“Where the plural is used, the term is nautical, “frapping.””

This is a direct quote from Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words. Without context it seems rather confusing. Some may have nautical experience and be able to tell you that the frapping lines are the ropes that are attached to the lifeboats. They are used to pull the lifeboats over to enable passengers to get into the lifeboat. That is a significant item in the natural world but how does it fit in the biblical sense?

Acts 27:17 King James Version (KJV) Which when they had taken up, they used helps, undergirding the ship; and, fearing lest they should fall into the quicksands, strake sail, and so were driven.

Hidden within this passage is the context in which the nautical term was found. It is the word “helps”.

While studying the spiritual gifts of 1 Corinthians 12 it seemed rather ordinary to say that the gift of helps means nothing more than being available to help in service. Anyone can help without it being a gift of the spirit. What makes helps a gift of the spirit if it is nothing more than just being available?

“You’re a life saver.”

It is one of those comments we toss around trying to indicate gratitude for an effort which we struggle with doing on our own. Tying helps back to Acts 27:17 shows us that the act of the gift of helps takes on more than simple service. Undergirding is an effort to secure that which is weak thus reducing fear in others. Where the real help comes from is in the Greek word antilepsis which carries with it a sense of the laying on of hands. There is an anticipation within that act that the Holy Spirit is participating in the act.