Spiritual Gifts in the Church Part 1

God distributes spiritual gifts to every believer in the church. In this passage, Paul exhorts, “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.” The key to proper recognition and exercise of spiritual gifts is sober thinking. We are not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think, but to think wisely. Paul uses the word “think” four times in these verses.

Christians are to be thinking people. Much religion today is characterized by ignorance. When many people come together on Sunday morning, they glory in their irrationality. Such people are easily manipulated by ministers whose only interest is to separate them from their money. They are empty-headed. But in this church, we are interested in thinking.

In Romans 12:3-5, Paul directs true believers everywhere to live transformed lives by discerning and doing the will of God by their renewed minds, thus presenting their bodies as living sacrifices to God. Specifically, he exhorts us not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought, but to think with sober judgment, so that we may accurately know what our God-given ministry gifts are by which we can serve God by serving his holy church.

Paul says we are not to think too highly of ourselves. That is called abnormal thinking. It can be illustrated by a ninety-year-old man who lives in California and claims to be a Christian. This man has foolishly stated many times that he received great spiritual understanding from God by which he could predict the exact date of the second coming of Christ and the end of the world. That is hyper-thinking, thinking beyond. He claimed to be different from all others who have made such wrong predictions. According to this man, Harold Camping of Family Radio, the rapture was to take place on May 21, 2011, and the world was to end on October 21, 2011. But none of these things happened. Mr. Camping proved himself to be a proud, arrogant fool. If he had paid attention to Romans 12:3-5, he would not have committed this error.

The Apostolic Directive

Paul begins, “For I say to everyone who is among you, by the grace given to me,” meaning, “because I am an apostle.” Paul understood correctly the apostolic ministry given to him by the grace of God. A very humble man, he called himself the least of all saints, the chief of sinners, and the last of the apostles.

But Paul was not confused about his calling. He did not overestimate or underestimate it; he made a sober judgment. In Romans 1:5 he wrote, “Through Jesus Christ we received grace and apostleship to call the Gentiles to the obedience of faith.” As an apostle of Christ, he had the authority to direct all the saints of the church, because when an apostle speaks, Christ himself is speaking. So he writes, “To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints” (Rom. 1:7). It appears there was no apostle in Rome. So Paul spoke to the Roman Christians with authority, as he also speaks to us with authority. The apostle’s word is God’s word.

Notice, Paul spoke “to everyone.” If we are Christians who confess Jesus Christ is Lord, he is speaking to us now by his infallible, apostolic word. The apostle was giving directions to every believer, not only to those in the Roman church, but throughout the world. Each believer must exercise his renewed mind. Christianity demands thinking with a God-given new heart. Maximum use of our minds is necessary to thrive as Christians.

In contrast, unbelievers are fools. Their minds are depraved; thus, they deny the existence of the true and living triune God. But we must grow in grace and in the knowledge of God. We understand spiritual things revealed in the holy Scriptures by the ministry of the Holy Spirit and the ministry of God’s holy church. Paul is writing to every believer, as seen by the emphasis he puts in the Greek text. Pay attention, every saint of God!

What is Paul saying to us? He is telling us to think accurately, wisely, biblically. The pattern of this world is to exaggerate. Unbelievers regularly use flattery. They also lie when writing their resumes. They constantly overestimate and bear false witness. But Christians with their renewed minds are to think and speak accurately. We are to speak as the oracles of God. And in this way, we are also to evaluate what ministry gift we have received from God.

God gives us gifts, not to make us proud, but that we may serve the body of Christ. American culture glorifies rigid, insulated, and rugged individualism at the expense of community, family, and church. Americans speak of “I,” “me,” “my,” and “mine.” They say, “I am interested only in myself.”

The Danger of Over-Thinking

As Christians, we must resist this sin of prideful over-thinking because we are not to conform to the pattern of this present evil age. Unbelievers are conceited and overestimate their abilities. They desire pre-eminence in everything. They are overconfident yet underperforming. But such a proud, inflated evaluation of oneself is like being drunk and out of one’s mind. In 3 John 9, the apostle John writes of Diotrephes, a leader in the church. He loved to be first, and so refused to submit to John’s apostolic authority. He is an illustration of a person given to overestimation and exaggeration of his ministry gift. Dr. James Boice speaks about an encounter between Oscar Browning, the brother of poet Robert Browning, and Alfred Lord Tennyson, who was living at that time on the Isle of Wight. Oscar Browning introduced himself to Mr. Tennyson, saying, “I am Browning.” Alfred Lord Tennyson replied, “No, you are not,” and walked away. Oscar Browning, a nobody, was pretending to be what he was not-his famous brother.¹

Hyper-thinking is a form of insanity. Such people suffer from a “Look at me” syndrome. They often choose to wear shiny shoes and bright colors that declare, “Look at me! I am somebody.” They are, in truth, narcissists, pretending to be someone they are not.

Paul tells us that not many wise, influential, or of noble birth are called. Rather, God chose the foolish, weak, lowly, and despised things-the zeroes of the world-so that no one may boast before him (1 Cor. 1:26-29). All that we have, we received as gifts from God. God requires humility, not pride, from us, and those who see God by faith in his word will live humble lives.

So do not overestimate or underestimate, but soberestimate-by the aid of the Holy Spirit, the holy Scripture, and the ministry of God’s holy church.

A Christian is a Spirit-filled and controlled man. Because he is controlled by the Spirit, he has the mind of Christ. He is able to judge all things accurately. For example, my Spirit-taught mother knew more about God than theologians Barth, Brunner, and Bultmann put together.

God cannot lie. Christ is the truth. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth, so a Christian must think accurately and must speak truth. This ability to judge accurately is a mark of an authentic Christian. Christians are given the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of power, love, and sound reasoning (sôphronounte, 2 Tim. 1:7). The Holy Spirit enables us to reason and judge accurately.

After Jesus cast out the legion of demons from a man, the man sat at the feet of Jesus, clothed and “in his sound mind.” He understood instantly everything accurately because he was Spirit-controlled, Spirit-filled, and Spirit-transformed.

Do not be ignorant or arrogant like the Corinthians, whom Paul exhorted, “We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise” (2 Cor. 10:12). The Corinthians overvalued certain gifts, like speaking in tongues. Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones speaks of several young men who thought they were called to preaching. The great doctor was sure they were not. But they did not believe him and so they went ahead and failed as ministers. This is the problem of hyper-thinking. They overestimated their gifts.

Satan always overestimates himself. He thinks he is God. So he said, “I will ascend above the tops of the clouds, I will make myself like the Most High” (Isa. 14:14). The demonized Nebuchadnezzar boasted in Daniel 4:30, “Is not this the great Babylon I have built as my royal residence by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty!” (Dan. 4:30). Hyper-thinking is characteristic of demon possession. It is overestimation. In our time, Saddam Hussein wanted to rebuild Babylon. But he could not do it. He was overestimating, and eventually he was killed. Hyper-thinking brings us down to the dust.

Peter was hyper-thinking when he boldly asserted, “Even if all fall away, I will not.” Jesus told him, “I tell you the truth, today-yes, tonight-before the rooster crows twice, you yourself will disown me three times.” Peter insisted emphatically, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you” (Mark 14:29-31). Yet Peter proceeded to disown Jesus three times that same night.

Every unbeliever who refuses to believe in Jesus Christ is hyper-thinking that he doesn’t need the Savior. He says, “I am righteous. I don’t need anyone. I have not sinned.” An unbeliever does not repent because he cannot accurately estimate himself. Repentance means correct thinking. He cannot repent, that is, he cannot think accurately. When the Holy Spirit helps him, he cries out to God, “Have mercy upon me, a sinner.”

God Gives Gifts for Service

The apostle exhorts us to think with sôphronein< (sober judgment), nothuperphronein (hyper-thinking), about the ministry gifts God has measured out to us. Each believer is given at least one spiritual gift to serve God’s church with. It is called charis (grace), charisma (grace gift), or simply pistis (faith). It is God’s unearned favor to us. It is a grace gift. It is called also a “measure of faith,” measured out to each one of us by God himself.

So we serve the church with our ministry gift by faith, in dependence on God. It is not a natural gift, nor is it saving faith, which is given to every Christian. This is a specific service gift of faith. George Müller was given this faith gift to pray and receive from God all he needed for his large orphanage work without asking any human being. We do the same here. We never beg for a dime. Therefore, God gives to every believer certain ministry gifts, and each of us is to know accurately what our gifts are and function in them, as we read in the following scriptures:

• 1 Corinthians 1:7: “Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed.”
• 1 Corinthians 3:5: “What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe-as the Lord has assigned to each his task.”
• 1 Corinthians 12:7: “Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.”
• 1 Corinthians 12:11: “All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.”
• 1 Corinthians 12:28: “And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues.”
• Ephesians 4:7: “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.
• Ephesians 4:11-13: It was [Christ] who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”
• Romans 12:3b: “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.”
• Romans 12:6: “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.”
• 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.”

Each believer is to evaluate accurately what his service gifts are, based on the objective reality of God having measured out to him a measure of faith. Are you a five-talent man, a two-talent man, or a one-talent man? Most are one-talent saints, and if you are, do not become frustrated or angry, but serve with that one talent. Be content with what God has given you. Be faithful in doing business with it and increase it. Don’t bury it and be condemned by Christ on the last day.

Yet Paul also exhorts us to desire earnestly spiritual gifts (1 Cor. 12:31; 14:1). And it is God who sovereignly determines what gifts he would give us. (PGM) We are asked to pray, and he distributes according to his own sovereignty. We are to be faithful, therefore, in serving God and his church with the charisma that he entrusted us with. God distributes ministry gifts in different kinds and proportion to promote interdependence, not independence and rivalry.

We Need Correct Doctrine of the Church

This ministry gift is not for personal enjoyment or advancement, but for building up the body of Christ. It is like a potluck. Everyone brings what God has given them for everyone else so that all people are nourished: “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing. But let us encourage one another, and all the more, as you see the day approaching” (Heb. 10:24-25).

In the evangelical Protestant world, there is a defective understanding of ecclesiology, the doctrine of the church. People emphasize individualism at the expense of the church community, the body of Christ. They emphasize the many members, not the one body of Christ. Most of today’s churches are buildings filled with individuals who do not relate to each other or to God in any loving, meaningful way. But Romans 12:4-5 teaches both: the many and the one.

We must get back to the biblical doctrine of the church. Like our human body, the church is an organism consisting of many members, each vitally united to Jesus Christ and to one another. Paul writes, “For as in one body we have many members[eye, toes, hands, etc.] and all members do not have the same work but different work, even so we, though many are one body in Christ and individually members belonging to one another” (Rom. 12:4-5, author’s paraphrase). Therefore, in covenant love God relates to us and we relate to God. And in covenant love we also relate to one another. We get along with each other-husbands and wives, parents and children, brothers and sisters in Christ.

The church of Christ is an organism, a family, a body, a community-many members yet one body, vitally connected. There is glorious diversity and glorious unity.

The word “church” appears several times in Romans 16 (vv. 1, 4, 5, 16, and 23). Each member belongs to all the others, and all the others belong to him. There is a unity of the church, plurality of its members, and variety of charismata (i.e., service gifts) to meet every need of that church.

The church is not a pile of disconnected, individual members-eyes, toes, fingers, ears. That is death. It is gruesome and stinks. Yet this is the state of most churches in this country and throughout the world. Most churches consist of a building with many individuals coming together in the building for an hour. They have no connection or relationship with each other. They are strangers. They don’t know anyone or serve anyone. It is just like when someone confuses a pile of building materials for a beautiful building. A pile of building materials is not a beautiful building.

When such people show up in a true church, they say, “This is strange. I don’t understand.” They are not used to seeing people relating to each other and God in covenant love.

The church is likened in the Bible to a body, a bride, a building, and a vine with branches. Its many members are united in Christ and love God with all their heart, mind, soul, and strength. They love each other as themselves, and each serves others with the gifts God has endowed him with. Each has property in all others, and all others have property in him. There is no divisions, no quarrels, no pride, no selfishness. Rather, the fruit of the Spirit is present and visible to all: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is the ministry of the word and also the diaconal ministry to meet the spiritual and material needs of the people of God. In a true church, everyone works. There are no idle freeloaders.

Above all, in a true church, there is Christ, there is light, there is life, there is hope, there is freedom, there is forgiveness, there is equality, there is victory, and there is power. There is the unity of one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God, the Father of all, who is above all, through all, and in all (Eph. 4:4-6). There is no clergy/laity one-man ministry. Everyone is a minister, either in the word ministry or in diaconal/helps ministry. A true church practices the priesthood of all believers. There is oneness and manifoldness in Christ. Each believer is born of the heavenly Father, and so all God’s children love the Father and one another. “[Each one has] property in one another and therefore in one another’s gifts and graces,” said Professor John Murray.² Each one ministers spiritually and materially to each other. We love one another.

In this church, I have property in you and you have property in me. I want you to grow in grace and be successful. If you sin, you trouble me and deprive me, as well as troubling and depriving your spouse and children and the rest of the church. But if you grow in grace, it is good for me, good for your family, and good for the rest of the saints. Therefore, it is our responsibility to watch out for each other’s welfare, just as we would watch out for the other people in our natural families. So I am to help you, you are to help me, and we will both succeed. We are inter-dependent, not independent. We are many yet one in Christ. When one person suffers, everyone suffers; when one rejoices, everyone rejoices. You are the eyes; I am the feet. The body needs the service of both. Their services are necessary and important. Eyes show the feet where to go, and the feet will take the body there. We need each other.

The Lord is always adding members to his church (see 1 Cor. 12:14-21). They have different spiritual gifts given to them by the Holy Spirit for the proper functioning of his body, as he determines. There are needs in each church, which are met by the members through what God has given us. Thus, each member’s ministry is essential to the life of the whole body. There is no non-working member in the body of Christ. Your ministry is not just important but essential. No one ministers independently of others. That would be convulsion. The body is in good health when each part functions well. The body is sick when some parts are not functioning correctly.

The function of every part must be subject to the control of the Lord, who is the head of the church. Paul explains, “Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work” (Eph. 4:15-16). We are to work together; we are not to selfishly take our marbles and go home when things do not go our way. And we will grow up in Christ as each part does its work through the spiritual gifts God endows.

So our meaning is found in our functioning in the body and for the body, not apart from the body. What is the meaning of an eye if it is not seeing in the body and for the body? A member apart from the body is dead.

Evaluating Our Spiritual Gifts

How, then, can we arrive at sober judgment of our spiritual gifts?

1. Pray, and God will reveal to us what our gifts are.
2. Study the word of God, especially passages relating to spiritual gifts.
3. Ask the church. The church is our mother, and she knows our gifts.
4. Ask your spouse and children.
5. Ask your parents.
6. Ask the ministers. First Timothy 3 tells us who a minister is and who a deacon is. Generally gifts manifest themselves in our service in the church. For instance, when the early church asked for seven people to function as deacons, they said, “These are the qualifications: he must be full of the Holy Spirit, full of wisdom, and full of faith.” They went about and found such men, which included Stephen and Philip.

Grace Valley Christian Center was founded on the principle of everyone serving with whatever spiritual gifts God gives. This is one of the few churches in the world that practices the priesthood of all believers. We do so because of my own experience. I was brought up in a revival that began in the 1920s and lasted for thirty years. As a boy, I observed the glory and beauty of a true church that loved and served each other. I saw with my own eyes the Holy Spirit powerfully and miraculously moving in the lives of people. So when we started this church, I was led to practice this biblical model. Even today, God is moving powerfully in our midst. Each believer is functioning for the body of Christ in his capacity given to him by God, who measured to him the measure of faith. To God be all the glory! We are most miserable when we try to function in areas where we are not gifted, but we are most happy when we function in our spiritual gifts. Let us then function in the gifts God has given us and be content in them. Let us serve others and receive the ministry of all others. Let us be careful not to think of ourselves beyond what we ought to think. Humility promotes unity. So let us be completely humble, gentle, and patient, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (Eph. 4:2-3).

¹ James M. Boice, Romans, Vol. 4, The New Humanity: Romans 12-16, (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1995), 1567.

² John Murray, The Epistle to the Romans, Vol. 1 and II combined in one volume,The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, reprinted 1979), 120 (in vol. II).