In 1 Corinthians, Paul talks about how we are one body but many members – and how we need all members of the body and the gifts they bring. We need all of the gifts to function and to encourage and build up one another. But we also need the gifts to check and balance each other. There are many gifts that seem contradictory or maybe at odds with each other – they are not actually exclusive of each other. (After all, even though the elbow and the wrist and the fingers bend differently, they’re both complementary parts of the arm/hand system). We need to learn how to allow these different gifts to function together so that none of the gifts goes to the extreme that would lead to error.
For example, it’s easy for a leader (and even those with the gift of faith) to have so much vision for the future that they aren’t taking care of the current reality – or even thinking how they and those they lead will get between here and their future reality. We need vision. We need leaders. But those with the gifts of administration, hospitality, etc., are helpful to check this future-only focus and aid in creating and carrying out what is necessary to get to the vision. From the other side, those with the gift of administration can become so fixated on the process of what they are doing, now, that they forget to look ahead and keep sight of the vision of why they are doing what they’re doing, right now (I wonder how I personally know this?).
As another example, too often in the church, we hold up truth at the expense of mercy. We have a very long history where this hasn’t worked well. People are hurt and driven away from Jesus because we’re so stiff about the truth we find in the Bible. “Thou shalt not” becomes the cry of Christians. But it’s also true that we can err when we move too far toward mercy. We feel so much empathy for those who are in sin that we overlook the sin in our attempt to show them grace and bring them to a place of wholeness.
This is why we need both those with mercy and those with truth – they will balance each other out if they will work together with mutual respect. In today’s climate of judgment and compromise, we can’t afford to live under a situation where mercy is more important than truth. But neither can we afford to present the Gospel as a faith of purely truth with no room for mercy – after all, in Jesus, mercy triumphs over judgment (James 2:13).
The checks and balances of the gifts of the Spirit only work when there is respect and honor between those with the different gifts. This is why it is so important that we not consider one gift more important or “above” the other gifts, especially when it comes to a hierarchy of church leadership. All of the gifts have been given for the building up of the church (1 Corinthians 14:12) and for the common good (1 Corinthians 12:7). If we are a prophet and can only respect other prophets (but those people with the gift of administration – why do they keep getting in the way and being practical? Don’t they know this is the Word of the Lord, and it doesn’t matter if it makes sense at this point?), we’re heading for error because we won’t allow someone with a different gift check and balance the shortsightedness of our gifting. Meanwhile, those with the gift of generosity get on best with others who are also generous, so they may look down on those who seem to be fixated on speaking in or interpreting tongues. Or we might believe the gift of leadership is more important than any other, so we don’t check or balance leaders because they are “anointed” or at least above being wrong.
I could go on with examples. But it eventually comes down to our hearts. Mutual respect and honor of those with the other gifts – even when they seem to be extreme or against what we are feeling – is the only way I know to get the checks and balances necessary. And when they do go about using their giftings in a way that doesn’t fit with our gifts, we have to be secure enough in who God has made us to be that we can step back and either say, “That’s not the way I would have done it, but I trust you,” or else we need to go to God first and ask Him for His perspective – because it’s probably somewhere between the two extremes of what you are feeling and what they are doing.
