Thank you for joining me back here for the next lesson in our series, working through Part 2 of the Not Ashamed of the Gospel Bible Study from HelloMornings.
The Bible passage for today is Romans 12: 3 - 8 ...
Because of the privilege and authority God has given me, I give each of you this warning: Don’t think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us. 4 Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, 5 so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other. 6 In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you. 7 If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. 8 If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly.
Paul has two main themes in this passage: unity and humility:
In calling on Believers to be humble, he is not telling us to act inferior to others, but we are to see the truth about ourselves. "When we see ourselves as we really are," says David Guzik, "it is impossible to be given over to pride."
Secondly, Paul reminds us that the Church is meant to be a unified whole, although it is made up of distinct individuals within the body. Believers are called to unity, but not uniformity.
The reason we are able to do this is because of the common ground of Christ on which the Church is built. He has given us our individual gifts for the common good of the Body of Christ as a whole.
As Believers, I believe that it is vital that we know what our particular Spiritual gift profile is, and then that we use those gifts for the benefit of the Church in the advancement of the Kingdom of God. That is when we reflect the picture of the Church God intended well in the world.
Photo credit: Wham 3622