Memory Text:
“Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy” (1 Corinthians 14:1, ESV).
There are two kinds of people in the church.
Some people think they must do everything. Others think they can do nothing.
Both make the same mistake: they spend too much time looking at themselves.
When we study spiritual gifts, our first question is usually, “What is my gift?” There is nothing wrong with that question. But Paul gives us another question that may be more important:
Who will benefit from it?
1 Corinthians 12:7, NKJV
“But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all.”
There it is.
A spiritual gift is given to you, but it is not primarily for you. It is given “for the profit of all.” Spiritual gifts are not medals that show how spiritual we are. They are tools that God gives us so that we can serve others.1
Look Around
Perhaps we spend too much time looking within ourselves.
We take personality tests. We take spiritual-gifts tests. We ask what ministry is best suited to our abilities. These things can be helpful. But sometimes, while we are still trying to discover our gift, someone beside us already needs help.
Look around.
Is there a visitor whom nobody has welcomed?
Is there a young person who needs someone to listen?
Is there a sick member who has not been visited?
Is there a Bible study that needs a teacher?
Is there a church program that needs someone to organize it?
Is there a discouraged person who needs encouragement?
Sometimes, the need in front of us reveals the work God wants us to do.
A teacher is needed because someone does not understand. An encourager is needed because someone is about to give up. A giver is needed because someone lacks something. A leader is needed because someone needs direction. A person gifted with mercy is needed because someone is hurting.
So instead of asking only, “What am I good at?” ask, “Who needs help, and what can I do?”
Start Serving
Sometimes we want to be completely certain about our spiritual gift before we begin serving.
But spiritual gifts are often discovered while they are being used.
Romans 12:6–8, NKJV
“Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them.”
Notice the simple instruction: “Let us use them.”
Paul does not say, “Keep analyzing yourself until you are absolutely sure.”
If you can teach, teach.
If you can encourage, encourage.
If you can give, give.
If you can lead, lead.
If you can show mercy, do it cheerfully.
Start somewhere.
Can you cook? Prepare food for someone who is sick.
Can you listen? Sit beside someone who is grieving.
Can you write? Use your words to explain the truth.
Can you organize? Help the church do its work more effectively.
Can you pray? Carry the names and burdens of others before God.
Not every spiritual gift needs a microphone.
Ellen White wrote:
“Let all go to work. . . . In meekness, sincerity, and love do what you can.”2
What a simple instruction!
She does not say that we must do everything. She does not say that we must do something impressive. She simply says, “Do what you can.”
You may not have much. But remember the boy who brought five loaves and two fish. It was not enough to feed the multitude, but it became enough when it was placed in the hands of Jesus.
Bring what you have. Do what you can. Let Jesus take care of the results.
Stop Comparing
The foot looks at the hand and says, “I cannot do what you do, so perhaps I am not important.”
The eye looks at the hand and says, “I do not need you because I can see more than you can.”
One feels inferior. The other feels superior.
Both are looking in the wrong direction.
Comparison can make us feel that we are either more important or less important than others. But both attitudes are self-centered because both are still concerned with our position in relation to other people.
The real question is not, “How do I rank compared to others?”
The question is, “Am I faithful to the work God has given me?”
The church does not need everybody to become a preacher. Imagine a church with fifty preachers but nobody willing to arrange the chairs, visit the sick, teach the children, operate the sound system, or wash the dishes.
That would not be a healthy body.
God did not design the church to have one gift repeated many times. He gave different gifts because the church has different needs. Diversity is not a problem to be solved. It is part of God’s design.
You do not need to become somebody else in order to be useful to God.
Love Is the Test
How do we know that we are using our gifts properly?
First Corinthians 13 gives us the test: love.
First Corinthians 13 is not merely a beautiful chapter for weddings. It stands between chapters 12 and 14 because the Corinthians were using spiritual gifts without showing the character of Christ.
They had gifts, but they were still competing.
They had knowledge, but they were proud.
They could speak, but they were not building one another up.
Paul’s point is that even the most impressive spiritual gift becomes useless when it is separated from love. Love is not simply another spiritual gift. It is the only proper way to use every spiritual gift.3
So ask yourself:
Can I serve when nobody notices?
Can I rejoice when someone else is chosen instead of me?
Can I receive correction without becoming defensive?
Am I willing to do work that receives no applause?
After I minister, do people leave impressed with me—or helped by Jesus?
Spiritual gifts without love become performance. Spiritual gifts exercised in love become ministry.
Look to Jesus
Jesus had all power, yet He knelt down and washed His disciples’ feet.
He could command angels, yet He stopped to listen to one blind man crying beside the road. He welcomed children, touched lepers, fed the hungry, comforted the grieving, and gave His life for sinners.
Mark 10:45, NKJV
“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”
That is the pattern for every spiritual gift.
Jesus did not use His power to exalt Himself. He used it to bless and save others.
The purpose of a spiritual gift, then, is not merely to show what we can do for God. It is to reveal what Jesus can do through a surrendered person.
Conclusion
Stop saying, “I have nothing to offer.”
God is not asking you to become someone else. He is not asking you to perform every ministry in the church. He is asking you to surrender what you have and use it for the good of others.
Look around.
What needs to be done?
Who needs to be encouraged?
Who needs to hear the truth?
Who needs someone to listen?
Do not wait for a title. Do not wait for a position. Do not wait until you feel exceptionally gifted.
Look to Jesus. Start serving. Do it in love.
Do what you can.
Discussion Questions
- What need do you repeatedly notice in your church or community?
- Why do we sometimes assume that visible spiritual gifts are more important?
- Which is the greater struggle for you: feeling that your gift is unimportant or feeling that your gift makes you important?
- What is one practical act of service you can do this week without waiting to be asked?
- How can we determine whether our ministry is pointing people toward Jesus or merely drawing attention to ourselves?
Footnotes
- Adenilton Aguiar, First and Second Corinthians: The Essence of Christian Life and Witness (Nampa, ID: Pacific Press Publishing Association, 2026), chap. 6, “The Spiritual Gifts.” Aguiar emphasizes that spiritual gifts are given for the common good and are intended to foster unity and mutual edification. ↩
- Ellen G. White, “Depending on Christ,” Review and Herald, April 12, 1906, par. 4. The full paragraph begins, “Let no man despise the supposed lesser gifts,” and concludes that God will bless wholehearted workers. ↩
- Craig L. Blomberg, 1 Corinthians, NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1994), comments on 1 Corinthians 12:31–13:13. Blomberg explains that love is not merely one gift among others but the Christian virtue that must govern the exercise of every gift. ↩
Paul’s letters to the Corinthians are a powerful study of Christian life and witness. As we look at the message of the Cross, the power of the resurrection, and the grace that forms God’s people in love and fellowship, may our lives be drawn closer to Christ and His mission.