What are your thoughts about spiritual gifts nowadays?

This text is from a transcript of a talk by David Gooding, entitled ‘The Conduct and Activity of the Church’ (1969).

Well, that is somewhat a long story. I might be allowed to do that very briefly. On spiritual gifts, I take Paul's arguments in 1 Corinthians 12–14 to be a whole, if you like. To briefly summarize, they are this.

Source of the gifts

Spiritual gifts are given us by the Lord through the Holy Spirit. The first three verses of chapter 12 tell us that they must be tested. The test is whether they acknowledge the Lordship and divinity of Christ.

Diversity of the gifts

Now, there are varieties of gifts (1 Corinthians 12:4–11) but it's the same Spirit working and distributing to each one as he chooses. There, I think, we should notice that while some gifts evidence themselves in what you might call miraculous performances—healings and so on—they are no more spiritual than gifts which manifest themselves in what you might regard as pedestrian in operation, such as slogging away at teaching.

Practical value of the gifts

Then comes a paragraph, fairly typically Pauline, from verse 12 onwards. I say typically Pauline because you may have noticed Paul's method of argument elsewhere. Where he has an abuse to correct, he will go as far as he can honestly go in sympathy with that point of view, but by the time he's finished, he's writing the opposite extreme. Wise man, was Paul! Here he starts off by saying it doesn't matter what gift there is: they are all necessary and you cannot afford to say that you don't need the other chap's gift. (Some people hold the view that some gifts, notably the miraculous ones that were for signs, finished upon the completion of the canon of Scripture. Now, for argument's sake, let's leave that out for the moment: we're dealing here with a period before the canon was complete anyway and all these various gifts were still around the place.) Paul says, 'Look, you can't afford to say I don't need any one. They are all necessary.' Even the most insignificant ones are necessary. And in addition, he comforts the hearts of the inferiority complex and he puts the superiority complex in their proper position by pointing out how they are divinely appointed, just like the position of the organs in our body. Then he says, 'Of course, there are different gifts but they are not all equally useful.'

The motivation of the gifts

He's going to make that point at the end of chapter 12, when he steps aside to show what is to be the major issue in all the operation of gift. If gift is going to be proper, edifying and helpful in the church, it must be motivated by love. Otherwise, it becomes just a performance. And love, in this context of course, is love to my fellow man and in particular to my fellow Christians in the church.

Edification from the gifts

Therefore, when he comes to chapter 14, he urges upon us that we seek spiritual gifts but particularly, and here becomes the change of the emphasis, particularly those gifts that provide edification for the church. The more love, the more will be the desire to edify. Now, go for prophecy, he says, because prophecy is a communication that people can understand. Whereas if in the church you speak, say, in tongues, except there's an interpreter there, nobody understands what you're saying and it isn't, therefore, an exhibition of love. You are not communicating, to use that modern word. You are not helping anybody. The rest are not edified. Bear it in mind when you get up to pray. Despite all exhortations to the contrary, it is your responsibility so to pray that by the time you've finished you've edified your brethren. Some people say you shouldn't pray like that: you should be talking just to God. Well, you should be talking to God, but your brethren are meant to be edified when you've finished.

So the number one consideration is that love must control these gifts, and in practical terms that would mean you must in the church speak in a known tongue so that the people can be edified, or if you speak in tongues there must be an interpreter so they can be edified. Otherwise, it is useless to the church.

Intellect and the gifts

Then he comes down to the next paragraph (1 Corinthians 14:13) for another consideration. Not only must it be useful to the church and understood by the church, but consider the relation of spirit and intellect. You may say, 'Well, if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays' (1 Corinthians 14:14). So it does, your spirit prays, but your intellect is unfruitful. Is that a more profitable situation than praying with your intellect? Paul phrases himself very forcibly in his Greek. 'I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also' (1 Corinthians 14:15). He doesn't mean, 'I will pray sometimes in the spirit and other times I will pray in understanding.' He's saying, 'I'll pray with my spirit but also (Greek: de kai) with my mind.' Then he adds, 'Please, when it comes to grey matter and the use thereof, don't be childish!' It is not a mark of spirituality to despise the intellect. If you can get the intellect working as well as your spirit, it is always preferable. And if that is so in private, how much more so in the church.

Public perception of the gifts

Then there is the question of the testimony and the possible dangers to the testimony of speaking in tongues in the church. Paul says that tongues are a sign to the unbeliever; prophecy a sign to the believer (1 Corinthians 14:20ff). Tongues are a sign to the unbeliever. We see that in evidence on the day of Pentecost. These Galilean fishermen got up and they started to talk and people from I don't know how many nations gathered around. First they thought they were drunk. Then one man who came from Parthia heard one apostle speaking in 'Parthigonian'; and another who came from Cappadocia heard him speak in his native tongue. These were obviously fishermen, so how did they know 'Parthigonian' or whatever? It was such a miracle as to call for some explanation, and of course being a sign, it gave Peter the opportunity to explain the story of the gospel. And if you can do that, my brother, my sister, do it as much as you can. If you, being English and knowing no Russian, can speak to a Russian in Russian, so he sees it's a miracle, speak it for all you're worth, so he enquires how you do it, and you're able to tell him about Christ.

But you being in Cambridge, here in Roseford Hall for instance, if you're all speaking in tongues and somebody comes in from the estate and doesn't understand a word you're saying, he'll say you're mad, says Paul. So please don't do it, because of the danger to the testimony.

'Prophecy' among the gifts

Prophecy, on the other hand, is a sign to the believer and yet, curiously enough, Paul says that if an unbeliever or outsider comes in and hears what is being said, he will be convicted and the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and he will worship God and recognize that God is really among you (see 1 Corinthians 14:24–25). How does that come about? Well, it seems to me that the answer is quite simple: I don't know!

Prophecy as distinct from teaching, is not merely a matter of God revealing New Testament truth, but those prophetic ministries in which God is not so much explaining the meaning of a particular passage, but God is speaking a word for a moment, that even the servant who speaks it doesn't know that it exactly fits a man's heart who happens to be there. So that it is evident to the man who's on the receiving end that this is of God. The chap who's speaking could not possibly know. I've known that happen many, many times in conventions that were set aside merely for teaching. I've known teaching to turn itself into a kind of a prophetic ministry. I have a dear friend who was going to a Christian convention. He was met at the railway station and rushed, post-haste, to a certain place where he was to preach. He got up and expounded the word of God in all innocence. When he sat down, the man who'd brought him from the railway station got up—shame-faced and confused—and said, 'I want all you local brethren to know that I didn't say anything to our brother.' It so fitted a certain, particular circumstance that the church would have thought there had been some collusion, somebody had been spilling the beans. The dear man was wanting to make sure that they knew he hadn't.

That kind of thing happens because it is the living Lord speaking a word right for the moment. He is all-knowing, and whether it be a Christian or someone unconverted, they sense that this is of God. I was told of an instance where there was a great gospel campaign in a tent, and one night there came a man who had been in the courts for murder. There was some deficiency in the evidence and he couldn't be convicted, but it seemed pretty obvious that, despite the legal technicality, he had murdered. The preacher, of course, didn't know him from Adam but in the middle of his gospel address he said, 'If you're a murderer, God can save you.' (He hadn't intended to say it, as he confessed to his brethren afterwards who took him to task for doing such an outlandish thing.) And he got so confused that he went and said it again, 'If you are a murderer, God can save you.' The brethren thought the man would be so outraged he'd do a few more murders. The preacher was entirely innocent.

The Lord's control of the gifts

I do think that that is an exceedingly solemn thing—to recognize that the living Lord still does control the use of the gifts he has given. And so, adding to my answer on spiritual gifts, in one extreme all are necessary. 'You mustn't forbid speaking in tongues, save only there's an interpreter if it's going to be done in the church' says Paul. But we must remember that we must always use them in love and for the building up of the church.