Lesson 91 · Unit 14 · Each Part Working
Gifts, Each to Its Own Work
Finding your gift is not done in a mirror. It is done on the field.
Open
On the day the church held a birthday dinner for an eighty-year-old member, nobody drew up a duty list, and yet everyone found their own place. The brother who normally says least dived straight into the kitchen and worked a wok like a different man; the sister with the carrying voice held the door, greeting each arrival, able to name every one of them; and when the meal was over you looked back and someone had already, without a word, put the tables and chairs away and squared the accounts.
Nobody had tested them. But that evening every one of them was where they belonged, with a light on their faces. Nobody in the Bible had a gift that was *tested* out of them, either: David's sling was practised in a sheepfold, and Dorcas's gift was stitched one garment at a time. Finding your gift is not done in a mirror. It is done on the field.
Scripture
Paul counts the members of one body; Peter tells each of us to be a good steward of a gift. (Romans 12:4-8; 1 Peter 4:10-11, WEB)
4For even as we have many members in one body, and all the members don’t have the same function,
5so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another,
6having gifts differing according to the grace that was given to us: if prophecy, let’s prophesy according to the proportion of our faith;
7or service, let’s give ourselves to service; or he who teaches, to his teaching;
8or he who exhorts, to his exhorting; he who gives, let him do it with generosity; he who rules, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.
10As each has received a gift, employ it in serving one another, as good managers of the grace of God in its various forms.
11If anyone speaks, let it be as it were the very words of God. If anyone serves, let it be as of the strength which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
See
There is no such thing as a person without a gift
The New Testament has four lists of gifts (Rom 12, 1 Cor 12, Eph 4, 1 Pet 4), no two of them alike, and even together they are not trying to be exhaustive - they are samples, not a census. What matters is the first two words of 1 Peter 4:10: "As each" - "as each has received a gift, employ it in serving one another, as good managers of the grace of God in its various forms." A church has no members without gifts, only stewards who have not stepped onto the field yet. And do not lose the direction: "to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the profit of all" (1 Cor 12:7) - a gift always faces outward; it is a present given to the body, not a spiritual ranking. So Paul measures the attitude first: "not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think; but to think reasonably" (Rom 12:3) - neither overrating yourself (this place needs me) nor underrating yourself (they don't need me on).
The three circles of a gift
What are you testing for out there? Three circles. The first circle: you can actually do it - not that it feels good to you, but that other people are genuinely helped. The second circle: the church needs it - gifts grow in the gaps of a body, not in a vacuum. The third circle: you have strength when you finish - not that you are never tired, but that the tiredness has sweetness in it, the ache after a run rather than the hollowness after a sleepless night. Where the three circles overlap, try it seriously for three months: if it fits, dig in; if it does not, move to another post and try again. Trying on a garment that does not fit is not failure, it is one more piece of data. A mirror cannot show you a gift. The field can.
Tongues, healing, prophecy - are they still for today
On this question, Christians who are faithful to Scripture have come to different understandings. There are two main views: one holds that gifts of this miraculous kind belonged mainly to the foundational apostolic period, now that Scripture is complete (see 1 Cor 13:8-10; Eph 2:20); the other holds that these gifts operate as they always have, provided everything is done decently and in order (see 1 Cor 14:1, 39-40; Acts 2:39). This book will not make the decision for your church - take these passages and ask the pastors of the church you belong to. People who differ with you on this are still your brothers and sisters.
Deeper
Each (1 Pet 4:10)
grace in its various forms, and everyone has a share; a church has no seating allocated for spectators.
For the profit of all (1 Cor 12:7)
a gift always faces outward; it is a present to the body, not a rank.
Think reasonably (Rom 12:3)
do not overrate and do not underrate; measure yourself by the faith God has apportioned you.
The three circles
you can do it, the church needs it, and you have strength afterwards; try the overlap for three months, and if it misses, change posts and try again.
Story
In 1920s London, Martyn Lloyd-Jones was a rising star of medicine: qualified in his early twenties, assistant to Sir Thomas Horder, physician to the royal household, with the whole of Harley Street laid out in front of him. But after he came to faith something in him burned hotter and hotter: in the consulting room he could treat bodies, and not the disease he saw every day - sin, and despair. He did not first climb onto a great platform to test his speaking. In 1927 he put down the stethoscope and took his new wife to a small mission hall in a working-class district of Wales, to pastor dockers and mining families. People said he had lost his mind; he said he had only changed consulting rooms. Years later he became one of the most celebrated expository preachers of the twentieth century - but his gift was never tested out of him. It was preached out, sermon by sermon, and visited out, household by household, in a small hall nobody was competing for. The three circles met there: he could do it, that place badly needed it, and he said himself that the weariness of preaching had a sweetness in it he had found nowhere else.
(Historical; see Iain Murray, David Martyn Lloyd-Jones: The First Forty Years, 1982. Details condensed.)
Respond
Reflect — alone, or talk it through together
1The New Testament's four lists of gifts do not match each other - what does that reveal about how God makes the members of a body?
2Measure the service you do now (or want to try) by the three circles: which circle is brightest? Which is still blank?
3"Strength afterwards" or "emptied out afterwards" - which was your last time serving more like? What is that telling you?
Saved on this device only — visible to no one but you.
Pray together
God who deals out grace in its various forms to each one, for the profit of all: thank you that when you gave out gifts you did not miss me. Take me from the mirror out onto the field - where I cannot see clearly, let me try; where I have tried and missed, help me up and move me to another section. Keep me from overrating myself and from making light of what you have put in my hands; and on the night I finish serving, let the tiredness have sweetness in it. In all that I do, let people be helped, and let you be glorified in all things through Jesus Christ. Amen.
Walk
This week's actionabout 10 min
Write down one specific post at the overlap of the three circles, and sign up with whoever leads that ministry this week: "Let me try it for three months." If you cannot see an overlap yet, start with the post your church is shortest of - you only know once you have done it.
Mark it when it happens — this week, at your pace.
Spiritual practice
After every time you serve, take one minute to record the third circle: "Having finished today, is there strength inside?" Look back in two weeks and the overlap will surface on its own.
Memory verse · 1 Peter 4:10
Aseachhasreceivedagift,employitinservingoneanother,asgoodmanagersofthegraceofGodinitsvariousforms.
Walk further
The needle and thread in Dorcas's hands, the parable of the talents, lesson 45 on how you too can lead a Bible study, and the theme of the Holy Spirit.