Spiritual Gifts Are Not Private

The emphasis here [1 Cor. 12:4-7] is not on the particular gifts being considered but on how they are used.  They are for “the common good” (Greek, sumphero, “to bring together,” “to be profitable”). One of the common misconceptions of the biblical teaching on spiritual gifts is that they are for the personal benefit of the one to whom they are given.  Another misconception, in our analysis, is that they can be cultivated.  In fact, and quite to the contrary, Paul seems to view them as having been given exclusively for the profit and mutual benefit of the body of Christ.  Furthermore, they are “gifts,” not products of human effort and training.  They are neither privately owned nor can they, like skills, be developed.  Their function is to offer to the body something that it would not have if the individual through whom they are intended to be exercised cannot or will not use them for the mutual benefit of the body…. Implicit in this exercise is that the gift honors the One who gave it (cf. v.3).

Dan Mitchell, The Book of First Corinthians: Christianity In A Hostile Culture, p.176