Welcome – to God’s Word!
Our devotional reading for January 2004
Romans 12:3-8

By John Olhausen, Oxford, England

3. 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 judgement, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. 4. Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5. so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6. We have different gifts according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. 7. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; 8. if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.

Week beginning Monday 5 January

Comment:

I begin this week with a confession: in the past I haven’t found these verses that we’re reading easy. Romans chapter 12 would not be where I’d turn if I was asked for one of my favourite bible passages. But now we’re here together, with our sleeves rolled up, and I’m enjoying it. I hope you are too!

If the first two verses of this chapter is a kind of introduction, first looking back over the previous eleven chapters, and second, preparing us for the meat that Paul is going on to. The preparation for the meat lies in that encouragement Paul has just given us to allow our minds to be “transformed” or metamorphosed. That’s why he can now go on to exhort us on a specific deployment of our transformed minds – in not “thinking of ourselves more highly than we ought”. We’ll come back to that tomorrow. Notice now, that Paul is making this exhortation, not in his own strength or wisdom, but “by the grace given me”. We’ll have more to say on that as the week progresses as well, but let’s get going on today, its business, tasks, social encounters, in a conscious state of the grace given. 

Prayer:

Days, especially at the beginning of the week, sometimes have awkward or difficult tasks. Why not ask God for grace today, so that you can deal with these tasks in a gracious manner.

Action:

Paul here instances a specific grace he has been given – that of gentle exhortation which is what he’s doing here. Have you ever thought what specific grace God may have given you?

 

Week beginning Monday 12 January

Comment:

Verse three in this reading is fascinating. It begins with Paul mentioning a specific grace that has been given to him [that of giving exhortation]. Later, in verse 6, he will be expanding on this theme, as he mentions gifts that help the church to function as the body of Christ. But, today, I want to focus on how this verse 3 develops. In the Greek, there are four occurrences of the word, “think”. Admittedly two of these occurrences have prefixes, but it’s still a notable repetition, isn’t it, especially in the light of allowing our thinking powers to be transformed [v 2]. The first “think” here is one with a prefix, and is translated in the NIV, “do not think of yourself more highly..” Literally in the Greek, “overthink” or as we might say, “overestimate”. Don’t overestimate yourself. That’s followed by the second occurrence: “.. than he ought to think. And that’s followed by the third: “but think..” Then the fourth, again with a prefix,  “.. according to thinking wisely”. The prefix is Greek for wisdom.

I think I get the message, and it’s not a heavy one. In the light of our transformed minds, we’re not to let pride deceive us about who we are, how we look, or what our potential. We’re to be wise in estimating what we can do. And that includes things like writing our c.v., buying clothes, etc., etc.

Paul, of course, is not thinking of either of those things. He’s thinking of a healthy multi-functioning church. More on that next week.

Prayer:

Whatever I do today, Father, may it be out of Your engracing of me, and my wise appreciation and appropriation of what You have given me.

Action:

Paul is about to give a list of what’s sometimes referred to as “the motivational gifts”. You might like to take a look at the other two lists of gifts Paul gives in his writings – Ephesians 4 vv 7-13 and 1 Corinthians 12 vv 4-11. 

 

Week beginning Monday 19 January

Comment:

I’m excited by what I’m seeing here. What’s exciting me is this realisation that everything is BY GRACE. God gives us his grace-gifts, and apportions them according a measure that He Himself has chosen – “the measure of faith He has given.” That realisation came as I did a bit of digging again, and some comparing of different bible translations.

There are two occurrences of “given” in this v 3. The first is the usual Greek verb for “to give”. The second is an interesting word meaning literally to “divide” or “apportion”. That, to me, suggests there’s a measure. Question: what determines the measure? Answer: The fullness of Christ. What the church is to be in Rome or anywhere else, is the fullest possible expression of the body of Christ. God is apportioning gifts and faith to exercise the gifts “severally” through our churches. Exciting, isn’t it? But it also takes a burden away. You may, as I admit to having done, look at someone and think, “Why is he or she doing that ministry or task so much better than I? or given that much more prominence or responsibility?” The answer is likely to be traceable back to what Paul is saying here, namely that it’s all down to how God apportions gifts, and the faith measure to administer the gifts.

Prayer:

Be thankful, today, for the gifts entrusted to you and the measure of faith apportioned to deploy them.

Action:

Mark 4.24,25: “With the measure you use it will be measured to you – and even more. Whoever has will be given more; and whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.”

 

Week beginning Monday 26 January

Comment:

I had to smile when I looked up the Greek word for “measure” in my dictionary. It read, “measure -  linear or cubic.”  But, seriously, we hear of amazing miracles or amazing preachers’ messages or amazing acts of kindness, and we think, “Why couldn’t I do that?” or “Why didn’t I think of that?” The answer is because God has given to each of us just the right number of cubic millimetres of faith. Just the right amount for you to get going in exercising your gift[s]. And there’ll be more where that came from, when what’s there already is looking in need of a top up. That’s what Jesus said: “Whoever has will be given more..”

Now, though, Paul is getting to the meat of this exhortation, which is basically to do well what we’ve got the grace to do. And our specific grace-gift, sourced in “the fullness of Christ” will complement the gifts of others, so that Christ may be all in all. Vv 4,5: 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 who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.

Prayer:

Father, I pray today not only that I will be faithful in the administration of the gifts you have given me, but also faithful in encouraging others in their gifts and also in seeing my gifts as belonging, not to me, but to all the members of my part of the body of Christ.

Action:

Aim to be a good steward of what’s been entrusted to you.

 

For extra study

Comment:

When I looked closely at how this passage begins, Paul uses rather a cumbersome expression – literally [v 3]: For I say, through the grace given to me, TO ALL being among you..  Now, as we get further on in what he’s actually saying, we see the reason why. He’s speaking to the individual believers in the church – the body of Christ. And now we come to what he wants to say to us INDIVIDUALLY. It’s this: because of God’s grace, each of you has a grace-gift [the Greek word for grace is charis, and for gifts is charismata]. This list here is of the so-called motivational gifts. These are gifts that are encouraging us, or motivating us into specific areas. And Paul lists some of these areas: prophesying, serving, teaching, encouraging, contributing to the needs of others, showing mercy. It will be easier for you to see the gift working in someone else than in yourself, but whatever your specific motivational gift [or blending of one or more gifts], Paul is encouraging us to exercise our gifting “in proportion to our faith”. But he’s also encouraging us to get on and do it, isn’t he!

Prayer:

Thank you, Lord Jesus, that the church is expressing You. Help me to be active in playing my part as an engifted believer, that Your church may grow, and Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.

Action:

Why not aim to affirm others in their grace-gifting. Also, if you’re not sure what your own is, ask others what they think your motivational grace-gifting may be.