Deeper Reflection
CHARISMA – GIFT FROM GOD – CAN BE “ETERNAL LIFE” (Rom 6:23) or spiritual gift (1 Cor 12:4, 7). Celibacy and marriage are also a charisma – “gift from God” (1 Cor 7:7). And “if the term can extend to celibacy and marriage, every person, Christian or not, is a charismatic; that is, every person has received a gracious gift from God”¹⁹. So, God has given charisma to both believers and unbelievers under both the creation and redemption order. This means “there is a large diversity of charismas such as intercession, helping the aged, promoting justice and equity, breaking the power of evil spirits, practicing a profession, rearing children, doing theology or physics, witnessing to the great deeds of God, and propagating ecological balance and global peace”²⁰.What we can do and like to do as our vocation, and where we work, should be considered as God’s gift, and thus also God’s calling, for us for the benefit of others under both the creation and redemption order. This includes changing of jobs as God leads and guides us. Christian slaves in New Testament times did not have the liberty to do what they liked. But they were to work as answering God’s call for them: “the calling in which he was called” (vv.20-22). If they could “become free”, Paul says, “rather do that” (v.21) – “Change job!” Whether the Christian slave remained as a slave, or was freed from being a slave, both are God’s call for him either way – as “the Lord’s freeman” and “Christ’s slave” (v.22). Central in our work as God’s call is following Jesus. 

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¹⁹ D. A. Carson, Showing the Spirit: A Theological Exposition of 1 Corinthians 12-14 (Baker, 1987), 21 ²⁰ Henry I. Lederle, Treasures Old And New: Interpretations of “Spirit-baptism” in the Charismatic Renewal Movement (Hendrickson, 1988), 228 (emphasis is mine)