If someone gave you a golf driver for Christmas and you used it to hammer a nail into a wall, you wouldn’t be using your gift in the way it was intended. In the same way, believers can misuse the gifts God has given them. There are several ways Scripture addresses the use and misuse of spiritual gifts.
First, spiritual gifts must be attended with humility.
In Romans 12:3, Paul writes, “By the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.” This doesn’t mean that we are to walk around saying, “I’m a nobody who has nothing to offer anyone else.” In fact, that would be a denial of sober judgment about what God has given us. Instead, we’re not to draw undue attention to ourselves or think we’re more important than we are. “What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?” (1 Cor. 4:7). Wilhelmus à Brakel explains,
The graces, gifts, beauty, strength, riches, and whatever else you may have, God has but granted you on loan. Would you then put these on display as if they were your own? Therefore, consider yourself, and judge aright; you will then be small and insignificant in your eyes and not seek great things.
Humility is essential if we’re going to build others up with the gifts God has given us.
Second, the use of spiritual gifts must be accompanied by love.
Believers have frequently responded to the notion of spiritual gifts with misplaced enthusiasm for the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit while undervaluing the ordinary gifts of the Spirit. Paul’s treatment of spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12–14 deals with the problem of believers exalting one gift set above another in the church. Many were exalting the gift of tongues above the other extraordinary spiritual gifts of the apostolic era while failing to recognize the importance of the lasting ordinary gifts of the Spirit (1 Cor. 13:1–13). Love is the greatest of all the spiritual gifts of God (1 Cor. 13:13).
Third, Scripture calls believers to minister their spiritual gifts with zeal.
Paul writes,
Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness. (Rom. 12:6–8)
If someone has the gift of leading but leads reluctantly, the members of the body won’t benefit from this gift. If someone cares for those in need without cheerfulness, the recipients won’t sense the mercy supposedly behind the action.
Believers can get tired of serving. This is why Paul charged the members of the Galatian churches: “Let us not grow weary of doing good. . . . So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith” (Gal. 6:9–10). Zeal and diligence in using spiritual gifts for the benefit of others is a vital accompanying grace.
When spiritual gifts are attended to with love, humility, and zeal, the members of the body of Christ will reap the maximum benefit from them. When believers are blessed in the execution of these gifts, a reciprocal joy will resound to the one ministering with his or her spiritual gift. Mutual joy, edification, and love result from this cooperative combination (Rom. 1:11–12).
God hasn’t given believers spiritual gifts to parade in pride, assert in lovelessness, or languish in idleness. Rather, he has supplied these diverse gifts for the mutual edification of his people. As we discern the gifts God has given us and are zealous to serve him in humility and love, the church will grow in love.
Footnotes
Wilhelmus à Brakel, The Christian’s Reasonable Service (vol. 4) (Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books, 1995), 75.
