Our second-born son, Eli, is a talented artist. But to produce a work of art he needs the right materials, so we buy him watercolors, charcoal sticks, paintbrushes, paint, and other artistic tools. In the same way, the members of the church need the various gifts of the Spirit to minister to one another. God joyfully gives his people spiritual gifts so they will use them to care for the needs of the saints in the body of Christ.
Using our spiritual gifts is necessary for the health and growth of the church. John Owen wrote,
If any shall undertake this work without this provision of abilities for it, they will . . . not be of the least use in the employment they take upon them. A ministry devoid of spiritual gifts is sufficient evidence of a church under a degenerating apostasy.
The apostle Paul highlights this point in Romans 12:4–8 when he addresses the need to exercise the various gifts God has given his people:
As in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.
Reflecting on these verses, John Calvin explained:
Paul . . . reminds us that according to the wise counsel of God everyone has his own portion given to him; for it is necessary to the common benefit of the body that no one should be furnished with fulness of gifts, lest he should heedlessly despise his brethren. Here then we have the main design which the Apostle had in view, that . . . the gifts of God are so distributed that each has a limited portion, and that each ought to be so attentive in imparting his own gifts to the edification of the Church, that no one, by leaving his own function, may trespass on that of another . . . By this most beautiful order, and as it were symmetry, is the safety of the Church indeed preserved; that is, when everyone imparts to all in common what he has received from the Lord, in such a way as not to impede others.
How ill-equipped would the church be if all the members of the body of Christ had the same gifts and talents? How inefficient would it be if everyone only exercised the gift of teaching? How truncated the body would be if every member sought to lead! The church would be unfit for full-orbed ministry if every member only carried out acts of mercy or hospitality. All these gifts are necessary for the building up of the other members of the body. Without each member doing its part, the body will not grow in a healthy way.
When Paul highlights the teaching and preaching gifts Christ gave to the church, he notes that one goal of their exercise is “to equip the saints for the work of ministry,for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Eph. 4:12). In this, we see the goal of the teaching and preaching gifts God has given ministers in the church: to encourage the use of the other gifts among the members of the same body of believers, so that “the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love” (Eph. 4:16).
Footnotes
John Owen, The Works of John Owen (vol. 4) (London: Richard Baynes, 1826), 315.
John Calvin, Commentaries on the Epistles of Paul to the Romans (Edinburgh, 1849), 459.
