Thursday – Ephesians 4:11-13 – Gifted to Love God and Love People
By Pastor Paul Georgulis
“11 Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. 12 Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. 13 This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.” – Ephesians 4:11-13 (New Living Translation)
God has given His church an enormous responsibility – to make disciples of every nation (Matthew 28:18-20). To do this, He knew His children would need gifts and abilities in order to fulfill this calling. These are known as spiritual gifts and there are many of them. The list found here in verse eleven is not exhaustive, but these five were crucial to the establishment of the first generation of the church. Other spiritual gifts can be found in Romans 12; 1 Corinthians 7, 12, and 13; 1 Peter 4, 9, and 10; and Ephesians 3. God, through the Holy Spirit, has given each Christian a special gift – or multiple gifts – that should be used for building up the church.
Each of us have different gifts. You are able to do things well that I cannot. I am able to do things well that you cannot. But when we bring our giftedness together as the people of God, we are able to accomplish together what God has called us to do. Each of our gifts are important.
Think of the construction of a building that requires an architect, a project manager, a project coordinator, construction workers who specialize in different areas of construction – and I’m sure many other jobs that I am missing. What would the building look like if only the architect were involved? It would stay on paper, or as a three dimensional model on the computer. What would the building look like if only the plumbers were involved? It would only be a bunch of pipes sticking out of the ground. The point is that no one would be able to build an entire building on their own as effectively as if an entire team of people with different areas of expertise were building the building. The same is true of the church. What would the church look like if it only consisted of a receptionist, or an organist, or a drummer, or a preacher? If there were only one person with one job, you wouldn’t have a church. Just as a construction team needs others to get the project done, so do we need one another to build up the Kingdom of God here on earth.
Are you exercising the gifts God gave you to this end? If you know what your gifts are, look for opportunities to serve. If you don’t know what they are, ask God to show you, perhaps with the help of a church leader or Christian friends. Then, as you begin to recognize your special areas of service, use your gifts to strengthen and encourage the church. Use them to love God and love people.
Below are two spiritual gifts inventories you can take to begin the process of finding out how God has gifted you.
https://spiritualgiftstest.com/ – This one is really good. It shows research behind the test, as well as provides a section with an introduction to the various spiritual gifts.
http://buildingchurch.net/g2s.htm – This is probably the most thorough spiritual gifts inventory I found.
Prayer:
Lord, we thank you that you have graciously given us our spiritual gifts, whether we know what they are yet or not. If we fall into the latter category, we ask that you would reveal to us in which ways you have gifted us. As we use these gifts to further your kingdom, please allow us to grow closer and closer to you so that we can become more and more like you.
In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen!
