12:6 Having gifts . . . let us use them. See “Gifts and Ministries” at Eph. 4:7.

prophecy. To prophesy is to speak the word of God, but the nature of New Testament prophecy is nowhere defined and is much debated. Prophecy is distinguished here and elsewhere from teaching (v. 7; Acts 13:1; 1 Cor. 12:29; Eph. 4:11), perhaps because of the greater sense of immediacy and spontaneity attached to it (Acts 13:1–3; 21:10, 11).

in proportion to our faith. Some interpreters see “faith” as the prophet’s own faith (cf. vv. 3, 6). Others understand “faith” to mean the truth content of the gospel as the standard and measure of each prophetic utterance, testing whether the utterance conforms to “the pattern of the sound words” (2 Tim. 1:13).