The Holy Spirit equips Christians with different spiritual gifts that they can use to build up the church. The three main references to these gifts are Romans 12:3-8, 1 Corinthians 12-14, and 1 Peter 4:10-11. No Christian has all the gifts, and every Christian has at least one gift (1 Corinthians 12:11). The gifts are not given to glorify individuals but to enable them to serve others and glorify God. Peter divides the gifts into two categories, those that primarily involve speaking and those that primarily involve serving. He says that each Christian ‘should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms’ (1 Peter 4:11-12). Giftedness is not a measure of Christian maturity, which is shown by the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-26). So someone can be very gifted but immature and ungodly. Paul makes this point in 1 Corinthians 13, where he interrupts his discussion on spiritual gifts to challenge the Corinthians that giftedness is worthless without love. And the Lord Jesus says that some who display spiritual gifting are actually evildoers who will not enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 7:21-23).
