Despite all the modern connotations associated with the word charisma, it means much more than the nuances found in either the Pentecostal/charismatic theology of spiritual gifts or the functional “identifying your spiritual gifts” lists common in evangelical circles. As a gift of grace, it stresses the fact that it is a gift of God the Creator freely bestowed upon sinners — His endowment upon believers by the operation of the Holy Spirit in the churches. Theologian Gordon Fee says that Paul’s use of charisma throughout this letter to the Corinthians stresses the root word of “grace,” not the gifting itself. In fact, Fee writes: “There seems to be no real justification for the translation ‘spiritual gift’ for this word. Rather, they are ‘gracious endowments’ (where the emphasis lies on the grace involved in their being so gifted), which at times, as in this letter, is seen also as the gracious activity of the Spirit in their midst.”

Are you still with me here?

This grammar lesson is important because we need to understand what kind of gift we are talking about when we discuss “the gift of singleness.” It’s not a gift that we have to spend time trying to identify, and even worrying that we may have forever. If we’re single today, we have the gracious gift of singleness today. How we may feel about it—“Do I like being single? Do I desire marriage instead?” — is not part of the equation. The emphasis here is on a gracious God who gives good gifts, and ultimately on His purpose for giving them. It’s also not a “spiritual gift” in the way we’ve come to use that term in our churches today. It’s not an activity or a role, but a blessing — like the free gift [charisma] of eternal life (Romans 5:15) that was given to us without any merit of our own.

We have this “gracious endowment” to be single. But for what purpose? We find it just a few chapters later, in 1 Cor. 12:4-7. It reads: “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good” (emphasis added). Then, after giving a list of ways the Spirit can be manifested for the common good, Paul writes in verse 11: “All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.”

We have each received a variety of gifts. 1 Corinthians 7:7 says that as a single woman, I have received the charisma of singleness. 1 Corinthians 12:8-10 lists other gifts that I may also receive.  I may yet one day receive the gift of marriage. However, two things are important to remember about any spiritual gift: