Truth Mission 2.0

Tag: spiritual gifts

  • Reasonable: Part 3–What is Good

    Reasonable: Part 3–What is Good

    Love must be honest and true. Hate what is evil. Hold on to what is good. Romans 12:9 (NIRV)

     

    Back in Part 2, we discussed how God gives various spiritual gifts to individuals, so that we can build up the Church, with each member doing its part, just like the parts of our body.

     

    So, what does it look like when the Church is functioning this way?  It’s a lot more detailed than making sure the Wednesday night potluck goes off without a hitch. As Paul said to the Ephesians:

    So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

    Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. Ephesians 4:11-16 (NIV)

     

    First, we must remember that these are SPIRITUAL gifts, which means that there must have been a spiritual transformation that has taken place already.  The greatest evidence of this is love. Not feelings, but actions.  Agape love goes hand in hand with sincerity and integrity. When we speak Truth and mean what we say, we build trust with others. In so doing, we build each other up like living bricks and mortar.

    There is no room in the body of Christ for hypocrisy or two-faced gossiping.  We have to get this part right before we can move on with the rest of verse 9.

     

    Hate what is evil

     

    Before we go any further, I want to emphasize that the Bible clearly states to hate WHAT is evil, not WHO.  There are still too many people misinterpreting this verse to justify judgmentalism.  We are not talking about hating people here. We are talking about behaviors and habits.

     

    There is significant Biblical precedent for this concept as well. Please consider the following:

     

    You love justice and hate evil.
    For this reason God, your God, has anointed you
    with the oil of joy, elevating you above your companions. Psalm 45:7 (NET)

     

    Love the Lord
    and hate evil!
    God protects his loyal people
    and rescues them
    from violence. Psalm 97:10 (CEV)

     

    I am Wisdom—Common Sense
        is my closest friend;
    I possess knowledge
        and sound judgment.
    If you respect the Lord,
        you will hate evil.
    I hate pride and conceit
        and deceitful lies. Proverbs 8:12-13 (CEV)

     

    Like love, hate in this context is also more an action than a feeling. It is more of an active opposition than a bombastic side-eye.

     

    Hold on to What is Good

     

    Verses 10-12 contain several examples of what is good, the things that we should hold on to.  Let’s break this down verse by verse.

     

    10 Love one another deeply. Honor others more than yourselves.

     

    What is good in this verse is humility. C.S. Lewis once said that humility is not so much about thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less.  When the members of the Church body are focused where they should be, they don’t just use “brother” and “sister” as honorary titles, but they do truly treat everyone else in the Church as family.

     

    This is what it means to love one another deeply:

     

    Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 1 Corinthians 13: 4-5 (NIV)

     

    Remember, false humility makes a show of itself to build up the person showing it, but real humility, being rooted in love, builds up others and is not self-seeking.

     

    11 Stay excited about your faith as you serve the Lord.

     

    When you know your calling, your work should be a joy, not a grind.  God’s part is to prepare the work for us and equip us to do it.  Our part is to have a zeal to meet God where He’s already working and join Him in that work.

     

    12 When you hope, be joyful. When you suffer, be patient. When you pray, be faithful.

     

    Hope does not mean the kind of hope that is desperation mixed with doubt.  This is a joyful expectation.  You’re not wishing that something might happen; you’re eagerly awaiting something good that you are certain is coming.

     

    Yet while we are hoping and waiting, sometimes we are suffering.  When I wrote the original version of this post on 12/12/2020, many were suffering from the financial fallout of COVID-19. Today in 2026, there are still many who have never fully recovered from that. Many of these people are Christians. So, what are we supposed to make of this?

     

    Regardless of our gifts, one of the fruits of the Spirit that all believers receive is patience.  Some older English translations actually use the word “longsuffering.”  If we have joyful hope that what is good is on the way, this helps us to endure what is not so good.

     

    And we endure these things by being faithful in prayer.  No matter how grim our circumstances get, we always have the ability to exercise this discipline.  God can handle our anger and our disappointment, but He also wants us to remember that what is good comes from Him, and always at exactly the right time.

     

    (For more of what is good, come back for Part 4—The Best of Your Ability)

  • Reasonable: Part 2–Our Own Understanding

    Reasonable: Part 2–Our Own Understanding

     

    Because of the grace that God gave me, I can say to each one of you: don’t think of yourself more highly than you ought to think. Instead, be reasonable since God has measured out a portion of faith to each one of you. Romans 12:3 (CEB)

      

    Back in Part 1, we talked about how the best way of finding our calling is to trust in the Lord and not to lean on our own understanding.  But why is that significant?

     

    It is perfectly reasonable to expect that the One who prepared the path for us knows where it leads.  Sometimes, that’s not where we thought we were going.  A lot of times, actually.  So, if the end of the path we’re preparing for ourselves isn’t in the same place as the end of the path that God is preparing for us, then all of our careful planning is just a recipe for disappointment.

     

    Have you experienced this in your own life?  I know I have, in big and small ways.  When I was 18, I was going to be a famous novelist.  I’m 56 now, and that hasn’t happened.  When I got my foot in the door with State Government, I was going to fly through the system to the upper echelon and be a major player in state policy.  All it takes is one change in the Governor’s Mansion to derail that plan.

     

    We make our plans and God shakes His head. The harder we try to simplify our lives through our own understanding, the more complicated we make things for ourselves. We can stress ourselves into physical illness trying to figure everything out when all we really need to do is…

     

    Follow the Leader

     

    The trouble with that is you can’t follow God if you don’t know He’s there to follow.  And even if you do know, you WON’T follow God, unless you believe you can trust Him.  And that trust only comes from taking your faith to the spiritual gym and giving it a workout, through study, prayer and meditation.

     

    That’s reasonable, right? If you want your body to stay in shape, you exercise. You don’t think about exercising or plan to exercise. You don’t say to your self, “I really need to exercise.” The only way to get results is to show some discipline by getting off the couch and putting the work in.

     

    Spiritual growth follows the same principle. Jesus has already done the work to provide us the path to eternal life. However, to experience the abundant life down here that Jesus promises us in John 10:10 we can not afford to be spiritual couch potatoes. If following Jesus is your goal, then you have to know where He’s leading. His Word will show you the way and consistent prayer will help to illuminate that Word and make it living and active for you.

     

    I have also found that exercising spiritual discipline doesn’t just help me see God more clearly. It also helps me see myself more clearly. Have you ever read a familiar passage of scripture and thought, “That was NOT in there before!” God always gives you the right message at the right time. The catch is that for that message to bear fruit, you have to be positioned to receive it.

     

    Semi-obligatory Sports Metaphor

     

    Think of the Holy Spirit as a quarterback. He can throw passes all day long, but if you aren’t facing Him with your hands in the air, you’re not going to catch anything. There’s a reason they call that an incompletion.

     

    And even if you do catch the pass, then you have to run with it. If you just stand still and say, “Thank you for that beautiful pass,” you’re going to get tackled or knocked out of bounds by life.

     

    No, you have to turn and run toward your goal, the end zone. You may have to break a tackle or two. You will definitely have to rely on God to send His angels to throw some blocks on those whose goal it is to keep you from reaching yours. But when you finally do cross that goal line and stand firmly in the end zone, all of heaven rejoices.

     

    Plus, God gets the glory for throwing the touchdown pass!

    Jesus as a quarterback wearing number 33 getting ready to throw a pass with His team of disciples looking on in a stadium.
    I hear He’s a favorite for the Heisman again this year! (Image created by the author with Katya AI)

    Spiritual Gifts

     

    We all have different gifts. Each gift came because of the grace that God gave us. If one has the gift of prophecy, he should use that gift with the faith he has. If one has the gift of serving, he should serve. If one has the gift of teaching, he should teach. If one has the gift of encouraging others, he should encourage. If one has the gift of giving to others, he should give freely. If one has the gift of being a leader, he should try hard when he leads. If one has the gift of showing kindness to others, that person should do so with joy. Romans 12:6-8 (ICB)

      

    The Church is often referred to as the Body of Christ.  Just as every part of your physical body has a specific function, so every member of the Church has a role to play in building it up.

     

    So, as God transforms our minds, and we lean less on our own understanding, He starts to illuminate our path by making us aware of the spiritual gifts he has given us.  We are then more able to discern His will by discovering what He has wired us to do.

     

    Sometimes a spiritual gift is a divine enablement that enhances the effectiveness of a talent or skill we already have.  Sometimes it’s something totally new.  Basically, whatever work God has for us to do, He gives us the tools we need to get it done.  The more we stay out of His way and just go with it, the more things start to happen.

     

    The list in the passage above is not all-inclusive, but does illustrate some of the gifts God gives His Church.

     

    Some people receive messages from the Lord. They don’t always make sense to the one receiving them.  But if they exercise faith, and not their own understanding, and deliver the message anyway, then the person or people meant to hear it will know what it means.

     

    The same goes for serving, teaching, encouraging, giving, leading and showing mercy.  The members of the Church can be somewhat effective in trying to figure out with their own understanding how to serve strategically with their gifts. But where the rubber really meets the road is when we submit to the leading of Holy Spirit, who brought us the gifts in the first place, and see where that leads us.  It’s usually somewhere we didn’t plan on being around people we never would have thought of being in the midst of.

     

    (So what does it look like when the Church is functioning in this way?  Come back for Part 3: What is Good.)

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