When Christians talk about the spiritual gifts, they frequently get hung up discussing the so-called charismatic gifts – healing, speaking in tongues, prophecy, etc., but this unfortunately short-circuits the very important discussion about what the spiritual gifts actually are, and (maybe more importantly) what they do. Chuck and Aaron have just this discussion.
The spiritual gifts are different roles that the Holy Spirit empowers Jesus’ people with to love and serve the one family of God in Christ. This gifting creates what Paul calls the body of Christ, with the different members – each gifted uniquely to serve the whole body – making up the body parts which function together as a whole. The foundation of all these gifts, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13, is love. The gifts are not meant to build up the individual possessing the gift, but to build up the entire body which includes the member exercising the gift.
That was very good.