Fellowship with other Christians is an integral spoke in the wheel of a balanced Christian life. Along with positive encouragement and praise of each other and also appropriate discipline of one another, spiritual gifts have an important and purposeful place in the fellowship of the Church. As with everything, and especially so with spiritual gifts, we should base our understanding of truth and reality on what God says in His Word and not on our own experiences or the experiences of others and how we interpret those experiences. Also, we should examine all teachers and teaching in the light of God’s Word in the Scriptures: “Now these Jews (in Berea) were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if those things (said by the Apostle Paul) were so. Many of them therefore believed” (Acts 17:11) Spiritual gifts are a variety of capacities/abilities given by the Holy Spirit to believers in Jesus Christ for specific service to aid in the healthy growth of Christ’s Church. There are at least 20 distinct spiritual gifts referred to specifically in the Bible and the purpose is for edification (Ephesians 4:12, 16), for building up (helping, strengthening) others in the body of Christ, the Church. (I Corinthians 12:7, 11; Ephesians 4:7; I Peter 4:10)

Agnes Sutekno

Lecturer of Christian Religion Education Study Programs