Your Inventory

I have taken a few “spiritual gifts inventories” through the years. Like other personality tests, important pieces of your identity are revealed by the number of points you assign to various skills, traits, or preferences. I consistently score very low on willingness to be martyred! I don’t know. Is it just me? And yet, Paul begins this passage on the gifts given to believers by an appeal that we each present ourselves as “living sacrifices.” I am only being partly facetious when I say that I am the sort of living sacrifice that tends to crawl off the altar at my first opportunity! I may be so eager to resist this kind of surrender because it feels as if I’m doing it alone. But notice the wording in verse 1: Present your bodies (plural) as a living sacrifice (singular). In other words, the spiritual worship of the people of God is to gather together on that altar, worshipping God by presenting God our gifts (ourselves), which he returns to us for the benefit and salvation of the cosmos. Our corporate death on that altar transfigures us into his living body on earth. I have heard it said that every congregation has all the gifts it needs to do the work God has given it to do. Elsewhere in Scripture (notably, 1 Corinthians 12:12-17), Paul unpacks the metaphor of a physical body to talk about the gifts of the Spirit. We have been given a variety of gifts for service in the world as well as to build up Christ’s body, the Church. There is a divine division of labor in the vineyards of the kingdom but there is no hierarchy of value to the work. Instead, Paul says we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, and we are to have a balanced estimate of ourselves based not on envy of what others can do, but on the basis of the grace and faith received from God for the tasks he asks of us. Each gift has its graces and its challenges, and exercising our gifts is the way we grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (2 Peter 3:18). The amount of our faith and the extent of our giftedness is part of how we recognize the path of our ministry. A ‘Calling’ is not an esoteric thing reserved for those who lead congregations; rather it is the accumulation of gifts, preferences, and signs that God uses to place, plant, and cultivate us to help others in a way no one else can. So, what are we to make of the contrast Paul invokes between being “conformed” and being “transformed?” To conform is to fit in, to go with the flow, to look and act just like everyone else. To be transformed is to enter the realm of returning to the magnificent image of God in which we were created before sin pulled us into a dull conformity. The Apostle Peter was not the only one given keys to the kingdom. Each one of us has a key, specially designed to open the kingdom to all who come our way. God will send us people for whom we have an immediate gift to offer, as well as others who will draw out gifts we may not realize we have (or may be reluctant to use)! Galatians 5:22-23 lists the fruits of the Spirit. Jesus said, “By their fruit you will recognize them (Matthew 7:20).” Anyone can purport to prophesy or perform miracles, but those who are authentic are actually doing it, empowered by God’s Spirit of love. The way we live in the world is the backdrop to what we do in the world. Ephesians 4:(11)-16 says Christ is the head of this body and we are its parts. When we cannot function harmoniously together, Christ and his kingdom are paralyzed. We are given gifts… not to put on our resumes or for self-promotion, but to increase the efficacy of the entire body. Our very differences in ability and function enhance God’s work in the world. They lead us to different ministries in different places. To settle even for the holiest-appearing conformity is to inhibit God’s intention to draw us all to himself (John 12:32).As Paul reminds us, in 1 Corinthians 12:7, each of us is given a manifestation of God’s Spirit for the common good. Let’s open our good gifts for the life of the world!