Why does God give spiritual gifts to the church?
God gives spiritual gifts to the church so that believers may grow in their Christian experience and so that they will not be blown about with every wind of doctrine. These gifts are meant to bring growth and stability, not confusion, as the surrounding passage on church order demonstrates.
Les explains that the purpose of spiritual gifts is to bring believers into growth in their Christian experience and to keep them from being blown about with every wind of doctrine. In the surrounding context of 1 Corinthians 14, he notes that if the whole church comes together and all speak with various languages, an outsider will say they are mad—the Greek root means maniac. But if all prophesy, the unbeliever or unlearned is convinced and judged; the secrets of his heart are made manifest, and he falls down and worships God, reporting that God is in you of a truth. Paul therefore insists that when they come together, each having a psalm, doctrine, tongue, revelation, or interpretation, doing all at once produces confusion. So all things must be done decently and in order.