Building up the Life of the Church: 12:3-13

Recap and Background

Welcome back to this second episode in the fourth series of our study of the book of Romans. The last episode and this one fit together very well as we are now in Romans 12. Romans naturally falls into four different sections. Paul wrote this letter very systematically. He sat down with a scribe who was writing down the words as he dictated them. I think Paul had a very clear structure of how he was going to write the letter in mind from the very beginning. This wasn’t true of all of his books. Some of them he wrote in a great hurry and he wrote a little bit, and then went away and did something else and then he came back again. You can tell in those books that they are written in a different contexts. But here Paul has sat down for a considerable period of time and written quite systematically. His systematic thinking is as follows: he starts by explaining in Series 1, chapters 1 to 4, the gospel and the need for the gospel; in Series 2 he explains how we can live the Christian life effectively; and in Series 3, he diverts away from those main themes to talk specifically about a problem in the Early Church, and also in the church in Rome, concerning the relationships between Jews and Gentiles, and to answer the question: What is the status and future of the Jewish people? That all came to a conclusion at the end of chapter 11, as we looked at two episodes ago, when he proclaimed prophetically that there would come a time in the future when all Israel would be saved. Jews from all communities would come to Christ in a remarkable revival in the end times.

Series 3 ended with a sense of appreciation, on Paul’s behalf, of the mercy and the kindness of God to different types of people. He saw his churches filling up with many interesting people. He saw before him a microcosm of the purposes of God, there in these small church communities. It was wonderful for him to see Jew and Gentile, slave and free, rich and poor, male and female, the educated the uneducated, all together in this amazing family of God that was developing before his very eyes as he preached the gospel. He wanted the Romans not to write off the Jewish people, and tend to exclude them from the church community because there had been difficulties with many Jews opposing the gospel. He wanted the Jewish situation to be clearly understood. Paul is really thankful for the mercy of God to all people.

Then, chapter 12, started out with an encouragement to the Christians in Rome to be completely wholehearted in their Christian commitment. We are not going to study Romans 12: 1 – 2 but I am going to read them again.

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God- this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you’ll be able to test and approve what God’s will is - his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

Romans 12:1-2, NIV

In these verses, Paul is encouraging us to start from a position of thanksgiving and appreciation for all that God has given us in Christ, through belief and through faith and justification by faith. He’s encouraging us from there to give our whole lives to serve God as a sacrifice. Not to be conformed to the pattern of this world, but to be changed in our thinking by the word and purposes of God, and then find out what God’s will is for our individual lives.

Now we come to some of the practicalities behind those general statements. He is thinking about the local church situation, specifically the church in Rome, and he is thinking about some of the other churches he has planted. He was always very keen for local churches to function well, to be effective, healthy communities where people participate and contribute, and make the church community strong and vigorous, reaching out to other people. That should be our goal in the church communities that we belong to, whatever culture or situation we are in.

Faith and Calling

“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 faith God has distributed to each of you. For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.”

Romans 12:3-5, NIV

The first step in functioning effectively as a Christian in the church community is humility and self-awareness. He says we shouldn’t be thinking of ourselves ‘more highly than we ought to’: not according to pride; to ambition; to family expectations; to your role in a tribal culture; to your place in a business world; to the level of wealth you have. None of these things are what should shape how you serve in the local church. We should act according to our faith and a sense of God’s calling to serve – humbly, not wanting to dominate other people and use the church as a place of influence and control but coming to play our part, alongside everyone else.

What is God calling us to do? That is a really important question. One of the things that the Holy Spirit wants to help you with is to identify, at this time, what things he wants you to be focusing on and doing. The Holy Spirit is quite able to speak to us one-to-one about these issues. Our activities in church life will vary according to different times in our life, different personal circumstances, and things that happen in the church community. It is that openness to say, “Lord, what sort of person do you want me to be? What sort of function do you want me to have? How can I serve?” These sorts of questions will open up the possibility of us being really effective and fruitful, serving in our local church.

If you are not well connected to a local church, there is a challenge that Paul is going to bring to you through the teaching of this passage because he assumes that everybody is part of a local church and we are designed to function as a team.

The Body

He likens the church to a human body. He makes the comparison between the church and a human body. In the human body there is an interdependence right the way across the body. Every organ, every function, every capability is important, otherwise the human body cannot survive and cannot function effectively. In 1 Corinthians 12 Paul develops this idea further.

“Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptised by one Spirit so as to form one body- whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free - we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.”

1 Corinthians 12:12-14, NIV

This passage shows that every single member of a church is equally significant for this simple reason- we have the same Holy Spirit living within us. The Holy Spirit does not live more in the pastor or the preacher than in the member, or the child in the congregation. The Holy Spirit lives equally within every person who’s in the church. ‘We were all baptised by one Spirit so as to form one body’ and the Holy Spirit, draws us together with other people and gives us a sense that we should be joined together with other people. That is the work of the Holy Spirit.

Further we can learn about our function in the church in 1 Corinthians 12:15 and 16,

“Now if the foot should say, ‘Because I’m not a hand, I do not belong to the body,’ it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. And if the ear should say, ‘Because I’m not an eye, I do not belong to the body.’ it would not for that reason stop being part of the body.”

1 Corinthians 12:15-16, NIV

Paul is speaking about a sense of inferiority. He understands that sometimes Christians in church community feel inferior or inadequate. Maybe we are a visitor from another country, another tribe, or from another language group. Maybe we feel inadequate because we are poor, or because our health isn’t very good, or because our education level is not the same as some of the other people in the church. There can be all sorts of reasons. Maybe we feel inadequate because, all the way through our lives, our parents told us that we would fail and that we were poor children, and we were not going to do well at school, not going to get a good job, and so we come to the church with a feeling of being crushed and sad and inferior. Paul says to anybody who feels like that, those feelings are not based on reality. The reality is, whoever you are, you have a place in the church in the same way that every part of the body is important for the human body to function. The foot may say that they are not as important as the hand because the hands are prominent. My hands, are prominent as I’m speaking to you; they are prominent in my communication with you and in all the ways I live my life. Our hands are right at the centre of the whole of our human life. Yet the feet are just working away, walking from place to place, less prominent but do we not depend on our feet? We immediately have problems if our feet are not working well.

So it is with the body of Christ, we need people who are more public, maybe standing at the front of churches, maybe leading us in prayer or in worship or preaching. But we also need people who are looking after the finances and organising the building and caring for the children and many other things. Paul challenges those who feel inferior.

“The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I don’t need you!’ And the head cannot say to the feet, ‘I don’t need you!’ On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable.”

1 Corinthians 12:21-22, NIV

He challenges those who feel they are superior, too. He is trying to help people to understand that everybody is important in a church community.

He goes on in the next passage in Romans 12, to talk about how we can function, and the things that we can actually do.

Spiritual Gifts

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

Romans 12:6-8, NIV

Verse 6, ‘We’ve been given different gifts, according to God’s grace’. We now enter into a new discussion for Paul; he is going to talk about spiritual gifts. What exactly are spiritual gifts? Spiritual gifts are a combination of two types of ability. First of all, the sort of abilities that we appear to have naturally. Some people, even from children, are natural leaders, or natural carers, or natural organisers, or natural teachers. The way that our personality is made up and the things that come naturally to us, the things that we are able to do, which other people appreciate, are part of what God has given us. It is within our personality.

But spiritual gifts also have a supernatural element. There is a sense in which the Holy Spirit takes hold of our own abilities and gives a special energy, and a special focus, and even a miraculous dimension to make them useful in the church. It is not automatic that a school teacher would be a skilled Bible teacher. It is not automatic that a caring mother will be a good pastor, to care particularly for the women in the church. These things are not automatic. Our natural gifts have to be energised, strengthened and focused by God, in specific ways, so that we can function effectively in the church. So, as we talk about spiritual gifts, think of what your natural abilities are, but also think of the supernatural things that God might do for you, or maybe has done for you already. These are the gifts of the Spirit.

Here is a list that is worth thinking about. He mentions prophecy. What is prophecy? Prophecy is a genuine supernatural gift, by which a Christian church member may sense, through the Holy Spirit speaking to them, some particular message from God to a particular person, or a particular situation, or a particular church at a specific time. A sense that God is speaking beyond the Bible into the immediate situation. A prophecy is giving that message, as a message from God, and submitting it to the people it is intended for. That is what the gift of prophecy is - a direct message from the Holy Spirit to a particular situation.

The second gift he mentions is serving. Some people are naturally gifted at serving others. It is their natural inclination to think, ‘How can I help? What could I do here? I think maybe I could enable things to happen in this church community.’ I have a friend who has the gift of serving in a wonderful way. I have seen her in action in a church, in another part of my country, where she is very quickly able to find practical ways of helping people in need, practical ways of providing hospitality, of organising things, of making things happen - serving the needs of other people and the ideas of the church leaders. It is a wonderful gift. Paul encourages us that if we have the gift of serving, to use it well.

Some have the gift of teaching. This could be teaching children in your home, or teaching children or young people in the church. This could be teaching new converts, people who have become Christians and showing them the basics of the Christian faith. This could be public teaching in the church such as from a stage. Teaching can operate in all sorts of different areas. But for some of us, the first thing we think about when we think of other people’s needs is, ‘I could help them by explaining things to them.’ As soon as you have that instinct that is a sign you have got the gift of teaching.

Then he speaks of the gift of encouragement. This is one of the most powerful gifts in the church, but often forgotten, often marginalised. I have a friend with whom I carry out public ministry - a lady who lives in another part of our country - who has the most amazing gift of encouragement I think I have ever encountered. In any context, she can quickly think of something positive to say to people that she is speaking to individually, or in a group, that is actually relevant to them, really specific. People go away feeling stronger in themselves because she has affirmed within them things that they know to be true about themselves but weren’t very confident of. The gift of encouragement, speaking positive words to other people, is an incredible gift of the Spirit. Some of you listening to this today will know that is a primary gift that you have got, but maybe you aren’t using it. Paul would say to you, if he was here today, “Use that gift. Build up the church.”

He speaks of giving, the sharing of money and possessions with others in the church, and elsewhere. Giving money and possessions is a wonderful spiritual gift. Some people are particularly called to be generous, and sense that one of the best ways they can help the church is through finance or possessions. If that is you, then I encourage you to do that.

For some it is leading: taking a leading role in a Bible study group, in an outreach group, in a children’s group, perhaps becoming a pastor or leader within your local church.

For some, it is showing mercy. For some of us, the thing we feel most deeply when we come to the church community, is the situation of the poorest, the weakest, or the sickest. We feel those needs very deeply and we want to help those people, above everybody else. That is the gift of showing mercy, and it is a God-given capability. I encourage you to use it.

Paul wants us to use spiritual gifts with humility but also notice - stepping out in faith. Many people listening to what I am saying will feel, ‘Well, I know some of these things to be true of me, but I just haven’t got the confidence to step out.’ I am encouraging you to use this talk as an inspiration to step out into some of the gifts that God has given you.

Love

“Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honour one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervour, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practise hospitality.”

Romans 12:9-13, NIV

Not only do we need humility and faith, but the other vital ingredient to healthy use of spiritual gifts is love; caring for people, really identifying with them and giving ourselves for their well-being.

Reflections

We come to the end of this episode with a few reflections. Have we got the right humility as we approach the use of spiritual gifts in the church? Have we got a real love for other people and are we willing to step out in faith? You have to take a risk when you offer to do things, when you step out and speak to people, but it is a risk worth taking.

The second reflection is, do you belong to a local church community? It might be an underground church meeting in a home, it might be five or six people or it might be a large church with many thousands of people. Whatever the context, do you really belong? Belonging is important if we are going to function effectively as members of the body of Christ, and use the spiritual gifts that God has given.

This passage is a big encouragement for us to step out and to become creative and effective as members of the local church. Local churches were not designed that people should just sit in chairs or stand through services and listen to what goes on at the front and then go home again. We are a community where we participate together in a common life. Paul is sketching out some of that common life here in this passage. There is more on this theme coming in later episodes, but thanks for listening to this one, and join us again as we carry on through Romans chapter 12.