The Gift of God Within You

In both the women’s and men’s bible studies this week, we hit on the topic of gifts. By gifts, I don’t mean gifts we give people for Christmas, or birthday gifts, or anything like that: I mean the gifts (abilities) that God has given us for…well…what for?

The ‘gifts’ that God has given us: what are they for?

In the men’s bible study, we’re (slowly!) studying our way through First Corinthians, which has extensive discussion on gifts. Before I answer the main question, I want to relay to you a few things we’ve learned about gifts so far (much of this is from 1 Corinthians 12).

First, everyone has been a gift – or more likely, multiple gifts – by God.

Everyone. Including you. No one is allowed to think they have no gifts. It might just be that you haven’t identified yours yet, or you don’t like yours so you act like it’s not true (I’ve been there!), or we haven’t done a good enough job helping you discover, see, and use your gifts.

Second, our gifts are different – and this is absolutely necessary.

There are many different kinds of gifts, and the ‘lists’ we get of them in the New Testament aren’t even exhaustive. Speaking wisdom and knowledge is a gift. Healing another is a gift. Discernment, deeds of power, delivering a word from God – all gifts. Then there are gifts of helping – various kinds of assistance towards others in need; gifts of guidance; gifts of leadership in various forms; gifts of teaching from the very old to the very young. In Romans, Paul tells us that all ministry, teaching, encouragement, giving, leadership, and compassion are all different gifts. And then there’s all kinds of varieties of services and activities that God gifts as well. The gifts abound.

Third, your gift is necessary, and so is theirs.

Even if your gift(s) is not flashy, up-front, or broadly desired – it is still absolutely necessary for us to be the body of Christ. We can’t be what we’re supposed to be without you and your gift. And the same goes that for that person over there, and so on. It means that whatever our gifts are, we can’t really think we’re better or worse. All are needed, all are different, all are good.

So the question is, what are they for?

And the answer is very simple: for building up the church.

We see this with crystal clarity in 1 Corinthians 14. There, Paul is addressing the use of gifts in a worship gathering – but it’s applicable to all of the life of the church. Here’s how he puts it in verse 12:

Since you are eager for gifts of the Spirit, try to excel in those that build up the church.

The reason that God has given us gifts is so that others may be strengthened, encouraged, convicted, healed, comforted, challenged: built up. Our gifts can be (wrongly) used for our own self, our own glory, our own purposes (which is what Paul is writing against in 1 Corinthians as a whole), but their proper use is for others, or, as Paul puts it,

Our gifts should be used in the ‘most excellent way’ – the way of love.

And so it makes me wonder a few things:

Do you know what your gifts are?
Are you using your gifts to build up the church?
How can we help you discover and use your gifts better for God’s purposes?

I’d love to hear from you on this. We, as a church, need you to know your gifts and be using them to build up the church. We can’t do it without you!

So I’ll leave you with this, which is an encouragement that we read in the women’s bible study (and our bible reading plan) yesterday from Paul to Timothy (2 Tim. 2:6), which I want to extend to each and every one of you:

For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you…

As we approach the season of gift-giving, I encourage you to rekindle the gift of God within you and make it also a season of gift-using – with a courageous spirit of power and love and self-discipline (2 Tim. 2:7) – for the sake of the church’s mission in the world!