ectypal.net

The purpose of those remarks is not to depreciate spiritual gifts or promote a cavalier treatment of them, but to set them in a balanced perspective. To sum up again: the gift of the Spirit, shared by all believers, is the eschatological essence of the new covenant, the fulfillment of the Father's promise, the down payment and firstfruits of resurrected life. The gifts of the Spirit, while particular expressions of this life, are provisional expressions. Necessitated by, bound up with, and shaped by the conditions that make up "the form of this world which] is passing away" (1 Cor. 7:31), they are themselves transient (the point of 1 Cor. 13:8-10). The balance intended here may be difficult to grasp and maintain, but it is crucial.