Romans 12:6–8

Some gifts did have a clearly miraculous character, and we have lost those. I do not deny that. But I deny that this was the necessary character or real meaning of charisma. It is the effect or product of charis, grace, here applied to the action of a member of the body in service.

Let us never forget that, whatever the differences, all are gifts. The grace that gave them has made one person differ from another. But it has also made each one necessary to the others, since all are in the one body. Whatever we have from the Lord, let us use it all in subjection to Him, and for the object He had in view.

There is no true Christian who has not something or other given him for service in the body — perhaps merely a little bit of wisdom. Everybody has got something for service to the body, as a hand or foot or eye; but not everybody has a prominent gift as a pastor or evangelist.

Each did his own proper work, according to the measure of faith dealt out by God. So each would act with humility, but also with firmness. He knew it was God's will and his own service. Unbelief seeks great things. It overlooks the one thing that matters: the duty God has assigned to us. We are not to go beyond its measure, or outside its nature. Let us remember, however, that there is a false modesty that fails to act, as well as the lack of modesty that goes too far.

We often limit the idea of a prophet to one who foretells future events. The main idea of the prophet is that of a forth-teller, as well as a foreteller. The prophet brings his hearers into God's presence, to face their state before Him… To be effective, a prophet must aim at the conscience. That was true of Isaiah and others who addressed a sinful nation in their day. It is just as true of those who prophesy now (Rom. 12:6).

There is great need of this: that we attend first to the nature of our gift, and second to its measure… I do not doubt that many a person's gift would be recognised if he did not go beyond his measure in it. "If he prophesies, let him prophesy according to the proportion of faith." Everything beyond that is flesh, and putting himself forward. People feel it, and they reject his whole gift, because he has not known how to keep inside it.

The reality of gift did not and does not remove the need for regulation by the word. No one brings the hearer's soul into more direct contact with God than the one who prophesies; yet his prophesying must match the faith.

There were gifts, charismata, fitting each one for his service. They all flow from the Holy Spirit, as 1 Cor. 12:4 shows… Looking at the different kinds of service in the assembly, we can divide them into two classes: ministry in the Word, and ministry in other ways.

Scripture separates what people call "ministry" from "preaching," as you will find in Romans 12. The apostle speaks of the teacher giving himself to his teaching, and of the one who serves giving himself to his service. Nowadays people use "ministry" to mean only preaching or teaching. But that is not the language of the Holy Spirit. Many people who have no such power do a great deal of serving — serving the saints. It would be no great loss if there was less ministering in that way, and more ministering in a real way.

The words minister and ministry are sometimes used of the apostles, of teachers, and of all who serve in the gospel. Sometimes they carry a narrower sense, of the office of deacon. That narrower sense seems to be the right meaning of the word "ministry" here. The deacons were officers who cared for the poor and the sick, and for the outward affairs of the church. And if a man's gift lay in ministering to the saints in this way, he was to attend to it. This is a real service of love, and one most acceptable to the Lord Jesus Christ and to His poor saints.

The teacher not only knows and enjoys the truth himself. He also has the gift of opening it up so that others see it, enjoy it, and own its weight and importance. At the same time, do not confuse the teacher with the prophet, or teaching with prophesying.

The teacher is one of the gifts set in the church, and Scripture tells the teacher to keep busy with teaching (Rom. 12:7). "Teaching" is the clear, intelligent setting out of the truth by the Holy Spirit. It leaves no room for the mind and opinion of man.

There are many members, not heads. Again, no one is to go beyond his measure. Each is to wait on his ministry, whatever it may be; let him stick to that one thing, and not attend to everything else. The one who gives, let him give with simplicity. The one who serves is to wait on his service and do the work he has to do — and let him not try anything else. In the same way, the one who exhorts is to wait on exhortation. God may give one person half a dozen gifts. One may be an evangelist only; one may exhort and move the conscience; and another may teach.

The teacher of the gospel differs from the evangelist. The evangelist works out in the world, among the unsaved. He is a fisher of men, while the teacher of the gospel feeds the babes in God's household. The two are closely related, but they are distinct gifts with different fields of work. Often the gospel teacher grieves that no one is converted when he speaks to sinners. And the man who is purely an evangelist loses his usual freedom when most of his hearers are believers. Each "gift" is for one special work, and that is the work he is appointed to do. Let then the teacher wait on his teaching (see Rom. 12:4-8), and the evangelist on his preaching.

We cannot press too strongly how important it is to take the place given us to fill, and to use the special gift or function given to us in the body. Every Christian has his own place, which no one else can fill. Each has his own work, which no other can do. The health and wellbeing of the assembly depend on believers seeing this truth and living it out.

There are many members, not heads. Again, no one is to go beyond his measure. Each is to attend to his own ministry, whatever it is. Let him stick to that one thing and not take up everything else... God may give one person half a dozen gifts.

So we see that in the days of the apostles God did not always give a man a gift for both teaching and exhorting. Each gift was to have room to be used, and each person was to keep to the service God had entrusted to him. It would have been good if believers had always remembered this and acted on it.

The teacher deals mainly with the understanding, the exhorter with the conscience. It takes great grace to be an exhorter, and just as much grace to receive a word of exhortation... Exhortation includes warning and comfort. It urges people to practical duties and turns them away from neglecting duty. It points out where they fall short. It applies the promises or the warnings of Scripture, as each case needs.

The power to do this is a very distinct gift from God. It is much rarer than the gift of the evangelist or of the one who explains Scripture. Those two keep the mind within limits — the first to the good old gospel, the second to the passage of Scripture and what is in it. In exhortation you have to apply the truth of Scripture to the soul. You have to know how to slide it in between flesh and spirit, so that it condemns the flesh and gives liberty to the spirit.

The same word that describes God's own giving is the one Paul urges on the Christian: "He that gives, in simplicity." How often mixed motives try to get into the heart when we give! Liking instead of love in one case, dislike holding us back in another. Self-importance, concern for our reputation, going along with others on one side; on the other, a cautious or unbelieving fear hiding behind excuses... A single eye here, as everywhere, promotes love, because it lets in light. And what it leads to is generosity.

A man who gives simply will give generously. The need speaks to him and stirs the love in him. And true love is wise; there is nothing blind about it. Divine love is never separate from divine wisdom.

It is striking that leading appears among the services God has given to the saints. The leader is not always gifted to teach or preach, and the teacher and preacher is not always a leader. The leader is the one whose wisdom and experience fit him to guide the people of God. He is to use his gift with the diligence that puts thought and care into his guidance.

God guards us here from drawing so sharp a line that it would favour the ruinous split between clergy and ordinary Christians, into which the early church soon slipped. Some try to find in this list a move from public gifts to private ones. But that is wholly fanciful. The Holy Spirit has made such a scheme impossible by placing the most public gift of all, the ruler or leader, between "the one who contributes" and "the one who does acts of mercy."

This is a fine gift, and one that everyone who visits the poor and the suffering should want. We are not only to show mercy. We are to show it so cheerfully that it is plain the help comforts them and is a pleasure to us. The value of any service of love done for people in sorrow depends mainly on the spirit in which it is done.