Prepared by Richard T. Nolan
This outline was prepared in response to the many negative responses to God’s gifts to individuals during recent years. Some individual lives and congregations have been greatly harmed by those claiming to have received gifts from God.
I. To be a Christian is to be more than a citizen of a particular country or to live some version of the Golden Rule. Moreover, no one is born “Christian.” To be a Christian means to respond to God’s empowering activity in life, to commit oneself basically to a growing loyalty to God’s will in the covenant of active love for God, one’s neighbor, and oneself. The decision, the conscious choice of this life orientation, is what the Bible means by being “born anew.” Such a decision is often a quiet and gradual process of realization; for some individuals it is a decisive, emotional moment of realization and commitment.
II. The charismata (a Greek word) are “free gifts” from God and “vary in practice from the strongly emotional outpourings of the ecstatic to the normal everyday practice of God’s will; from talents and activities contributing to worship to those equally necessary for meeting the general needs of the Christian community. All such powers and activities are given by God and their worth is to be judged by the measure in which they promote the well-being of the church.” (from “Spiritual Gifts,” The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible) Gifts from God are neither validations of an individual’s entire life nor signs of a person’s infallibility, superiority, or importance.
III. “New Testament writers, particularly Paul, hold a very democratic view of such gifts, believing that every Christian possesses some of them, with varying degrees of fullness (Rom. 12:6).” (from “Spiritual Gifts,” op. cit.) Therefore, every Christian, by definition, is a person “born anew” (see John 3: 1-17) and “charismatic.”
IV. Responses to any gift may be positive (biblical) or negative (unbiblical).
Positive
Negative
1. Freedom is experienced in one’s life; one is enabled; freedom of choice is encouraged; decisions are made; options are understood.
1. One is enslaved and feels controlled; persons are gripped and in turn attempt to control.
2. An individual feels grateful and humble.
2. An individual is arrogant and feels superior.
3. Interpersonal relationships and communal harmony
3. Superficial relationships based on being the “in” group are promoted.
4. A gift is received as “fuel” or a catalyst for loving action
4. A possessed gift itself is the goal.
5. A sensitivity to the various religious levels of persons and their varying needs and circumstances is evident.
5. An insensitive, often militaristic and authoritarian uniformity is demanded; rules become more important than people.
6. A gift is recognized as part of the whole for some individuals.
6. The gift is perceived as if it were the whole; it becomes the norm for all true believers.
7. Caring, thoughtful faith (trust) is produced; within reasonable boundaries people agree to differ.
7. Infallible knowledge is claimed; tendency toward hardhearted, anti-intellectual, intolerance to differences.
8. The Bible, the Word of God, is researched with heart and mind.
8. The Bible, the Word of God, is quoted, often in out-dated English.
V. Gifts from God may be viewed as (1) natural talents and abilities raised to new effectiveness by God and (2) a new capacity from God.
St. Paul mentions as gifts from God: wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy (revealing God’s will), discerning of spirits (recognizing authenticity), speaking in tongues (unintelligible speech, the “least” of the gifts), and interpretation of tongues (which should accompany a display of speaking in tongues). Other gifts mentioned in the Bible are: service to others, administration, and leadership positions in the church.
At the heart of all gifts are (1) empowering of persons by God the Holy Spirit and (2) love. The varieties of gifts are expressions of the Spirit and are to provide unity, solidarity and healthy growth to the Christian fellowship. Being “born anew” is the individual’s accepting response to God’s empowering, energizing spirit.
Any such strengthening is a gift from God; the Sacraments in this sense are such gifts.
No gift from God controls a person. Rather, choices must be made on an ongoing basis as to how the gift will be used: in love or in lesser, even evil, ways.