If you’ve ever participated in a spiritual gifts study, you’ve likely encountered this passage from Romans 12. While the focus on spiritual gifts is undeniably important, there might be a more pertinent message here.
Note the emphasis Paul places in the following verses on the unity of the church as it serves God.
For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.
For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another (Romans 12.3-5).
Paul emphasizes the unity of the Church in verses 4 and 5 three times.
Verse 3 reinforces a key theme from the earlier chapters of Romans: we are saved by God’s grace. In fact, everything we have comes from God’s grace.
There is no place for pride, whether Gentile or Jewish. Instead, we are called to live humbly within the life God has given us.
A key trait of pride is the tendency to compare oneself to others, believing they are of lesser value or importance. In the divided church of Rome, proud Gentiles and proud Jews both claimed superiority over one another.
Paul wanted them to understand that their salvation was by grace—it was a gift from God, not something they had earned. As a result, they had no reason for pride and could instead serve together in unity for God’s purposes.
Gifts of Grace
A person’s effectiveness in ministry can, unfortunately, become a source of pride. Some spiritual gifts may seem more important than others. Paul listed several gifts and then implied a couple of key distinctions.
We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching;
The exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness (Romans 12.6-8).
I’m a teacher, and I know how easy it is to compare my ability to teach with other people. Note, this is the expression of pride.
There are some people with whom I fare well, and I measure my abilities quite high. There are other people from whom I have learned a considerable amount of information over the years, and I compare my abilities with them very low. Both comparisons are wrong.
Teaching is a gift. Yes, we improve our ability to teach through hard work, but no, it is not our innate ability that counts; rather, it is God’s gift.
Thus, we should not be proud and promote division because of our abilities.
The same can be said about how we approach other gifts. A Christian is not like a child on the playground, putting one friend down while elevating another.
We are members of Christ, aware that we are sinners saved by His grace and blessed with the Holy Spirit’s presence in our lives. Any gift we possess is the result of God’s Spirit working within us.
You may have heard the story of a student who received an F on a paper. Frustrated, the student approached the professor and said, “I prayed about this, but it seems you didn’t recognize my effort.” The professor replied, “I gave God an A, but you didn’t do the work.”
This story highlights an important truth: while God gives us gifts, that doesn’t exempt us from putting in the effort to cultivate and refine them.
There’s no place for pride in this process, but there is a call to humbly develop the gifts God has entrusted to us.
The theme of this passage aligns with the message of the entire book. Paul desired a unified church because he knew that a unified church would be the strongest witness to a world in need of God’s love. That message remains just as relevant today.
May God bless us with unity in the global church, so that we can reflect His love to those who need it most.
YouTube Discussion
Rudy Ross and I discussed this passage on YouTube today. It is on the Bob Spradling channel.
Real Voices 