Spiritual Gifts
Given to serve the body, not to show off the bearer
When God pours out His Spirit on His people, He does not leave them empty-handed. He distributes gifts, abilities given by the Spirit for the good of the whole church. The subject has generated more heat than almost any other in modern church life, with some traditions chasing the spectacular and others nervously avoiding the topic altogether. The Bible cuts through both by being relentlessly clear about one thing: why the gifts are given. They are not trophies, not badges of spiritual rank, not tools for self-display. They are given to serve. Once that is settled, most of the confusion clears.
Every believer is gifted
There are no spectators in the body of Christ. The Spirit gives a gift to each believer without exception: "the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal" (1 Corinthians 12:7), and "as every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another" (1 Peter 4:10). If you belong to Christ, you have been given something to contribute, and the church is incomplete without it. The gifts are wonderfully varied, and the Bible's lists do not even fully overlap, suggesting they are illustrations rather than a closed inventory: teaching, serving, encouraging, giving, leading, mercy, helps, administration, and more (Romans 12:6-8). One Spirit, many gifts: "there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit" (1 Corinthians 12:4-6).
One body, many members
Paul's master image for all this is the human body, and it answers both pride and envy in one stroke. The church is one body with many members, "and the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee" (1 Corinthians 12:21). Your gift is not for your reputation; it is a function the body needs, like a hand or a lung, useless in isolation and vital in place. This kills the two opposite diseases at once: the pride that thinks its gift makes it superior, and the false humility that thinks its gift is too small to matter. An eye is not better than a foot; a body needs both. The purpose of every gift, Paul says, is "the edifying of the body of Christ" (Ephesians 4:12), building others up. A gift turned toward self-display has been turned exactly backward.
An honest word on the debate
The sharpest disagreement is over whether the more miraculous "sign" gifts, prophecy, tongues, healing, miracles, continue today, and it is only fair to lay out both sides without caricature, because both are held by serious, Bible-loving Christians. Cessationists hold that the miraculous and revelatory gifts largely ceased with the apostolic age, their purpose having been to authenticate new revelation now completed in Scripture; they note Paul's word that "whether there be prophecies, they shall fail… whether there be tongues, they shall cease" (1 Corinthians 13:8). Continuationists hold that the Spirit still gives all the gifts, observing that the New Testament nowhere dates their expiry before Christ's return, and reading "when that which is perfect is come" (1 Corinthians 13:10) as that return, when we shall see "face to face," not the closing of the canon. This page will not pretend to settle a question godly people have not settled. What both sides agree on is more important than where they differ: God is sovereign and can heal and work wonders whenever He wills; the Spirit is genuinely active in the church now; and no gift, ordinary or spectacular, is a measure of a person's spirituality.
The Bible gives a balanced rule that rebukes the errors on both ends. Against those who shut the door on the Spirit's working: "Quench not the Spirit. Despise not prophesyings." Against those who swallow every spectacular claim uncritically: "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good" (1 Thessalonians 5:19-21). And over all of it, an insistence on order rather than chaos: "Let all things be done decently and in order" (1 Corinthians 14:40). So neither the cynicism that grieves the Spirit nor the gullibility that calls every commotion holy. Welcome what is genuine, test it by Scripture, and govern it with love (see the Holy Spirit).
The more excellent way
The most important thing Paul says about spiritual gifts is that they are not the most important thing. He interrupts his entire discussion of the gifts to point past them: "covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way" (1 Corinthians 12:31), and then comes the great chapter on love. Without love, he says, the most dazzling gift is worthless: "though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass… and have not charity, I am nothing" (1 Corinthians 13:1-2). This is the cure for every abuse of the gifts. The question is never "how impressive is your gift?" but "is it being used in love, to build others up?" Gifts will pass away; love never fails. Whatever you have been given, love is the way you are meant to use it (see love in the church).
Where this lands
God still loves to give. Jesus said the Father delights to answer the asking: "how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?" (Luke 11:13), and the promise poured out at Pentecost still echoes: "I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh" (Joel 2:28). So do not bury what you have been given out of fear or false modesty, and do not flaunt it for applause. Find your gift, often it is simply what you are drawn to do for others and what builds them up, and pour it out, in love, for the body of Christ. That is what it was given for (see serving the church's mission and a faith that acts).
Related: The Holy Spirit, Loving the Church You Disagree With, The Great Commission, Faith Is a Verb, and The Trinity. Scripture from the King James Version, linked to BibleHub; the words of God are marked in gold, the words of Christ in purple.