Verse 6
The gifts that we have are abilities that God gives us by His grace (cf. 1 Corinthians 12:6; Ephesians 4:7; 1 Peter 4:10). They are capacities for His service. [Note: For defense of the view that spiritual gifts are ministries rather than abilities, see Kenneth Berding, "Confusing Word and Concept in ’Spiritual Gifts’: Have We Forgotten James Barr’s Exhortations?" Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 43:1 (March 200):37-51.]
"Spiritual gifts are tools to build with, not toys to play with or weapons to fight with." [Note: Wiersbe, 1:555.]
The list of seven gifts that follows is not exhaustive but only illustrative (cf. 1 Corinthians 12:27-28). Paul’s point here was that it is important that we use our gifts and that we use them in the proper way. All the gifts need using according to the proportion (Gr. analogia) of the faith that God has given us. The faith in view, as in Romans 12:3, is probably the amount of faith God has given us, not what we believe, namely, Christian teaching.
Probably Paul meant prophecy in the sense of communicating revealed truth to exhort, encourage, and comfort (cf. 1 Corinthians 14:3; 1 Corinthians 14:31) and, perhaps, praising God (1 Chronicles 25:1) rather than as predicting or proclaiming new revelation. All the other gifts listed here serve the whole church throughout its history, so probably Paul viewed prophecy this way too. If so, none of the seven gifts listed here are "sign gifts."
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