The Christian’s Lifestyle: Our Gifts…

Ephesians 4:7…” But to each one of us grace(Greek charis) was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. ” …New King James Version

However, he has given each one of us a special gift[a] through the generosity of Christ.(Greek a grace.)New Living translation

The grace that is given (Greek charis) is a distribution by the Holy Spirit of gifts (same Greek word) to every believer …1 Corinthians 12:4-11…There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all. There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord. God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us. A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other. To one person the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advice(gives a word of wisdom.); to another the same Spirit gives a message of special knowledge(gives a word of knowledge.) The same Spirit gives great faith to another, and to someone else the one Spirit gives the gift of healing.10 He gives one person the power to perform miracles, and another the ability to prophesy. He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God or from another spirit. Still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages,(in various tongues) while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said.It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have.

Seventeen different gifts are listed in three New Testament passages (Romans 12:3-81 Corinthians 12:4-10Ephesians 4:11), all of them intended by the Holy Spirit to minister to the church and to enhance her unity (Romans 12:31 Corinthians 12:12Ephesians 4:12).

Three reasons are cited for these gifts (Ephesians 4:12).

“The perfecting of the saints” is a process that describes making something useful or suitable that is not yet adequate. James and John “mended” their nets (Matthew 4:21). And Paul prayed that he might supply that which was “lacking” (1 Thessalonians 3:10). So, the gifts of the Holy Spirit mend that which is lacking in the saints. The work of the ministry is a joint effort of service (2 Corinthians 6:1) that recognizes the public visibility of that service (2 Corinthians 4:1-2) and steadfastly displays those gifts so that the “ministry be not blamed” (2 Corinthians 6:3). The edifying of the body of Christ focuses the use of the gifts on the enrichment and betterment of the local assembly of believers (1 Corinthians 14:5, 12, 26).

The goal is to bring all (the saints) to a state of doctrinal unity (the faith) so that our maturity can be compared to the fullness of Christ (Ephesians 4:13), eliminating susceptibility to “every wind of doctrine,” growing up into Him in all things, and building the “body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love” (Ephesians 4:14-16).