Freedom to Serve
My Bible reading recently started me thinking about gifts. I don’t mean packages you unwrap on Christmas or your birthday. I mean the spiritual gifts that God gives to us. Paul lists a bunch of possible spiritual gifts in Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12.
I have fretted over these lists for years. None of them seem to fit me. I even filled in a questionnaire once or twice that was supposed to reveal my spiritual gift to me. The result didn’t seem to match me, either. I finally decided that I just didn’t have any spiritual gift.
But as I read and pondered over this past month, I came to the conclusion that Paul never meant us to believe that his lists were the only possible spiritual gifts. He was just supplying some examples. God is creative. He can create — and bestow — lots of different gifts. My sense of humor, for example. It’s not on Paul’s list, but I’m sure it is a gift, and one I’m very grateful to have.
Paul didn’t include writing in his list, either, but considering how many of his letters we have found, I’d say he had a gift for writing. I have long considered writing and editing to be my two useful gifts in the world. But lately this brought another question to my mind: Am I using my gifts the way God wants me to use them?
Somehow, I found this tied in with the subject of freedom, which I began thinking about in conjunction with our country’s recent celebration of Independence Day. And when I delved into what the Bible had to say about freedom, I came to another conclusion: Paul didn’t intend for us to think our gifts are something to brag about or use for our own benefit. They are not something we can gain through effort. They are bestowed by God for one purpose: for us to use as we go about his business.
Paul devoted a large part of 1 Corinthians to this subject. The gift of salvation we receive when we believe in Christ frees us from having to face the consequence of our sins. Apparently some Corinthians had conceived the philosophy that this meant they could live any way they wanted, since they would be forgiven. Some even conceived the notion that they should go on sinning because that increased God’s grace and thus resulted in good.
Paul went to great lengths to explain that the freedom that comes with the gift of salvation is meant to be used as God means all gifts to be used — to further his kingdom and to benefit others. Continuing to sin does neither. “Do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh, rather serve one another humbly in love,” he warned the Galatians (Gal. 5:13).
He summarized his discourse to the Corinthians on the subject with, “Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” (! Corinthians 10:31)
This doesn’t mean that I can’t enjoy any gifts I may have. But it does mean that I should make sure I am using them as God intended, to help others, not just for my own pleasure.
In the end, I’m still not sure what my gift or gifts might be. But the Bible also tells me to worry about nothing. So I’ll just make sure that my gift to God is that i’m doing what I can to help other people and tell them about him. Any spiritual gifts he sends my way to help with that are his department; I won’t worry about it.