In our last article we began to look at the purpose of the spiritual gifts seen in the New Testament. As I previously wrote, when one understands the purposes of spiritual gifts, as well as the intended duration of those gifts, ignorance about them will decrease. So, we began by looking at the purpose of those gifts by considering their use by the apostles of Christ. The apostles performed miracles for the express purpose of confirming the word (Mark 16:20; Hebrews 2:3-4). Remember, the need for such confirmation was the fact that they did not have the written Word available to them in the first century. They needed some way to prove that what they were teaching was really from God. Thus, as the written Word was being transmitted, God blessed the apostles with the ability to perform signs and wonders. Now, in this article, let us briefly observe the spiritual gifts in connection with the early church.

The Early Church and Spiritual Gifts

The apostles were not the only ones with miraculous powers in the first century. Many children of God possessed spiritual gifts (1 Corinthians 12:1-11). Why did they need these gifts? Again, it was because they did not have the written Word. They needed miracles to survive. Not only did they have to confirm the Word with miraculous signs, but they needed those gifts for the purpose of edification. Can you imagine a local church today trying to survive without any Bibles? How would members grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord? What kind of preaching and teaching would we have? The early church needed gifts of knowledge, prophecy, etc., in order to learn the will of God which was still being revealed at that time. There were only twelve apostles and they could not be everywhere at once. Most local congregations had to exist without the immediate presence of an apostle in their midst.

Think about a church like the local body at Thessalonica. Paul preached to them for three Sabbath days, i.e., roughly three weeks, perhaps a little longer (Acts 17:2). During the course of that three-week period, some obeyed the gospel of Christ and a local church was established (Acts 17:3-4). However, Paul was forced to leave Thessalonica prematurely because of the persecution by some unbelieving Jews. Now, what do we have? We have a local church made up of babes in Christ, without the presence of an apostle, and, without the written Word of God. In the absence of spiritual gifts, there would be no way for this body of new believers to withstand the attacks of the devil and grow in the faith. They simply would not have been able to survive without miraculous means. Can we know that this church had spiritual gifts? Yes, for Paul later wrote to them and said, “For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and in much assurance; as ye know what manner of men were among you for your sake” (1 Thessalonians 1:5). Clearly, Paul’s words here refer, at least in part, to the miraculous power that the church had at Thessalonica. So, this local church had spiritual gifts which they received from Paul when he was with them. However, even with that power, Paul was fearful that they may succumb to the devil.

1 Thessalonians 3:1-2 (ESV)

¹ Therefore when we could bear it no longer, we were willing to be left behind at Athens alone, ² and we sent Timothy, our brother and God’s coworker in the gospel of Christ, to establish and exhort you in your faith,

It was not until Timothy and Silas finally reached Paul at Corinth and gave him the good news that they were doing fine that Paul’s anxiety was relieved (ver. 6.). If Paul knew that, even with miraculous powers, the church at Thessalonica could succumb to the wiles of the devil, what chance would they have had without those powers? Spiritual gifts were not just a luxury for the first century church, they were essential. These gifts were not for the purpose of life and godliness as some have suggested. The miraculous power, outside of being the means by which Christians had access to the Word of God, did not help saints to live godly lives, nor did it prevent them from carnality. The church at Corinth possessed all the available gifts (1 Corinthians 1:7), yet they, at least until Paul rebuked them in a stern letter, were guilty of carnality, pride, selfishness, etc. No, even with the presence of spiritual gifts, individual Christians had to determine to live by the Word that was revealed to them. So, what was the purpose of the gifts? When we look at what those gifts were (1 Corinthians 12:4-11), we see that they were all related, either to the confirmation of the Word, which would be signs to unbelievers, or for the needed knowledge that would be beneficial to the believers (1 Corinthians 14:22). Today we have the written Word of God for both of those things.

In our next article, we will discuss the duration of spiritual gifts.