The Spiritual Gifts and Ministry Gifts

There are 9 gifts of the Spirit that are mentioned in 1 Cor. 12. These are imparted by prophecy and the laying on of hands as referenced in 1st and 2nd Timothy and in Romans. Everything of value is a gift from God, but these are spiritual gifts, χαρισμα, charisma, pronounced khar'-is-mah. This is a misused word in today's society. The Bible is very careful in its use.

Ephesians tells us that when Jesus ascended He gave gifts to men. Then it says that He gave some apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. Four of these are mentioned in other parts of Scripture as being ministries. They appear to be the four ministries of apostles. For this reason, we call them ministry gifts. The word, apostle, means one sent. There are actually two offices in the Church, elder and deacon. An apostle can be either an elder or a deacon, but, in either case, they tend to travel from local church to local church. There are local elders and deacons. The husband is the elder of the home and the wife is the deacon of the home. Local elders are commanded to pastor (care for as a shepherd cares for sheep) the church. There is to be no preeminent or singular local elder. There is to be no independent or preeminent traveling elder.

The order of Scripture is harder to understand because it is common to use words, such as pastor or charisma, in a non-scriptural way. The word, pastor, is only used as a noun once in Scripture and it is not used in the context of a local church but rather in the context of the church as a whole. It is used in association with the word, apostle. In the culture, it is common to use the word, pastor, in non-scriptural ways such as a title of a person who governs or controls the local church.

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