Humility and Giftedness for Mutual Ministry – Romans 12:3–8

PRAY

To start chapter 12 Paul has said that we will live pleasing to God if we are motivated by God’s mercies in the gospel to devote our whole lives to God as our reasonable worship. By this whole-life investment the Spirit continues transforming us to be like Jesus as our minds are renovated in gospel truth to discern and do the will of God.

Now Paul turns toward a healthy self-understanding and commitment within God’s design for Christian community.

Romans 12:3–8 ESV

³ 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. ⁴ For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, ⁵ so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. ⁶ Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; ⁷ if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; ⁸ 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.

Note Paul’s emphasis on right thinking, which connects back to minds renewed in the truth of the gospel. And this right thinking corresponds to a humble self-understanding for the healthy functioning of the Christian community. What Paul says to us here is that we must…

Christian community, humbly recognize mutual helpfulness and prioritize spiritual giftedness.

Paul knows that this new thinking needs to be shaped to understand the collective nature of the Christian life. Our individualistic inclination needs correction. It is not healthy for us to try to fly solo. There shouldn’t be any Lone Ranger Christians. The wisdom of God is that the community in Christ will work together and grow together like a healthy human body.

So a commitment to God is a commitment to his people. And yes this means to the church universal, but Paul speaks to a body of believers in a specific locality for the normative practice of these principles. And Paul teaches that healthy Christian community requires joint humility and activity in gifted ministry.

We’ve divided this into two parts for our understanding and practice. The first three verses teach us to humbly recognize mutual helpfulness. 

By grace humbly recognize your helpfulness and your need for others. (verses 3-5)

What informs our humility is grace. You have not been rescued and adopted because of your goodness or greatness, but by God’s grace. You are not able to serve him by your ingenuity and strength but by his gracious gifting through the Holy Spirit. Not just our new position in Christ, but also our activity for Christ, is all by grace.

So Paul indicates that by grace we should humbly recognize our helpfulness and our need for others. First, we should consider our helpfulness to the church with humble realism.

Romans 12:3 ESV

³ 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.

1. Consider your helpfulness to the church with humble realism.

Clearheaded humility is needed for Christian life in community. One must have a humble self-estimation, not only in relationship to God but also in relationship to fellow believers.

Paul sets an example by humbly highlighting his apostolic authority as a matter of God’s gracious choice. (not attributed to Paul’s goodness or accomplishments) - Two things we should note: This isn’t just good advice or personal opinions, but authoritative teaching. Even so, Paul models both the humility and the activity of exercising ones gifting in service to God for the mutual good of the Christian community.

Next he is clear to apply this to everyone without exception: I say this “to every one among you.” And what he says to everyone is that we all need to learn a new way of thinking about ourselves with humble realism: “not to think more highly than we ought, but to think with sober judgment.” (It’s a play on words with three references to thinking.)

The point is that we must learn to think differently. We all alike are in danger of being intoxicated with our own self-importance. Instead Paul wants us to be soberly wise, to be reasonable and sensible based upon seeing reality through God’s grace to us and to others.

So Paul says that each one of us needs to think of our usefulness according to the measure of faith that God has assigned, or apportioned. Some have suggested that this “measure” refers to faith as “the standard” rather than to a quantity or quality. Although that’s theologically attractive, since Paul says God apportions or assigns to each one this measure of faith, it does seem to indicate distinct quantities or qualities. And in this context of grace-gifts, I believe Paul is connecting the two things such that he’s saying God apportions this faith for different functions. But we are to trust God that he knows best in his endowment of faith for a particular gifting.

If there arises any issue from this, it is not in God’s assigning, but with our wrongful desire for self-aggrandizing. In Paul’s day, like our own, “the quest for honor and status… was endemic in the Roman world.” (Schreiner, BECNT Romans, 2nd ed.) But the gospel renews our minds to think rightly about ourselves, so that we neither inflate our importance nor denigrate our value to the team.

So what will humble us and give us a healthy understanding is to learn to see ourselves as God sees us, and to trust him implicitly. Let grace reshape how you see yourself and others.

In humility then you will also learn to recognize and appreciate the contribution of others. That becomes clear in the two verses that follow.

Romans 12:4–5 ESV

⁴ For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, ⁵ so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.

2. The church needs all its parts functioning and valuing each other.

The metaphorical comparison of Christ’s church to the human body has at least a couple of important lessons here.

Christianity is a communal activity. The parts have no meaning except in relationship to each other and the whole. - Illustration: On a football team, the quarterback and the tight end, or the middle linebacker and the safety, have no meaning except in relationship to each other and the whole. Just so, the church is the body of Christ. In Christ, we are members one of another.

A further implication of Paul’s teaching, like Peter’s, is that it abolishes the sharp distinction between priesthood and laity. Although there will be some who serve before God in particular roles for promoting order in our service to God, the emphasis is on the fact that all the saints are essential to healthy and effective ministry of worshiping God with our whole lives.

What Paul says is exceedingly practical. The church, like the body, needs all its parts functioning and valuing each other. If one doesn’t serve, the whole family suffers the loss of that valuable contribution. And we must learn to place a high value on one another’s contribution to the grace of God at work among us. 1 Corinthians 12:21–23(a) “The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor…”

When you believe the need and value of the community aspect of the Christian life, you will want to be involved in serving, and you will honor the important role that others play in your life and in the health of the church.

Before we move on, let me press the application further.

-One enemy of mutual ministry is self-importance; another is selfish comfort. 

One Christian writer said, “To himself, every man is in a sense the most important person in the world, and it always needs much grace to see what other people are, and to keep a sense of moral proportion.” (J. Denney quoted in Mounce, NAC Romans)  Ask God to help you appreciate others. And make a practice of thanking them, which will serve to continually help you appreciate their contribution more and more.

Also, our desire for our own comfortability has two consequences. We don’t want to get off the bench (especially when we are exhausted from other things that vie for our time and energy), and we don’t want to deal with the messiness of imperfect people in ministry together.

We tell ourselves we can’t serve because the situation isn’t perfect and the leaders aren’t perfect. But you will not have perfect servant leaders… anywhere. However, you can find men and women who are sincere in their love for you and in pursuit of becoming like Jesus. Plus, your evaluation of your teammates is likely tainted with some degree of a dangerous inclination to assume that you know better and would do better. Let grace reshape your thinking so that you trust God to work in you and others, and through you and through others.

As a servant leaders here, our aim is to provide you with opportunities for fellowship, training in truth, and serving others, but we can’t make you do any of these things. You must recognize the value and voluntarily priotize these things in your life. That’s Paul’s second emphasis in our passage for the Christian community: we must prioritize our spiritual giftedness in the way we seek to helpful.

Prioritize unique grace-gifts and exercise them from the heart. (verses 6-8)

You schedule your life around what you value, and you invest in what you value.

So in learning to value this mutual ministry, Paul instructs us to do our part in the way that God outfits us by his grace. Serve the community in your spiritual giftedness with sincerity.

Romans 12:6–8 ESV

⁶ Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; ⁷ if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; ⁸ 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.

We need to prioritize unique grace-gifts and exercise them from the heart. A first implication is readily apparent in the way Paul sets this up, and then lists a sampling of grace-gifts.

1. Exercise the Spirit’s gifting to the church.

Before getting into the specifics, be sure not to miss that this is the primary point. “Having grace-gifts that differ according to the grace given us, let us use them.” Then he lists seven examples. The first four emphasize exercising the specific spiritual gift, and the final 3 highlight that we are to practice them with the right motive and attitude.

There are some general principles worth gleaning from a list like this in Paul’s writings.

First, these are supernatural giftings by grace from the Spirit of God (1 Cor 12:1). They are for the saints to do the work of God for the people of God (that includes evangelism). Christian experience has shown that spiritual gifts therefore work seamlessly with other natural talents and personality traits that God has given, and in tandem with our experiences and education. But the gifts themselves are unique, supernatural manifestations of the Spirit of God at work in you for the good of the church.

Second, it’s helpful to note that Paul’s list is not exhaustive (or all-inclusive). We can tell this by comparison to similar lists in 1 Cor 12 and Eph 4, where there are some similar ones but different ones listed as well. That helps us realize that Paul is not limiting the gifts to only these, but telling us about some clear examples that are often readily evident in the church. Again from Christian experience we learn that many people seem to have a mixture of this listed giftings. (For example, I know someone whose spiritual gifting is pronounced in the areas of encouragement and evangelism, seasoned with a lot of mercy and compassion. This is plainly reflected when he teaches and disciples and exhorts others. - If you invest a little energy in trying to observe something like this, you will notice it with other examples.)

A third implication is that you will discover your gifting through actively serving the body in a variety of ways to see where you are most helpful and most fulfilled. Get in there and try things. Listen well for feedback. As it becomes evident that the Spirit gives you unique joy and helpfulness in certain areas, invest yourself most fully in that way. And note that naming your spiritual gifting is less useful than figuring out in practice what is most useful and fulfilling, and exercising that for the good of God’s people.

Now let’s look briefly at Paul’s first four example areas of spiritual giftedness:

The gift of prophecy in the NT sense seems to have some similarity but also clear distinction from the office of prophets in the OT. Those individuals received direct revelation from God, in speech and in visions, to then communicate that specific message from God: “Thus says the Lord.” It could also have aspects for foretelling what was coming and not just forthtelling God’s truth. The NT also has examples of God revealing things that would happen, as when the prophet Agabus told Paul about his impending arrest (Acts 21:10-11). But the NT also has examples of prophetic forth-telling the word and will of God with clarity.

There are two primary options for understanding this NT gift of prophecy. One is that it is akin to OT prophecy, only it was happening even more in the early days as a sign of the pouring out of the Spirit on the church. Most who take this view would conclude then that this type of prophecy would have ceased with the completion of Scripture, or else we would still be adding authoritative revelation to God’s word, something the last book of the Bible forbids. Others think the gift (rather than the office of prophet) describes a unique gifting to proclaim the truth of God’s word in a way that is particularly applicable to present situations. To be honest, I don’t know who is correct, although I slightly favor the first interpretation, unless prophecy now is akin to preaching and is different from teaching only in a unique gifting for publicproclamation of the truth. But I’m more convinced that it isn’t necessary to specifically name our spiritual gifts; rather, we must exercise them.

Here Paul says to prophesy in correct proportion (analogia) to faith, or in right relationship to the faith. Paul is probably saying, never prophesy to impress others or gain standing, but always and only prophesy in proportion to that which God has definitely and clearly revealed.

Thankfully, the remaining gifts listed are easier to interpret. The second reference is giftedness in service. This ministry is connected to our word for deacon. Both the noun and verb reference practical ministry of hands-on service to others. (I enjoy sharing examples of this. To give just one, I can think of someone in our midst who came up with a new, previously non-existent way to care for people in the church, providing cough drops, mints, chapstick, water, hand sanitizer, and so on. (I never thought of this ministry, nor would I have. But someone did, and acted on it.)

The one who is gifted to teach is to be faithful in systematically interpreting, explaining, and applying God’s truth for the edification of others. Such teaching takes many different forms, depending upon setting and purpose. Teaching happens in apprentice-type relationships, and in small groups or large groups.

The one who exhorts is a gifting that comes alongside of others to earnestly encourage them or fervently challenge them to appropriate response. Exhortation will, depending on the situation and need, include aspects of both warning and comforting.

As Paul finishes his list with three more examples, he emphasizes the manner or motive in which they are done.

2. Sincerity matters to God for our good.

If these things are supernatural giftings of the Spirit, then we should desire to do them and have unique fulfillment in doing so for the church. But Paul is keenly aware of our ever-present struggle with sin, so he instructs us to take care that our motive and manner matches the activity, because sincerity matters to God.

One example is contributing from what God supplies… with generosity (or sincerity). Sharing and giving is to be done with an inward honesty and straightforwardness that is pleasing to God from the heart. I think this would mean that it is not for show nor to gain standing or influence, but is given freely to God’s work. - Now we know that God desires that we give regularly, and that we do so freely and cheerfully, from the heart (2 Cor 9:7). So this is good exhortation for all of us. But remember that this is describing someone who is especially gifted in generosity. I don’t doubt that you probably know some fellow believers like this. If this is your gifting, maintain honesty and sincerity in your motive and methods.

Leading (to stand at the front or be set over others) is another gifting where Paul chooses to highlight that we must do so with eagerness and diligence. Peter tells elders to lead willingly and not under compulsion (1 Peter 5:2), which seems to be a reminder to keep a joyful attitude and not behave like people are a burden. Similarly, people who lead and administrate in other capacities should do it diligently and eagerly. - In my observation in twenty-something years of joint ministry, I’ve noticed that there are two different ways people are normally gifted in administrative leadership (cf. 1 Cor 12:28). One is a little more out-front leadership of people, and another is leadership of processes (systematization and organization). And we need both working together. (One leans toward prioritizing the people, and the other toward prioritizing the processes. Neither is wrong if we learn the importance of the other and lean on each other for help.)

Finally, acts of mercy—caring for those in need—is to be carried out cheerfully. Who wants to receive help when it is being done begrudgingly? No, the blessing to those who are in need of help and care comes from merciful kindness carried our cheerfully. - I think of those of you who seem uniquely gifted in noticing people in need to then talk to them, care for them, and pray with them. This kindness from the Spirit means much to encourage the burdened heart.

As we move toward a finish line for today, let me summarize a couple practical applications, as I did for the first section.

-One hindrance to joint ministry is refusing to use and sharpen our gifts; another is wrong motives and attitudes.

We must be seeking to exercise gifts of the Spirit given for the good of the church. Of course, this does not exempt us from obedience to Christlikeness and faithfulness in areas that are not our pronounced spiritual gifting. Ex. Let’s say my giftedness is more administrative in terms of organization and task-management, or in hands on service to accomplish labors that help the body. I should still learn self-control in my speech and to speak the truth of God’s word in counsel to fellow believers and in evangelism to unbelievers. Or if I am gifted by the Spirit of God for public preaching, I am not too good to jump in and serve with my functioning hands and legs and back where needed or helpful.

Exercise your spiritual giftedness with sincerity. Actively prioritize unique giftedness and serve from the heart. Just think about how much these sincere motives impact our relationships overall. Humility and genuineness softens frustration and waters forgiveness. When we believe someone loves us and wants what is best for us, it’s easier to overlook quirks and mistakes, and easier to forgive offenses. So be humble and loving, be gentle and genuine.

Christian community, humbly recognize mutual helpfulness and prioritize spiritual giftedness.

Be humble and be actively helpful. Honor others and value their contribution.

With sincerity, exercise what God has given to the church uniquely through you.

Let grace have its way in you and through you so that the Lord may be pleased with us, personally and collectively, as he builds his church.

PRAY

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