Spiritual Gifts and serving the Kingdom
In today's Bible study, we take a deeper look into 1 Corinthians 12, verses 4 through 7.
Verse of the Day: “There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all. There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord. God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us. A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other.” - 1 Corinthians 12:4-7
“There are different kinds of spiritual gifts”......this is important to remember. Everyone has a unique gift that is specific to them. It doesn’t make any one gift greater or more important than another because of the following text.
“But the same Spirit is the source of them all”......spiritual gifts all come from God. God has made us all equal, with different gifts to serve the Kingdom. God is the source of our gifts. We should thank Him for these gifts and not get caught up in comparing our gifts to the gifts of someone else. God made no mistake when He made you.
“There are different kinds of service”.......walk in the gift of service that God has given you. There is enough space for different kinds of services. Don’t get caught up in trying to provide a service that God didn’t set you apart for.
“But we serve the same Lord”......my service may be different from yours, but as long as our services both serve the Lord, we both win. Our spiritual enemy loves to try to divide us and get us to compete against one another. What are we competing for? Our services should serve the Lord and the Lord only. If money is the wedge keeping you from supporting someone, remember Jesus’ warning that you cannot serve both God and money from Matthew 6:24.
“God works in different ways”......the theme of this study so far is how different we all are, but how consistent our God is. God is consistent in that He is a master of making His creation unique. We should expect Him to work differently in our lives compared to the lives of others. When we get outside of the worldly mindset of comparison, and begin to turn our hearts toward gratitude for what God is doing in us, that’s when we can really experience joy in our service.
“But it is the same God who does the work in all of us”......The same God. The God I serve and the God you serve is the same God. As children of God, we need to focus our efforts on supporting each other’s service to the Kingdom, instead of getting caught up in the rat race of wanting to be first in worldly standards. It’s the same God at work in me propelling my service from my unique gift that could be propelling the work within you with your unique gift. Reach out to God and find that gift if you haven’t already. He made you for service and gave you unique gifts!
“A spiritual gift is given to each of us….” the key word here is given. No gift or talent we have is ours alone. We should not brag about our gifts. As swiftly as God has given them to us, He can take them away. We should be grateful for the gifts that God has afforded us. Because in the end, our gifts are just that – GIFTS!
“So we can help each other”......this is the part our highly competitive society often misses. We get so caught up in wanting to “win” that we refuse to help each other out of insecurity that we might lose the thing that we have placed our identity in. We have to remove ourselves from placing our identity in anything other than Jesus. Once we do that, we can better see how our gifts are handed down to us from God, and how we can use those gifts, combined with a grateful heart, to love one another and help (serve) one another. When we serve one another, we serve God. And that is the only way to really “win” in this world.