Let Us Use Them

Let Us Use Them.  Largely unrecognized, a pattern develops in the front half of the four main passages about the genius utility governing the spiritual gifts (1 Pet. 4:10-11, Rom. 12:3-8, Eph. 4:7-16, and 1 Cor. 12:1-14:40). The gifts, themselves, are never the focus but the means which God gives the church to empower our focused purpose till every last one of us finishes his or her course. Our focus is Jesus. Our purpose is helping others focus upon Jesus, too.

Peter addresses the individual about using his gift: “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another” (1 Pet. 4:10a). Paul addresses the group about using their gifts: “Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them” (Rom 12:6b). Peter categorizes the gifts into two kinds: speaking gifts and supporting gifts. Paul categorizes the gifts into seven kinds: ”If prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness” (Rom 12:6c-8). However, the aspect that stands out in Romans 12 about spiritual gifts is not their number or category, but their correspondence to God’s distribution of grace. “For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. (Rom. 12:3). God gives grace to see Jesus, and through Jesus, to see all.

Competition is nowhere in the church, only correspondence to the task entrusted to the church by Christ. In other words, we aren’t meant to measure ourselves by ourselves because we aren’t the standard of godliness in the universe (2 Cor. 10:12). Christ is the standard! If our focus in the church is anywhere other than on him, then we get blurry about him, and all else.

On the surface, such an observation seems simplistic: look to Jesus. But digging down beneath the surface, how many books in Christian bookstores or songs on Christian radio match that standard? By some counts, we write books and sing songs mainly about us: our heroes, our grievances, our spiritual giftedness. The church mainly looks to the church, but by grace the spiritual gifts enable us to look to Jesus. By Jesus’ grace-gifts can we see him clearly. Having seen him clearly, we see others dearly. “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb. 12:1-2).