Spiritual Gifts

01/08/2026

Week 6 study guide (PDF)

Read for This Week’s Study

1 Corinthians 12, Eph. 4:11–13, 1 Corinthians 13, 1 Pet. 4:8–11, 1 Cor. 14:27, Amos 3:7.

Memory Text:
“Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy” (1 Corinthians 14:1, ESV).

Like a human body, the church is one but has many members, each with different roles, functions, and gifts. Practiced with love, these spiritual gifts promote a sense of unity that reflects the character of the triune God.

This week we will survey 1 Corinthians 12–14 and its teaching on spiritual gifts. This section is part of a slightly larger unit, where Paul deals with the expected Christian behavior in religious settings (1 Corinthians 11–14). Paul’s primary concern has to do with the problem of disorderly gatherings. His answer to this problem is that the church is a body whose parts have different functions that contribute to “the edifying of the body of Christ” (Eph. 4:12, NKJV). In short, God gave the church spiritual gifts in order to promote unity through diversity.

Certainly, Paul still has in mind the factionalism problem addressed in the first four chapters of 1 Corinthians, where the answer to the lack of agreement among church members is unity in Christ. Now, he develops that idea by presenting his understanding of the role of spiritual gifts. According to Paul, unity in Christ and the Spirit is the only means of avoiding schisms.

*Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, August 8.

Additional Reading: Selected Quotes from Ellen G. White

Study this scripture carefully. God has not given to everyone the same line of work. It is His plan that there shall be unity in diversity. When His plan is studied and followed, there will be far less friction in the working of the cause.
“There are many members in the body, and all the members have not the same office, but each one is essential to the perfection of the work.” “The body is not one member, but many. If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him. And if they were all one member, where were the body?”
“Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular. And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healing, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.”
The Lord desires His church to respect every gift that He has bestowed on the different members. Let us beware of allowing our minds to become fixed on ourselves, thinking that other people cannot be serving the Lord unless they are working on the same lines as those on which we are working.
Never is a worker to say, “I do not want to work with such a one, because he does not see things as I do. I wish to work with someone who will agree with all I say, and follow out all my ideas.” The one the worker thus refuses to connect with may have truths to present that have not yet been presented. Because of the worker’s refusal to accept the help provided by the Lord, the work is made one-sided.—To Be Like Jesus, p. 84.

The agencies of God are many! But all those who are willing to work according to God’s plan are included in the words, “Ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building” (1 Corinthians 3:9). God’s servants are to move so that no spiritual gift shall be lost. Their will is to be held in abeyance, and when God’s time comes, the rod will blossom. What form the work will take no one can know, but God’s servants are to be minutemen, able to understand the ways and will of their Leader.—This Day With God, p. 31.