Untitled Sermon (58)
Follow The Instructions (Lesson 2)
The great heritage of the faith all Christians share, and having this in common they are responsible to guard the unity of the Spirit. But they may not expect their personalities, their gifts and their tasks to be all alike. In his wisdom, and to make each dependent on others, God has ordained not uniformity, but an endless variety of gifts for members of the body. As Calvin puts it, ‘no member of the body of Christ is endowed with such perfection as to be able, without the assistance of others, to supply his own necessities.’ To each of us is given different gifts for the benefit of all. Paul uses the word grace here in the sense in which we have found it used in 3:2, 7–8: the privilege of a special calling in the service of God. The word implies that there is no place for boasting; none has anything other than what he has received unmerited (cf. 1 Cor. 4:7). No-one has all the gifts; and also it is true that no member of the body is without some spiritual task and spiritual gift for it. To each—not ministers or leaders alone—such grace is given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. These words suggest the Lord’s portioning out, in his wisdom, different kinds of gifts to different members. Both the words measure and grace are used with the meaning they have here in Romans 12:3–8, while 1 Corinthians 12:4 has the same thought as this when it says that ‘there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit’.
The grace referred to here is the spiritual gifts given to believers so they can serve others. Every believer has at least one spiritual gift (1 Cor 12:7, 11). Spiritual gifts are divine abilities given by God to believers so they can serve within the body of Christ. These spiritual gifts are given for the common good of the Body of Christ and are to be used for service and to the glory of God.
He is, in fact, deliberately qualifying what he has just written about the church’s unity. Although there is only one body, one faith and one family, this unity is not to be misconstrued as a lifeless or colourless uniformity. We are not to imagine that every Christian is an exact replica of every other, as if we had all been mass-produced in some celestial factory. On the contrary, the unity of the church, far from being boringly monotonous, is exciting in its diversity. This is not just because of our different cultures, temperaments and personalities (which, though true, is not Paul’s point here), but because of the different gifts which Christ distributes for the enrichment of our common life.
At this point Paul leads on to a new thought. ‘The measure of Christ’s gift’ is that of the ascended Lord who in the days of his flesh promised such abundant bestowal when he returned to the Father’s presence (John 14:12–14). To express this the apostle quotes Scripture, Psalm 68:18, a passage which perhaps as early as this was associated with Pentecost in Jewish liturgy, and which could be applied to the triumph and ascension of the Lord followed by the bestowal of spiritual gifts to his church. In their original setting the words of the Psalm picture the Lord returning in triumph (either to the Jerusalem sanctuary or to heaven itself), after the overthrow of Israel’s enemies. He has made his enemies captive, and they follow, as it were, in his triumphal procession. As conqueror he has received gifts that he can bestow. Like many of the Psalms, this found ready application to the Christ. He has conquered his enemies, and returned to his Father’s throne in triumph, now to bestow blessings on his people. In fact his former foes, whom he leads in ‘triumph in Christ’ (2 Cor. 2:14; AV, RV), like Paul himself, are his gifts to his church.
We must note, however, an important change in the words used. The Hebrew Psalm has words which speak of God ‘receiving gifts among men’. Paul says he gave gifts to men. Various explanations have been offered for the difference. Some see it as an intentional, others as an unintentional, misquotation. It is significant that the Targum (the Jewish Aramaic paraphrase) on the Psalms, which may involve an interpretation going back into pre-Christian times, speaks of the giving rather than the receiving of gifts, as it has ‘Thou ascendedst up to the firmament, O prophet Moses, thou tookest captives captive, thou didst teach the words of the law, thou gavest them as gifts to the children of men.’ It is also possible that the words in this form were used in an early Christian hymn. In any case the Psalm could be understood to speak of the truth expressed in Acts 2:33: ‘Being … exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this …’. The ascension of Christ made possible the outpouring of the Spirit (John 7:39), and so these varied gifts of which he is about to speak in detail.
There seem to be two points that the apostle is wanting to stress here. Firstly, it is Christ’s will and purpose for everything to be pervaded with his presence (cf. 1:10). He has descended and ascended that he might fill all things. He is supreme over all the powers of heaven and earth (cf. Col. 1:16–18); there is nothing that is not subject to him, no place or order of existence where his presence may not be known and felt. Both the descent and the ascent have this purpose. In particular, as Barclay puts it, ‘the ascension of Jesus meant not a Christ-deserted, but a Christ-filled world’ because of the giving of his Spirit (cf. John 16:7). Secondly, we are to realize that the ascended Lord whom the church now worships is the same as he who came down and lived among us, sharing our sorrows, trials and temptations, and therefore he feels those of his people today
Yet it is clear that ‘pastors’ (that is, ‘shepherds’), who are called to ‘tend’ God’s flock, do so in particular by ‘feeding it’, i.e. by teaching. Perhaps one should say that, although every pastor must be a teacher, gifted in the ministry of God’s Word to people (whether a congregation or groups or individuals), yet not every Christian teacher is also a pastor (since he may be teaching only in a school or college rather than in a local church).
the gift of evangelistic preaching, or of making the gospel particularly plain and relevant to unbelievers
He also gave some to be pastors and teachers. This is actually one gift, pastor-teacher. The person with this gift may be the shepherd and teacher in a local body. The idea of pastor emphasizes the role of feeding and protecting the flock.
In other words, the church’s goal is not Christ but its own maturity in unity which comes from knowing, trusting and growing up into Christ.
Spiritual gifts lead the Church to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. We grow more and more like Christ. Paul ends with the results of this process
Paul now points to the goal of using spiritual gifts. He states that believers are to use their gifts till we all come to the unity of the faith. Spiritual gifts should produce unity in what Christians believe. Spiritual gifts should also lead to the knowledge of the Son of God (2 Pet 3:18). All believers should continue to grow in fellowship with Christ. Spiritual gifts should result in a perfect man, that is a mature Church.
Unstable children are like little boats in a stormy sea, entirely at the mercy of wind and waves.
Such are immature Christians. They never seem to know their own mind or come to settled convictions. Instead, their opinions tend to be those of the last preacher they heard or the last book they read, and they fall an easy prey to each new theological fad. They cannot resist the cunning of men (kybia means ‘dice-playing’ and so ‘trickery’) or their craftiness in deceitful wiles
Through Christ the whole body is joined and knit together by what every joint supplies. Paul uses the picture of the human body working together to show how believers in the Body of Christ are to use their gifts for mutual benefit (according to the effective working by which every part does it share). The result is the growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. The body grows up and each believer is built up in love.
