The locus classicus for charisms is 1 Co \2*-'^^ and v.2«, which has to be studied along with Eph 4". The latter, which specifies the ministries of apostles, prophets (see Prophecy, Prophet), evangelists, pastors, and teachers, indicates the types of Chris- tian service which tended to become permanent in the life of the Church. The Corinthian passage, on the other hand, in addition to the more stable and authorized modes of ministry, mentions several others of a special order, perhajjs peculiar to the Corinthian Church with its exuberant manifesta- tions of spiritual energy, and certainly, as the evidence of later Church history shows, of a temporary character, and exhausting themselves (cf. H. B. Swete, The Holy Spirit in the NT, London, 1909, p. 320) in the Apostolic or sub- Apostolic Age. The Apostle mentions 'diversities of gifts,' 'diversities of ministrations' (diaKoviGiv), and 'diversities of workings' {ivepy7)n6.TU}v); these are but diflerent aspects of the same function ; but, whereas the two last are approi)riately related to the Lord Christ and God the Father, xapia/jLara are regarded as the graces bestowed by the Holy Spirit
* Cf. 1 Co 1231, where the two-fold idea of the Divine origin of charisms and the necessity of human eSort to attain them is suggested.
(cf. a similar three-fold relationship with the three Persons of the Trinity in Eph 4^). St. Paul mentions, first, charisms of the intellectual order, ' the word of wisdom ' and ' the word of knowledge' ; second, miraculous gifts: (a) 'faith,' (b) 'gifts of healing,' (c) 'workings of miracles'; third, 'pro- phecy,' or the gift of spiritual instruction ; fourth, ' discerning of spirits,' or the gift of discrimination, the discerning between the true and the false ; and finally, ' tongues ' and ' the interpretation of tongites' (see Tongues), or ecstatic powers and the power of interpreting them. Then in 1 Co 12-'^ we have the following classification : ' God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondly prophets, thirdly teachers, then miracles, then gifts of heal- ings, helps {dvTL\r}iJ.fei$), governments (Kv^epfrja-eis, literally ' pilotings '), divers kinds of tongues ' ; this is a classification of charisms in order of spiritual rank and dignity. It has been suggested that 'helps' and 'governments' indicate the services rendered respectively by ' deacons ' and ' bishops,' in which case we have here ' the faint beginnings of the separation of offices ' (T. C. Edwards, Com. on 1 Cor.^, London, 1885, in loc). The absence of any reference to otticials later designated as 'bishops,' 'presbyters,' 'deacons,' 'pastors' (in Eph 4"), suggests a rudimentary church organiza- tion, or rather a purely democratic government in the Christian community at Corinth ; and it may be that the profusion of services and functions with the accompanying perils of spiritual pride and dis- order suggested to the Apostle the necessity of the more disciplined and edifying forms of service and administration which afterwards prevailed in the apostolic churches. In fact, this is the burden of the Apostle's teaching in 1 Co 14, following on the exhortation to 'covet earnestly "the greater char- isms'" (1 Co 12!'i), and the noble hymn (1 Co 13) which sets forth love as 'a still more excellent way ' in that it transcends all the xa/jio-^xaTa and is the real foundation of the Church. It is love that is to regulate the use of the spiritual gif1;s, inasmuch as under its influence the individual will subordinate himself to another, will avoid ostenta- tion and self-advertisement, and will do all things ' decently and in order ' — that is, he will keep his own place and exercise his particular functions, so that unity may be attained in variety, and each several capacity may be subordinated to the good of the Church as a whole.
As to the meaning and nature of the charisms, guidance must be sought in the particular articles which deal specifically with them ; nor can we enter into a detailed examination of the problems which such a classification as 'faith,' 'gifts of healing,' 'workings of miracles' creates. Suffice it to say that, though love is the charism par ex- cellence, the fount and source of all others, faith is second only to it in the order of ethical dignity. It is a charism out of which spring others described in 1 Co 12" as 'charisms of healing,' where the plural appears to indicate diflerent powers for healing diflerent forms of disease, and ' workings of powers or miracles.' The relation of faith and its ofl'spring prayer to healing and miracles gener- ally is clearly seen in the Gospels which record our Lord's cures and in His declaration that faith is the sole condition of miracle-working (cf. Mt IT'-"*, Mk U-^--^) ; while the use of physical means such as oil (see the notable passage "in Ja a''*) in com- bination with prayer is paralleled not only by our Lord's method, biit by the method employed by the Twelve in Mk 6'^. The charisms of miracle- working lasted down to the 2nd cent., if we may trust the evidence of Justin Martyr (Apol. ii. 6) ; they never were intended, as the extreme faith- healer of to-day contends, to supersede the ellbrts of the skilled physician ; they represent the creative
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gift, the power of initiating new departures in the normal world of phenomena, which is rooted in faith (see A, G. Hogg, Christ's Message of the Kingdom, Edinburgh, 1911, pp. 62-70) ; and as such reveal a principle which holds good for all time.