Can gifts be misused?
Question 09069
The spiritual gifts are given by the Holy Spirit for the building up of the body of Christ, but the history of the church, from the New Testament onwards, is littered with examples of gifts being exercised in ways that damage rather than edify. The potential for misuse does not invalidate the gifts themselves, but it does demand that believers understand how and why gifts go wrong, and what Scripture says about guarding against it.
Corinth as the Case Study
The church at Corinth is the definitive New Testament example of spiritual gifts being misused. Paul’s extended treatment in 1 Corinthians 12-14 was not written because the gifts were working well. It was written because the Corinthians had turned the gifts into a platform for self-promotion, spiritual competition, and disorder. The gift of tongues had become the measure of spiritual maturity, with those who spoke in tongues regarding themselves as superior to those who did not. Corporate worship had descended into chaos, with multiple people speaking simultaneously and no interpretation being provided (1 Corinthians 14:23, 26-33). The gifts that were meant to build up the body were instead tearing it apart.
Paul’s corrective is sharp and pastoral in equal measure. He does not tell the Corinthians to stop exercising the gifts. He tells them to exercise them properly: with love as the governing motive (1 Corinthians 13), with order and intelligibility as the standard for corporate worship (1 Corinthians 14:26-33, 40), and with the building up of the body rather than the exaltation of the individual as the defining purpose (1 Corinthians 12:7; 14:12, 26).
Pride and Self-Promotion
The most common form of gift misuse is the elevation of the gift above the Giver and above the body. When a person’s identity becomes wrapped up in their gifting, the gift ceases to function as intended and becomes a vehicle for personal significance. This is visible when teachers use their platform to draw people to themselves rather than to Christ, when worship leaders treat the service as a performance, or when those with prominent gifts look down on those with less visible ones. Paul’s analogy of the body in 1 Corinthians 12:14-26 directly addresses this: the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you.” Every gift is necessary, and no gift is the whole body.
The antidote Paul prescribes is love. 1 Corinthians 13 is not a parenthetical interlude in the middle of a discussion about gifts; it is the heart of the argument. Without love, the most spectacular gifts are “a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal” (1 Corinthians 13:1). Love is patient, kind, does not envy, does not boast, is not arrogant. If the exercise of a gift is producing envy, boasting, or arrogance, whether in the person exercising it or in those watching, something has gone seriously wrong.
Manipulation and Control
A more dangerous form of misuse occurs when gifts are used to manipulate or control others. This is particularly relevant to the gifts of prophecy and leadership. When a person claims prophetic authority with language such as “God told me to tell you” and uses that claim to direct other people’s decisions, relationships, or finances, the gift has become a tool of control. The instruction of 1 Thessalonians 5:20-21 is clear: “Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good.” Prophecy is to be weighed (1 Corinthians 14:29), not received uncritically, and the person who resists the weighing of their prophetic contribution has already departed from the biblical pattern.
Leadership gifts are similarly vulnerable. Shepherds who use their authority to dominate rather than serve stand under Peter’s direct rebuke: “shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock” (1 Peter 5:2-3). The gift of leadership exists to serve the body, not to rule over it.
Neglect and Atrophy
Misuse is not only about overreach; it also includes neglect. Paul’s instruction to Timothy to “fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you” (2 Timothy 1:6) implies that gifts can grow cold through disuse. A believer who has received a gift but never exercises it, whether through fear, laziness, or a failure to recognise the gift, is misusing it through neglect. The parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30) applies here: what has been entrusted is expected to be invested and multiplied, not buried.
So, now what?
Spiritual gifts can be misused through pride, manipulation, disorder, and neglect, and the church’s responsibility is to create an environment in which gifts are exercised with love, tested with discernment, and directed toward the common good. The solution to gift misuse is never the suppression of the gifts but their proper exercise under the authority of Scripture, the oversight of godly leadership, and the governing motive of love. Where a gift is building up the body, pointing people to Christ, and operating within the boundaries Scripture sets, it is functioning as the Spirit intended. Where it is drawing attention to the individual, creating division, or operating outside those boundaries, correction is needed.
“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.” 1 Corinthians 13:1
