During the Apostolic age, God imparted both ordinary and extraordinary spiritual gifts. The ordinary gifts were those that are common for all believers. They include conviction of sin, conversion, sanctification, and assurance of salvation. The extraordinary gifts are those supernatural gifts that God distributed to individuals at certain times for specific purposes in redemptive history. Jonathan Edwards explained this distinction:
The extraordinary gifts of the Spirit are the same with miraculous gifts; such as gifts of prophecy and working miracles, and others mentioned by the Apostle…These are called extraordinary gifts of the Spirit because…they are bestowed…only on extraordinary occasions, as they were bestowed on the prophets and apostles to enable them to reveal the mind and will of God before the canon of the Scripture was complete…But since the canon of the Scripture has been completed, and the Christian church fully founded and established, those extraordinary gifts have ceased. The ordinary gifts of the Spirit are such as are continued to the church of God throughout all ages; such gifts as are granted in conviction and conversion, and such as appertain to the building up of saints in holiness and comfort.
The extraordinary (i.e., miraculous) gifts of prophecy, tongues, and healing authenticated the divine message proclaimed by the Apostles among the nations (Acts 1:8). These gifts validated the Apostolic revelation of Christ. Tongues were “sign-gifts” to attest to the fact that God was carrying his kingdom from old covenant Israel to the nations. Accordingly, tongues testified that the blessing of the gospel had come to the nations. As O. Palmer Robertson explains:
The foreign tongues spoken on the day of Pentecost were a sign of covenantal curse for Israel. No longer would God speak exclusively to them in contrast with all the nations of the world. But at the same time, tongues at Pentecost served as a sign of the great blessing of God to all the nations of the world, including Israel. Tongues were a sign of the extension of the blessing of the covenant to all the nations of the world.
Miraculous healing was another authenticating sign-gift. Miraculous healing attested to the resurrection power of the gospel. The extraordinary sign-gifts ceased when the gospel spread to the ends of the earth and the church was established on the foundation of the completed Old and New Testament revelation. Likewise, there would be no further need for prophecy when the Apostles completed the written revelation of Christ and the canon of Scripture was closed.
First Corinthians 12–14 contains the lengthiest treatment of spiritual gifts in the New Testament. Here the Apostle Paul addresses what had become a widespread misuse of the gifts in the church. Members of the church were exalting lesser gifts over greater gifts, while others were making use of them in disorderly and self-aggrandizing ways. The members of the church failed to rightly understand the purpose for which God had given gifts. After comparing the importance of the gifts of tongues and prophecy, Paul contrasts the temporary function of the extraordinary gifts and the continual operation of the ordinary gifts. He does so to help his readers understand that the ordinary gifts of the Spirit are to be favored above the extraordinary (1 Cor. 12:31).
In 1 Corinthians 13:8–13, Paul contrasts three extraordinary gifts with three ordinary gifts (faith, hope, and love). He notes that the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit would eventually cease while the ordinary gifts would remain (vv. 8, 13). Paul says that while the extraordinary gifts would come to an end, the ordinary gifts would continue until the end of time. The need for extraordinary gifts ceased with the completion of God’s written revelation, but the need for the ordinary gifts remains throughout the gospel age (v. 13). Although faith and hope would outlast the extraordinary gifts in time, they will not outlast love in eternity. Faith and hope will continue to operate in the lives of believers until the consummation. Love is the greatest gift because it continues to function through all eternity: “Love never ends” (v. 8). When Christ returns, faith will be turned into sight and hope will be fulfilled (Rom. 8:24), but love will be the prevailing grace in the communion that believers will have with God and each other for all eternity. John Calvin concluded from Paul’s teaching in this section:
We should eagerly desire an excellence that will never come to an end. Hence love must be preferred before temporary and perishable gifts. Prophesyings have an end, tongues fail, knowledge ceases. Hence love is more excellent than they on this ground—that, while they fail, it survives.
Even when the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit were still operative in the Apostolic church, Paul’s message was simple: Without the accompanying exercise of love, the use of other spiritual gifts is vain (1 Cor. 13:1–4). This principle holds as true for those of us living in the twenty-first century as it did for believers in the Apostolic age. Love must always be the guiding motive behind the exercise of whatever gifts God has given us.
Although the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit have ceased in redemptive history, God continues to give His people a variety of gifts for service in the church, such as teaching and preaching, mercy, hospitality, generosity, and administration. He distributes these diversely to the members of His body so that they will, in turn, use them to build up others in the same body in love (Rom. 12:6–8; Eph. 4:11–16). When gifts are exercised in love, the members of the body of Christ are unified and edified.
The ascended Christ has given his people the gift of the Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit. The extraordinary gifts of the Spirit served the purpose of authenticating the divine origin of the Apostolic message. They accompanied and served the progress of revelation in Scripture and the foundation of the new covenant church. Accordingly, they ceased with the completion of the canon of Scripture. The ordinary gifts of the Spirit are those operations that are common to His saving work in the redeemed. The Spirit causes holiness and fruit to be borne in the lives of believers. While the extraordinary gifts were operative only during the Apostolic age, the ordinary gifts remain until the end of the age. Since love was to be the guiding principle by which believers exercised their spiritual gifts during the Apostolic age, it must be so whenever we exercise any gift for the edification of God’s people.
This article originally appeared here and is used by permission.
 and undervalue the common spiritual gifts (e.g., salvation and sanctifying fruit).){kind=link}