estimation nor truly help him. Room is therefore to be made for workers and students to develop and serve according to talents given them, which is of greatest value in laboring for perishing souls.
Right use of diverse gifts requires love without dissimulation, being kindly affectioned and preferring one another, loving one another as Christ loved which reaches beyond loving a neighbor as self and is the perfection of Christian character. Gifts lay obligation to be meek and lowly in heart, patient under trial, willing to forgive injuries, and determined to preserve unity and harmony for holiness, happiness, and preparation of a people to stand in the day of the Lord. Ministry and medical missionary work ordered by this understanding, with different workers communicating truth in different ways yet united, is of vital importance now above all other times. Without that love activity and much work are worthless and the candlestick will be removed, while neglect brings discord and strife, dishonors God, withholds the power He would impart, and hinders His desire to glorify His name before the world and the heavenly universe.
Faith and the gifts of healing are two distinct gifts given by the same Holy Spirit, who divides different gifts among different people as He wills so that believers do not all receive the same gift. The different gifts serve one body of Christ with many members and different offices, where no member is self-sufficient and none may say to another that there is no need of them. God's plan is unity in diversity, with different operations brought into perfect harmony under one Master-worker and all working under the selfsame Spirit. Faith and healing were placed in the church for its edification and instruction to the end of time, and with pastors, teachers, helps and governments they continue still. They are given for service and the good of all rather than to glorify their possessors, and are received and kept effective by faithfulness, abiding in Christ, and dependence on God rather than human wisdom. Their right use requires meekness, humility, patience, forgiveness and loving one another as Christ loved, for without that love all activity is worthless.
Wording and Distribution
To another is given faith by the same Spirit, and to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit, as two distinct endowments from one Holy Spirit. These stand among the Spirit's gifts to the church, and every servant is promised some gift of the Spirit though believers do not all receive the same gifts. Each gift serves the one body, so no member is to treat another as unnecessary or to measure one gift against another. The gifts are entrusted for united service and work alongside other gifts, distributed as He wills and according to His own choice. They belong in the church for service and the good of all rather than to glorify their possessors, representing truth and helping others carry out their work, and when neglected God may revive them to encourage the fainthearted and to correct and reprove those who err.
The Spirit divides different gifts among different people as He wills, so believers do not all receive the same gift and no one person receives all gifts. God has set every member in the body as it pleased Him and placed every man at his post of duty with a given work, and all are not required to have the same gift. It is God's order that some shall be of service in one line of work and others in other lines, all working under the selfsame Spirit for the good of the whole body. God's plan is unity in diversity with different kinds of work rather than the same work for everyone, bringing different operations into perfect harmony under the Master-worker who knows what each one should do. Recognizing this order guards against rivalry, pride, envy, contempt, carnal emulation, measuring one gift against another, and treating another member as unnecessary, and it strengthens unity and mutual love.
Faith and healing belong with the wider diversity of gifts worked by the same one and selfsame Spirit, including wisdom, knowledge, miracles, prophecy, discerning of spirits, tongues, and interpretation of tongues. Faith is one gift God gives to some workers as part of His distribution of different abilities for ministry, alongside wisdom, knowledge, speaking, writing, prayer, singing, and clear explanation of the word of God. Faith and healing are also among the best gifts to be earnestly coveted, along with the talent of speech and intellectual ability, good taste, skill, refinement, and true elevation that God uses in His work. Each gift becomes a power for God because He works with the laborer, and all who receive different gifts are to work together under the same Head, with diversity of gifts leading to diversity of operations by the same God. Coveting earnestly the best gifts does not mean seeking to be first, but striving earnestly for power to follow Christ's example as heralds of His gospel, first placing abilities under His jurisdiction with His presence as controlling power so the heart blending with Christ's heart is conformed in desires and practices to Christ's will.
The faith given is a living, working principle to be exercised, the faith that works by love and purifies the soul. Each gift is to be used in service to God, and its value comes not from human ability or appearance but from God working through the worker. Even a small gift can advance God's cause when its possessor has faith in Him, since Christ's church has a variety of gifts and each member has a distinct gift to use. Believers are to let faith and intelligence arouse into sanctified action, and those who have had light upon the Scriptures and advanced from light to greater light with the Holy Spirit shining upon the Word have no reason for uncertainty about truth or for going back to uncertain faith, for the foundation of God stands sure though doctrine however true is powerless to save without living faith in God.
One Body in Christ
The gifts of faith and of healing come from the same Spirit who gives different gifts to different members, and each gift serves the one body of Christ with its many members and different offices. No member is self-sufficient, for two members do not act the same part, and all are closely related as parts of a great whole that cannot become detached and independent. Jesus is the center, source of life and power pervading the whole, and the Head in whom the body is headed and centered. The diversity reaches in destined order from the highest angel down to finite mortals, each to fill a proper place according to ability and to promote the happiness of all, so that each is a necessity to the welfare of the other and one servant's strength need not be another's. This diversity meets varied needs and minds, with the manifestation of the Spirit given to every person for profit and divided to each severally as the Spirit wills.
Because members do not all act the same part, no member may say to another that there is no need of them, and differences in gifts give no ground for measuring one gift by another. Among members there is to be no crowding, no judging, no pulling down, and no despising or envying of another's gifts and work, but each is to use faithfully what has been entrusted. The gifts are assigned as God pleases for the good of the whole body, with some of service in one line of work and others in other lines, including teaching others to fit them for service, all working under the selfsame Spirit. Recognizing this order guards against carnal emulation, rivalry, pride, envy, and contempt, and strengthens unity and mutual love.
God's plan is unity in diversity, with different kinds of work rather than the same work for everyone, and different operations brought into perfect harmony under one Master-worker who knows what each should do. Faith by the Spirit and healing by the Spirit belong with wisdom, knowledge, miracles, prophecy, discerning of spirits, tongues, and interpretation, all worked by one and the selfsame Spirit and entrusted for service alongside one another as the Spirit distributes as He wills. Perfect unity must exist in the diversity, with all guided and controlled by the same Spirit and contributing to the church's united work. Different gifts are precious in their proper places, no one person has all the wisdom or ability to manage the work alone or to claim an exclusive field, and those with humble, teachable spirits can work together even when views and plans differ. Ministry and medical missionary work are therefore not to be haphazard but ordered by this understanding, with different workers communicating truth in different ways yet united in love without dissimulation, kindly affectioned and preferring one another.
The chapter sets forth simple organization and church order ordained for the unity and perfection of the church, in which God has set every member in the body as it pleased Him and placed every person at a post of duty with an individual work and given work in the great whole. God gives diversities of gifts and to every person moral and spiritual capital to be appreciated and traded upon, with none accountable for talents never received and none to complain of smallness but each to work where able in connection with fellow laborers. No one receives all gifts, and no one is to work out a problem of private invention in raising means, supporting schools, or sustaining the ministry, but each has liberty of expression blended in pledged union, earnest prayer, and love so that unity in diverse expression makes a complete whole. One holding office stands as leader, adviser, counselor, helper in bearing burdens, and leader in thanksgiving, but is not appointed to order and command fellow laborers with kingly authority, for the Lord is over His heritage and will lead His people, and those carrying responsibility are to treat others with the consideration they would wish to receive.
The figure of the members composing the body represents the church and the relation its members should sustain to one another, and the subjects given in 1 Corinthians 12 and 13 should be committed to memory and written in mind and heart. Those brought together in church capacity who consider them understandingly and intelligently will be united, and the instruction of chapter 12 is to be read alongside the teaching on love in chapter 13 in addressing divisions. It is God's message showing unceasing tenderness and calling believers to reveal the same tenderness in counsel by speaking good words to help and strengthen brethren instead of standing apart in self-confidence to criticize and condemn, uniting in service as genuine Christians true to faith and duty and jealously guarding one another's interests even when mistakes are made. The portion must be studied and applied for continual humbling of self, beginning with self-examination and denying self and taking up the cross of self-denial, self-humiliation, and self-sacrifice rather than laying it on another. That teaching should have more weight when believers are tried and tested, shutting them in with the Lord of heaven so the wicked one has no power over them.
Continuance Through Time
Faith and the gifts of healing were placed in the church for its edification and instruction to the end of time, fulfilling the promise of Christ to send the Holy Spirit as Comforter and guide to lead into all truth. The same gifts of the Spirit given to the apostles continue to workers in this age, each laborer given his own place in the work according to his gift. Once that place is found, the laborer should stay in the appointed work and not step out to take other duties that would interfere with it.
Faith, healing, and prophecy were set in the church at the beginning together with pastors, teachers, helps, governments, and the rest named to the Corinthians and Ephesians. All were equally set in the church at the beginning, so since pastors, teachers, helps and governments are still acknowledged as continuing, faith, healing and prophecy continue also. No one is competent to draw a line keeping some and setting others out.
The gift of prophecy is an endowment of the church given through the Holy Spirit, by which things to come are shown to Christ's followers. Faith and healing are given by the same Spirit, with prophecy named in the following verse among the gifts in the church, and God distributes them among members as He chooses rather than exercising them through every individual. When even one member receives a gift the church has that gift, so the gift of prophecy can be present through one or more members, and the last generation is described as having the testimony of Jesus identified with the gift of prophecy. The gifts of the Spirit are to be manifested in the church in the last days, and in connection with the work of the third angel's message the Lord through the Spirit of prophecy communicates to His people a knowledge of His will, giving light in warnings, reproofs, and encouragement. Making it known that this light did not originate with human minds arrests the attention of a large class who believe in the manifestation of the gifts, convicts and converts, impresses many, and reaches those who would not otherwise be reached, while concealing that fact to make truth received more readily is mere human reasoning from hearts and minds not receiving the Spirit of divine grace.
Faith and gifts of healing belong in the church by the same Spirit, and when they have been neglected God may revive them to encourage the fainthearted and to correct and reprove those who err. The same Spirit still gives the gifts of healing to believers when they go apart with the sick, anoint with oil, and pray over them, and God hears and heals every whit, whether slow fever in an adult or severe sickness in a child, with the power of God falling so that the healed falls prostrate. Teaching on the gifts of the Spirit belongs where the church is sickly and has lost power, calling for wrongs to be confessed, prejudice and division to be put away, and sweet union and love to be restored.
The gifts of the church are genuine operations of God's Spirit, and after leading people into fanaticism Satan may push them to the opposite extreme of denying the Spirit's gifts, which is a danger. The gifts and the Spirit's operations should not be dismissed because false visions, fanaticism, mesmerism, or other deceptive imitations have led people to doubt them. Gifts given by the Spirit are distinguished from counterfeit practices, for unintelligible speech, noisy excitement, and other exercises manufactured by people are not gifts God has placed in the church, and such claims are tested by their fruits, not by the intensity of the feelings they produce.
Gifts are placed in the church for its benefit, and visions are one of these gifts intended to strengthen the church. Opposition to them can endanger others.
Receiving Gifts Faithfully
Gifts of the Spirit are not effective apart from the Spirit's presence, for learning, talent, eloquence and every other natural ability cannot by themselves touch hearts or bring sinners to Christ. When even the poorest and least educated disciples, the poor and illiterate, are connected with Christ and have the Spirit's gifts, God can work through them with powerful influence upon hearts, and His wisdom and power in giving different gifts are revealed in the humble, devoted worker who lives his religion as truly as in the labors of the talented and eloquent minister. God employs human agencies to cooperate with Him in His work for the salvation of men, giving a variety of agencies with different gifts who are to cooperate harmoniously, each filling his own God-given sphere of action. Faith and the other gifts are given not for judging fellow men but for working for their salvation by showing what the Lord has done in the transformation of character, so that faith, sympathy, forbearance, love, gentleness and temperance in all things shine as a light in a dark place.
Faith and the gifts of healing are given by the same Holy Spirit, and these are among the Spirit's gifts to the church; believers do not all receive the same gifts, but every servant of Christ is promised some gift of the Spirit. To every person God entrusts certain gifts according to His wise purpose, since all are not constituted alike, and members of the church are not expected to have the same abilities or reach the same level of training, for God has work for each person who is willing to serve humbly and trust in Him. No teacher, physician or minister can ever be a complete whole in himself, for God ordained men to be associated in His service so the varied talents of many minds may be blended, mind quickening mind and increasing capability, with the deficiencies of one laborer made up by the special gifts of another. When physicians and teachers thus unite in imparting their knowledge, the youth under their training receive a symmetrical, well-balanced education for service. The God who made the world and guards the interest of every soul gives diversities of gifts, giving to every man his own work so that all are laborers together with Him, and every person holds moral and spiritual capital entrusted by God that should be appreciated and never treated with indifference. No one is accountable for talents he never received and none should complain about the smallness of his gifts, but everyone must trade upon what God has entrusted to him, working where he can and doing the best possible service for the Master, appreciating and rightly using every God-given endowment.
The gifts differ, but God works through them all, and faith is a gift given by God to one worker among many different workers, each gift to be used in service of God with all working together under one Head. Faith and the gifts of healing are distinct gifts given by the same Spirit to different people, given for service and not to glorify their possessors, to be used for the good of all by representing the truth and helping others carry out their work. The Holy Spirit thus equips people for service, qualifying consecrated workers for the responsibilities they bear. God graciously bestows varied gifts, including faith and healing, upon His believing servants for the promotion of His kingdom, and every endowment is bestowed for the holiness and happiness of those united with the great Master-Worker in preparing a people to stand in the day of the Lord. These gifts lay believers under obligation to be meek and lowly in heart, patient under trial, willing to forgive injuries, and determined to preserve the unity and harmony God declares should exist among His people. Their purpose is to make believers laborers together with Christ in perfecting a Christian character, bringing the experience of the joys of salvation with His joy remaining and made full, and faith and healing are among the various gifts the same Spirit has placed in the church to be appreciated and used, with every professed son or daughter of God giving evidence of a heart impressed by the Holy Spirit and doing an appointed part in the grand finishing work of this earth's history. Right use of the gifts depends on communion with God, the sanctifying power of His grace on the human heart, submission to the will of God, and willingness to engage in the work He appoints, and a Spirit-impressed heart means everything to success in labor.
The best gifts, including faith and healing together with the talent of speech and intellectual ability, good taste, skill, refinement and true elevation that God uses in His work, are to be earnestly coveted. They must first be placed under His jurisdiction with the Lord's presence as a controlling power, so that the heart blending with the heart of Christ is conformed in desires and practices to the will of Christ. Coveting earnestly the best gifts does not mean seeking to be first, but striving earnestly for power to follow Christ's example to be heralds of His gospel, which is true religion, walking straight forward in His blessed, holy light despite temptations and suspicion and evil surmising that make it hard to preserve the spirit of the higher life. Gifts are not the same for everyone and are given by God, not created by those who receive them, and they are to be used for God's glory without pride or self-credit. They are received by being faithful to the grace given, continuing in His love, and abiding in Christ as the branch abides in the vine, and their recipients depend on God's power through faith to remain faithful and effective rather than on their own ability or wisdom, uniting their efforts and faith in prayer and counsel.
The gifts of healing are still by the same Spirit, and no human agency works the miracle. Earnest prayer for the sick with laying on of hands in the name of the Lord and anointing with oil brings healing when the Holy Spirit works the miracle in answer to prayer, raising the sick up often from a hopeless condition in multiplied, wonderful cases. The human agent only calls upon Christ the miracle worker, and He answers in a remarkable manner, raising up from severe illness and even bringing back from death to life, filling the room with the light of His Spirit, sometimes prostrating those touched by the power of God while their hearts and lips are filled with praise and glorify God. Whether slow fever in an adult or severe sickness in a child, God hears and heals every whit when believers go apart with the sick, anoint with oil, and pray over them, with the power of God falling so that the healed falls prostrate. Teaching on the gifts of the Spirit belongs where the church is sickly and has lost power, calling for wrongs to be confessed, prejudice and division to be put away, and sweet union and love to be restored.
Working Together in Ministry
No single worker is complete in himself or able to carry the whole work alone by personal gift and method, for the Spirit distributes varied gifts and agencies so that no one mind molds the work after special ideas. What one cannot accomplish another may supply, each filling a God-given sphere and making up the deficiency of a fellow worker who left alone would think himself a complete whole. This requires harmonious cooperation in proper places with humble, teachable spirits, where those of careful thought check exaggerated action and steady counsel guards against both hasty excess and slow delay that loses precious time. The church itself is to be encouraged to work and educated to bear responsibilities, which lifts burdens from ministers and lengthens the life of the worker who cooperates with God.
Workers with varied gifts are to blend their capabilities in team service under Christ the Head, controlled by the same Spirit though talents differ in marked degree, each following his own line while looking to Jesus and revealing kindness and love. Mind quickens mind and capability increases when deficiencies of one are met by special gifts of another, as when physicians and teachers unite to impart knowledge so youth receive a symmetrical, well-balanced education for service. By different gifts truth is proclaimed to varied minds and one line completes another through counsel and influence, as steady mission work completes work that arouses slumbering senses. So for needs such as city camp meetings and large gatherings several of the very best workers are to be brought together, each doing his part in proclaiming truth in the Spirit's power including teaching of health principles, with no one claiming prerogative to do all the important work.
It is God's order that some serve in one line of work and others in other lines, all for the good of the whole body under the selfsame Spirit who bestows one gift upon one person and another upon another as He pleases. This includes teaching others to fit them for service, those so called going cheerfully to their field following divine leadings, with each laborer assigned a place and work. Once found, that appointed place is to be kept without stepping out to take other duties that interfere with it, for one line makes another more complete rather than competing with it. Recognizing this plan guards against carnal emulation, pride, envy, and contempt and strengthens unity and mutual love.
Gifts are never to be used to separate believers, form parties under different heads, control another's judgment, or exercise presumptuous human authority that forbids work God has bidden. No one's gift or judgment gives right to rule conscience, gain experience for another, or arbitrarily say you shall not do this or you must do that. Where gifts are used to divide, reformation is needed, dissension born of narrow unsanctified conceptions must be investigated and called by its right name, and the voice of rebuke lifted against rulership over God's heritage.
True unity respects the individuality God has given, for the Spirit works through each person's own mind and no one has all the light. God forms heart and mind to opinions of their own, so each is to use God-given judgment and conscience, form and express opinions, and share and receive counsel rather than wholly relying on another's plans or becoming an echo of another's thoughts, words, and manners. No one is to work another's mind as a machine, submerge identity in himself, or sustain all his own ideas as infallible, for that does not raise a person in God's estimation nor truly help him. Room is therefore to be made for workers and students to develop and serve according to talents given them, which is of greatest value in laboring for perishing souls.
Right use of diverse gifts requires love without dissimulation, being kindly affectioned and preferring one another, loving one another as Christ loved which reaches beyond loving a neighbor as self and is the perfection of Christian character. Gifts lay obligation to be meek and lowly in heart, patient under trial, willing to forgive injuries, and determined to preserve unity and harmony for holiness, happiness, and preparation of a people to stand in the day of the Lord. Ministry and medical missionary work ordered by this understanding, with different workers communicating truth in different ways yet united, is of vital importance now above all other times. Without that love activity and much work are worthless and the candlestick will be removed, while neglect brings discord and strife, dishonors God, withholds the power He would impart, and hinders His desire to glorify His name before the world and the heavenly universe.