There Is A Difference Between The Fruit Of The Spirit And The Gifts Of The Spirit

And those who are Christ's

have crucified the flesh

with its passions and desires.

If we live in the Spirit, 

let us also walk

in the Spirit.

let us not become 

conceited, provoking

one another, envying 

one another.

Galatians 5:24-26

     At times when you read God's word we miss the point of certain Scriptures. Paul when writing Galatians places the above verse in juxtaposition to the fruits of the Spirit and in the works of the flesh. Do not miss out this juxtaposition as these verses are plain, we are not to provoke to envy due to our having produced the fruits of the Spirit. This would be true for the gifts of the Spirit, we are not to provoke others because they do not have a gift, or at least are not demonstrating the gift God has given to them. The Scriptures are clear that the gifts of the Spirit are just that; gifts. The Holy Spirit gives gift(s) and we are to use those gifts and in doing so we will produce the fruits of the Spirit. Yet, in many Churches there is an over-importance attached to the gifts of the Spirit. You must have a certain gift, you must have a second Baptism of the Spirit, your must, you must, you must. This is unScriptural! You may wish for a certain gift, have a desire to have what others may have as a gift, but this is not what God teaches us; we all have a gift(s) and we are to use those gift(s) to benefit the Church. The gifts of the Spirit are given to His children as He so wills. You have no need to ask for a gift, but you are to use what gift(s) you have.

     Paul makes it very clear that there is similarity between gifts and spiritual things. Most Bible will place in italics the word "gifts" in verse one of chapter twelve of First Corinthians. Paul uses the Greek word: πνευματκών, this word being plural and is genitive, that is we use the word "of" to translate this word and the word is "spiritual things." Paul in chapter 14:1 uses the same word only in the plural, accusative form which means, spiritual things. In 1Corinthians 12:1, he admonishes the reader not to be ignorant; ignorant of what? Spiritual things, and then in juxtaposition to that verse: "You know that you were gentiles, carried away to these dumb idols, however you were led," (1Corinthians 12:2). This is an important verse to understand what is to follow because the Corinthians were being misled and were following and doing things that are unScriptural; they were being led away and misusing the gifts of the Spirit. Paul was writing to straighten out those things that these people were doing that is not in line with the clear teaching of Scripture. Paul as not commending them for their practices that they had determined where spiritual, rather he was condemning them for those practices. Yet, many Churches use 1Corinthians 12-15 as proof that all were to practice certain gifts and that the manner in which they practice their gifts was to give credence that they were being spiritual. This is far from the truth. Now Paul does align the word for gifts, charisma, and pneumatika, to mean the same thing as the verses so plainly admit. When Paul speaks of spiritual gifts, he is speaking of the gifts of the Spirit. To change the word, pneumatika, to gifts does some harm to our understanding, because it does with all certainty mean spiritual things. If the gifts are spiritual things, then we should hold in reverence those gifts given to us by the Holy Spirit as He so desire (vs. 11). These gifts are spiritual, and given to us spiritually, whereas the fruits of the Spirit are from us as we use those gifts. Don't confuse those two things, rather ask yourself; am I using the gift God has given me? Am I producing the fruits of the Spirit? Have I removed the works of the flesh? Ask yourself this question: "You ran well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth" (Galatians 5:7)?

     I am laying the groundwork, the basis to aid us to understand what the Scriptures teach on this subject and as you may notice, I have not addressed any single gift. I will in upcoming blogs but not until we have made a foundation, a foundation that is Scriptural. Some writers want to jump right into the gifts and leave out this foundation but Paul does not do so, as he from the beginning gives the basis from what he will say in the following verses. 

Stand fast therefore

     in the liberty by which

Christ has made us free,

     and do not be entangled

again with a yoke of bondage.

                         Galatians 5:1

May God Bless You and Keep You

Richard L. Crumb

Now Concerning Spiritual Gifts

But as to spiritual things,

brothers, I do not wish

you to ignorant. You know

that being led away, you nations

were led to dumb idols. 

Therefore I make known 

to you that no one

speaking by the Spirit of God

says, Jesus is a curse.

And no one is able to say

Jesus is Lord,

except by the Holy Spirit.

But there are differences

of gifts, but the same

Spirit....

1Corinthians 12:1-4a

     To understand why Paul had need to write such a letter to the Church at Corinth a person must have some understanding of the Greek world. One of the problems that the Church faces today is that pastors and leaders often teach from a modern culture and our modern world. The Greek culture was far different from our culture today as they had what we might call: espirit de corps, as each city was in of itself a state, a city state government. People of a certain Greek city were faithfully loyal to their city, their home. Corinth was an ancient city, one that had great influence, and was a major city but was destroyed and then rebuilt by Julius Caesar. The people of the city were always influenced by their past wealth and power and did not want to lose it again and did much to regain its position as a  powerful city/state. Corinth was a busy city, a city that had great influence because of its four mile isthmus of land that boats from all around the world would come and be transported from one sea to the other. These people came from all over the world and brought with them their culture. This had great influence upon the Corinthian people. Furthermore, Corinth was a worship center and a temple devoted to Aphrodite had been constructed on the top of the hill, yet no remains of it have survived nowadays due to the fact that new buildings were constructed at that prominent position during the medieval years and the Turkish domination of Corinth. The lower city was the location of the Temple of Apollo while the Acrocorinth ( a hill outside the city) was dominated by the Temple of Aphrodite.  Greek writers in the 5th-4th centuries B.C. characterized Corinth as a city of commercialized love and a "Corinthian girl" meant a prostitute.  The Corinthian church of Paul's day struggled with worldliness and sexual sin, both of which were typical of this cosmopolitan city.  The temple originally had 38 columns of the Doric order; 7 are standing today. It is important when attempting to understand the Bible and why the Bible writers wrote as they did is to know the historical as well as the grammatical; a historical/grammatical approach to aid us in our understanding. Over time words change in their meaning and their understanding and while this is not necessarily wrong there must be an understanding of the original words and original meaning. If we fail in this manner of interpretation we will be led into error and lean upon our culture and of our presuppositions. We will not be exegetical in our interpretation, rather we will become isogetical, that is, we will place our words into Scripture. This is what has been done far too often in many Churches by many leaders of the Church. 

     This word that is so well known and used by people today carries a similar meaning to the old understanding and meaning yet is not the same and can mislead us. The word is "charisma" or in the plural "charismata." We have come to understand and use this word to denote  or describe a person who has a certain indefinable quality which attracts people to him. Luke records such an use of the word when describing Apollos (Acts 18:2-28). There is then a sue of the word that corresponds to our use of the word today, but Paul lack such "charisma." Both men though had spiritual gifts, that is, charismata, and those gifts were given to them by God. The Scriptural use of "charismata" is simply, "a gift of holy grace, a favor which one receives without any merit of his own: "Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith" (Romans 12:6). Paul in writing to Timothy: "Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands" (2Timothy 1:6). This word, "charismata," the plural of "charisma" is unique as it is found only in Paul's writings, except for 1Peter 4:10; ("charisma") is used. A "charismata" is then to be a mean to manifest God's grace and we translate the word "gifts." These "gifts" were given to the Church, that is to individuals for the benefit of the Church. Paul does use two other words for gift(s); dorea and doma, and they are similar to "charismata." There is a fourth word used for gifts; "pneumatika," which when defined precisely means, things belonging to the Spirit: spiritual things.

     I am laying the groundwork so that we can understand this Doctrine of Gifts and without this groundwork we do not have a clear basis, a true understanding. An illustration may be of planting an orchard of peach trees. You must prepare the ground, plant the young tress, water them, fertilize them, prune them, and in about four years they mature and produce a crop of peaches. We won't take four years (ha!). 

For even the Son of Man

     did not come to be

served, but to serve,

     and to give His life

a ransom for many.

                    Mark 10:45

Enjoy this day; God made it

Richard L. Crumb

The Uniqueness Of The Gifts Given By The Holy Spirit

But one and the same Spirit

works all these things,

distributing to each one

individually as He wills.

For as the body is one

and has many members,

but all the members of

that body one body,

being many, 

are one body,

so also is Christ.

1Corinthians 12:11-12

     Once again there is clearness of understanding, that is, that the Holy Spirit is a Person, and gives, distributes, and in the above verse so plainly accounts, it is by His will that He does so, making Him to be exactly what the Bible teaches; God.  The gifts of the Spirit are many and various yet all have one purpose, to profit the Church. The gifts of the Spirit are likened to a human body which has many parts, many different functions, still remain one, one body. Every Christian believer has been given a gift(s) and some are similar to what gifts others may have, but each gift although similar operate in an unique way: "But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleases" (1Corinthians 12:18). Don't miss this conjoining of the Spirit with God, both are said to have an input in giving of spiritual gifts. Though different in Person and in operation, both are the same, both are One. All parts of the body are needed and no single part is less important than another, the whole body is a complete organism and is in need of each part. This is true of the Church where there is diversity of gifts as distributed by the Holy Spirit for the profit of the Church, and when each gift is used as intended by God the Church is complete and all are in harmony with each other. It is when there is a part that is lacking in its use, that is, being misused, or not used at all that the body of Christ which is the Church, suffers. This is why it is important to understand and use the gifts of the Spirit properly. The Church is the light on a hill and should shine brightly, but when there is dimness within the body the light does not shine as God intended. By God's decree we are in this world, we are where God decreed for us to be, and we are to be His arms and legs, His body in this world. He has not taken us out of this world and He has not usurped our naturalness, but as having been chosen by Him before the foundation of the world to be His body then He has a purpose for us; that purpose is revealed in His word. We don't just call ourselves Christian, we are Christian, we have been born again, we are a new creation: "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them" (Ephesians 2:10). Paul in writing to the Romans makes it plain that we have been made new by being baptized into the death of Christ and that we have already been raised from the dead by God, therefore we walk according to the Spirit: Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life" (Romans 6:4). Paul adds: "but now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter" (Romans 7:6). The gifts of the Spirit are not to be given so that we may use them as we desire as many do inasmuch as they in some euphoric way apply what they believe to be a gift of the Spirit to their lives. This is wrong! Yes, we grow from being a babe in Christ into maturity in Christ and the gifts of the Spirit aid us in our growth, but when we become mature we no longer no baby food, we are to use the gift given to us to not only profit the Church but to fulfill the command to make disciples. Paul in writing to the Corinthians was not given commendation to them for having gifts of the Spirit. No! He was admonishing them, instructing them as to what the gifts are and why we have them, in fact he was condemning them for their misuse of those gifts. They thought that they were being "Christian" but were not, only that the world saw them as being a religious group of people who practiced some form of religiosity and gave cause for ridicule. The same is happening today, Christians are ridiculed often by the world because of this misuse of the gifts and not because they live by word of God: "And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it" (1Corinthians 12:26). 

Let Him kiss me 

    with the kisses

of his mouth--

     For your love

is better than wine.

               Song of Solomon 1:2

Remember Your Creator

Richard L. Crumb