Parameters for gifts

Romans 12:3-8- For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.

Here’s the big picture- in view of God’s mercy, serve one another with your gifts with humility. That is what Paul is trying to achieve in this passage; that, having tasted grace and mercy from God, we would all extend grace and mercy from God to each other in various ways.

In this passage, Paul identifies the parameters for the operation of gifts of all kinds in the church- humility. Verse. 3 sets up and carries through the entire passage.

Romans 12:3- For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment…’’

In another conversation about the operation of gifts within the church in 1st Corinthians, he identifies these parameters more broadly as being ‘love’.

1 Corinthians 13:1-3- If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

As soon as we step outside of the parameters of selfless humility and love in the operation of any gift, pride threatens to spoil the act of using our gifts and the outcome of our using our gift. Gifts operating outside of the parameters of selfless humility and love often lead to spiritual abuse. So, Paul says, ‘to every one of you: begin to operate in gifts; but before you do, and as you do, do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment’.

A person with sober judgment acknowledges that they are fallen, but doesn’t stop there; they ultimately rejoice in Christ and exalts Christ and lives by faith in Christ. Sober judgment consents to do great things for the Kingdom of God, yet in the knowledge that the strength to do these great things comes from God and we are utterly dependent on Him to do them. So, Paul says ‘keep in the front of your minds always and in all that you do who you live by faith in, who you depend on and where your gifts come from’

James 1:16-17- ‘’Don't be deceived, my dear brothers. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father…’’

Paul continues in verse 6; ‘’…We have different gifts, according to the grace given us.’’

God, in His grace, gives gifts to you, not for you, but for others.

1 Peter 4:10- Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms.

So, amazingly, we have the opportunity to be used by God to ‘administer His grace in various ways and forms’ in, though not limited to, the church.

Paul continues;

Romans 12:4-5- Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.

Paul also uses this analogy of the church being a body whose members belong to each other and depend on each other in 1 Corinthians 12, which, remember, is also a conversation about the exercising of gifts within the church.

1 Corinthians 12:14-21- Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!"

The simple point of this is that as members of His body we belong to Him and we belong to each other; and that we need each other, in order for the body to function, as it should.

We are all different. Paul call’s for diversity in this passage in verse 17 ‘If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?’

So, we all, who belong to the one body, have different functions and different gifts according to and governed by God’s grace and arrangement And the idea of God’s arrangement is for our various functions and gifts to operate in such a way that the body is served, cared for and built up.