or service, [let us occupy ourselves] in service; or he that teaches, in teaching;
Paul has just said that believers, though many, form one body. Their gifts differ, and this verse names two of them — service and teaching. Both come with the same instruction: stay in it.
The ESV calls this gift "service." Older translations call it "ministry," the word the writers below use. Either way, it does not mean public speaking:
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.
Commentators differ on how wide the word is. Some take it as any service to the saints; others tie it to the work of a deacon:
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.
Teaching is more than holding the truth yourself:
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.
That also settles what a teacher may say:
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.
The repeated instruction — service in serving, teaching in teaching — draws a boundary. Each person does his own work and leaves the rest alone:
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.
Two gifts can look alike and still not swap places:
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.
This is not just a personal matter. The whole church gains or loses by it:
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.
- Given — Gifts differ according to the grace God gives. He may give one person several gifts, and another only one.
- Named — "Ministry" here means real service to the saints, not speaking. Commentators differ: some see the deacon's care of the poor and sick, others service in a wider sense.
- Unfolded — The teacher does not just hold the truth. He opens it up so others see and value it. What he sets out is the Spirit's truth, not his own opinion.
- Bounded — Each one sticks to his own work and leaves the rest alone. The teacher waits on teaching, the evangelist on preaching.
- Fruitful — Every Christian has a place no one else can fill. The health of the whole church depends on each one keeping to it.
or he that exhorts, in exhortation; he that gives, in simplicity; he that leads, with diligence; he that shews mercy, with cheerfulness.
Romans 12 lists gifts that differ, and this verse ends the list with four of them — exhorting, giving, leading, and showing mercy. Each one comes with a manner attached. What you do for God's people matters, and so does the spirit you do it in.
This is not a list of things every Christian should try. Each person is to take up what God has actually given him.
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.
Teaching and exhorting are named separately on purpose.
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.
Exhorting is not the same work as teaching. It aims at a different target, and it costs something on both sides.
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.
Another writer explained why this gift is rarer than preaching or explaining Scripture.
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.
Older versions read "with simplicity" here. The word points first at the giver's motive.
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.
This also explains why "simplicity" and "generosity" end in the same place.
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.
Leading is its own kind of service, and it comes with its own demand.
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.
Where this gift sits in the list matters too. It blocks any attempt to sort these gifts into an official class and an ordinary one.
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."
The last pairing guards the way kindness feels to the person receiving it.
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.
- Gift — Take up what God actually gave you. No one is to go beyond his measure, and one person may not be gifted for both teaching and exhorting.
- Manner — Each gift comes with its own spirit: simplicity, diligence, cheerfulness. How you do it is part of the doing.
- Conscience — Teaching aims at the understanding. Exhortation aims at the conscience, applying Scripture so that it condemns the flesh and frees the spirit.
- Motive — Simplicity in giving keeps out self-importance, concern for reputation, and unbelieving fear. The single eye still ends in generosity.
- Reach — Leading takes thought and care. Mercy takes a cheerful face, because a kind act done coldly loses its worth to the person who receives it.