Romans 12:6-13

6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your [a] faith; 7 if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; 8 if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, [b] do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.

Love in Action
9 Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10 Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. 11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 13 Share with the Lord's people who are in need. Practice hospitality.


Dig Deeper
I recently had someone ask me about a new trend that has become quite popular in some circles that are attempting to evangelize large communities of Muslims. Specifically, the questions they were asking concerned a new type of evangelism that is called c-5. In essence, c-5 evangelism attempts to teach potential Muslim converts that they can become Christians without really having to leave or be ostracized by the Muslim community of which they are a part. It teaches them to commit to Jesus as Lord, at least in theory. But they can continue in their Islamic culture, including going to the Mosque, taking part in Muslim services, praying regularly with other Muslims, and so on. The theory is that they will incorporate Jesus into their belief systems but not have to be cast out of the community or risk some of the very violent persecution that can come upon Muslims who leave their faith for Christianity. These converts don’t even refer to themselves as Christians because that would be to betray their community. They are simply quietly messianic Muslims. I have a very big problem with all of this, however. It might sound good but it calls people to something entirely different than true Christianity. One of the central tenets of the Christian faith is that Christians are ready to face being ostracized, being persecuted, or anything else negative that might come from following Jesus. In fact, following Jesus is to go the way of the Cross. To tell people that they can follow Jesus while avoiding anything that might cause them to change their loyalties or might cause them to suffer is to call people to follow a different Jesus than the one of the Bible. You simply cannot follow Jesus without being prepared to suffer and face persecution.

Paul spent eleven chapters, carefully laying down the theology of a Christian community that has embraced and is prepared to live out the reality of Jew and Gentile coming together as the one covenant family of God in Christ. What you believe determines what you do and Paul knows that. That is why Paul has now shifted to the harsh realities of living together as one family and one body. All of the soaring rhetoric and theology in the world won’t mean much if they cannot build on that foundation and create a unified family in the real world. To build a unified family, however, takes diversity of all things. It takes people of different abilities, gifts, backgrounds, and talents in order to put together a complete family. Yet, this is all in danger of sounding rather mundane. It’s easy to look at a passage like this and think “yeah, yeah, we all have to work together, I get it.” But it’s easy to do our part, whatever that may be, and forget something very important. Underlying this whole section of working together, using gifts, and building a true Christian community is the call to sacrifice oneself to the Lord (Rom. 12:1-2). It is this sacrifice that is at the heart of what Paul is saying here.

As Paul names some of the gifts that may be present in the Christian community, he is not just ticking off a list of spiritual gifts and he is certainly not trying to offer an exhaustive list. He is urging each member of the family to use their gifts faithfully and intentionally to build up and strengthen the unity of the body and to help the body grow spiritually. It would appear that the early church had identified a small number of well-defined gifts such as teaching, as well as a larger number of less-well-defined gifts which overlapped with other gifts and were probably not present in every church. Whatever gift individuals and communities have they are “according to the grace given to each of us.” Two important points emerge from that thought. The first is that the gifts that we do have are channels for God’s grace. 1 Peter 4:10 says that those who use their gifts are faithful stewards of God’s grace. The fact that we must realize is that when we do not use the gifts that God has given us, we deny God’s grace to the rest of the community. This is a selfish act and needs to be called what it is. If God has given us a gift we should make every effort to at least make it available to be used by our Christian community. The second important point is that church bodies have gifts every bit as much as individuals do. Some churches are strong in musical worship, while another might have a strength in teaching, and yet another church is uncommonly spiritually mature, and so on.

Some, says Paul, have the Spirit-led ability to reveal scriptural truths for the edification of the church (this gift was needed much more before the New Testament was written), which he calls the gift of prophecy while others have the ability to teach, which is the ability to explain the truths of the scriptures. Others have the ability to serve, a word that Paul uses to describe any work that Christians do for the benefit of others to the glory of God. Still others had the gift of encouraging, which wasn’t the ability to make other people feel good, but was the gift of giving courage to others and urging Christians to hold to and live out the truth of the gospel in their lives. Some have the gift of being able to see needs and give generously of their time and resources. Others that have the ability to lead should do so with eagerness and care. And those that have the gift of being particularly skilled at visiting the sick, or caring for the poor, the elderly, or the disabled should do so. None of this should imply that those who don’t have specific “gifts” in some of these areas are absolved from, for instance, showing mercy to others. Rather Paul’s point is that those who do have specific gifts should make use of the grace that God has given them.

The genuine love that Paul is calling Christians to, including using their gifts to minister to one another, is sincere. Using one’s gifts or being part of the Christian family for reasons other than the sincere love of God is not what God desires for his family. They should, then, cling to the good and reject evil in their community and even in their own motives. Above all, Christians that have been called into the one family of God are to be devoted to one another. John says that anyone who claims to love God but does not love his brother is a liar that basically mocks the faith to which he claims (1 Jn. 4:19-20). The Christian family loves one another by honoring and considering the needs of one another above their own needs. This is what true love is, to lay down your life for another.

Paul also knows that to live such a life demands a complete transformation of the will and a commitment to no longer conform to the pattern of the world. Living in community as the family of God does take effort as we transform our minds to live by the values of the age to come. It is a lifelong responsibility of the Christian to show reverence for God in every aspect of our lives and to maintain our zeal and fervor for God’s family. This is why Christians are to be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, and faithful in prayer. The Christian family that is truly living by the reality of the resurrection rather than this present age will live in joy because we are living the hope of resurrection now in the present. Living by the reality of our future resurrection causes us to be patient through affliction of any kind because we understand the bigger picture of what God is doing through his people. But even the most hopeful and committed Christian needs to constantly re-connect with Gods’ will through faithfulness in prayer. Without prayer we will quickly lose our patience and spiritual fervor.

To fully grasp the breadth of what Paul is driving at in all of this we must return to our opening thoughts and to what Paul has built this whole section on. The very definition of the Christian life is to sacrifice for the benefit of others. Paul called his readers to be living sacrifices and that is what we must truly be to be the kind of community to which the gospel calls us. We cannot properly use our gifts, keep our zeal and fervor for God’s family, or even be the type of family he wants us to be without sacrifice. Yet, so many Christians quickly do lose their zeal and become rather comfortable. We want to grow spiritually, to see our children be great Christians, to receive great mentoring and discipling, to see our small groups and churches grow, to see our family members come to Christ, but we are not so eager to sacrifice. To be a Christian means to constantly be willing to sacrifice our time, energy, resources, personal rights, and anything else that we might be tempted to call our own. If you have been praying and hoping for God to work in some area of your life, perhaps it’s time to go back and look at yourself in the mirror. Have you really been a living sacrifice? God works through the sacrifice of his people. Has he been able to work through you?

It is this kind of ongoing sacrifice that leads the “Lord’s people” to share with other Christians who are in need. Paul is calling Christian communities to live in the reality and by the values of the resurrection age, which means that we don’t need to cling to possessions as our own but should rather constantly be looking to share with those who have need and constantly seek opportunities to show hospitality to others. Showing the constant hospitality of throwing open your life and home is the very embodiment of Christian love and sacrifice. In fact, it’s hard to imagine someone who is truly living the kind of joyful, sacrificial life in the Messiah to which Paul is pointing, who does not constantly have other people in their home, eating and spending time as the family that we are called to be.


Devotional Thought
Have you forgotten that the core value of your Christian life is to sacrifice for the benefit of others? When was the last time that you intentionally sacrificed so that the kingdom of God might be advanced in some way? What can you do today to embrace the heart of sacrifice in your walk in Christ?