Romans 12:1-8 Part 2
1Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. 2Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
3For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. 4Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. 7If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; 8if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.
Paul breaks up chapter twelve in four parts:
Verse 1 – Our relationship with God
Verse 2-3 – Our right evaluation of ourselves
Verse 4-8 – Our relationship in the Body of Christ, the church
Verse 14-21 – Our relationship with the world
We talked last week that Paul is now heading in a new direction. His focus is transitioning from more Christian theology to now in these next five chapters, how do we now as Christians, apply Christ’s attributes to our own lives?
God expects as it states in verse one, everything from us. He expects us to give ourselves to him as a living sacrifice, to serve Him for the rest of eternity rather than serving this sinful world. He expects us to have a transformed life both in heart and in mind by establishing a strong relationship with Him through the hearing and reading of His word and by being dedicated to prayer.
And if we do this, we will be able to better see what Gods will is for us. It will all become much clearer.
3For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.
Paul recognizing the grace God has given him now extends that same grace to all of us by telling us to be careful of how highly we think of ourselves. Paul knows how corrosive this can be in a church so he gives us this caution with love and concern.
We know that the church in Rome was a fairly new church. We are also a fairly new church. Do you think that we can learn something here from Paul? I know we can.
As we keep growing we need to be careful so that we can maintain that humbleness and remember that it is Christ’s church not ours. We are just His loyal servants.
I have seen churches that have made the mistake of thinking that they were something special. That God had given them something extra that He didn’t give any other church. I have seen God humble them.
God will keep us humble. If He sees that we are thinking to highly of ourselves as a church He will humble us. Believe me we are better off being humble ourselves rather that God having to humble us.
Verse three tells us “think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.” I think that when we become Christians we come face to face with the fact that God loves us enough to shed His grace on us, to have given His perfect Holy Son as a sacrifice for our imperfection. I think that as we progress through our sanctification process that we I hope are becoming more and more humble. As our faith and knowledge of God grows stronger, through this we should see more clearly how great Gods grace for us was.
In Christ’s church (which is also known as the body) we are all a part of this same body. Not one of us is in any way more important than the other. We all serve an equal importance in this church. My job is no more important than anyone elses here.
We are a part of the overall body of Christ. All of His true churches, those that believe in Gods infallible word, are part of one body.
1 Corinthians 12:18 But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.
Gods hand is on every true church, working within them for His glory.
Romans 12:4-8 Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion (analogia / analogy / two things that are similar) to his faith (the faith). 7If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; 8if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.
God blesses all of us with gifts, not all of our gifts are the same and there is a good reason for that. Paul tells us that the body of Christ “the church” is in some ways like our own bodies.
Every single part of our body is there for a reason. Our hand, our fingers, our arm, our shoulder and so on, all serving their own special function.
If you eliminate one of these parts from the body and you now have a huge void. That void will affect many other parts of that body and its ability to function won’t it?
God gives us all different gifts so this way we don’t have too many fingers and not enough arms.
God gave us all gifts; He gave us gifts to be used in serving Him in this church and every gift is as important as the other.
Mathew 25:21 The Parable of the Talents
14"Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. 15To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. 16The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. 17So also, the one with the two talents gained two more. 18But the man who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.
19"After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. 20The man who had received the five talents brought the other five. ’Master,’ he said, ’you entrusted me with five talents. See, I have gained five more.’
21"His master replied, ’Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’
22"The man with the two talents also came. ’Master,’ he said, ’you entrusted me with two talents; see, I have gained two more.’
23"His master replied, ’Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’
24"Then the man who had received the one talent came. ’Master,’ he said, ’I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’
26"His master replied, ’You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? 27Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.
28" ’Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents.
29For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. 30And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
Here is a question for you. If you are not using the gifts God has given you so that you can produce or help to produce fruit for God, why would he continue to let you have that gift? Why should He give you any other gifts?
God doesn’t want His valuable gifts going to waste, He doesn’t want you to take them and burry them.
Maybe you are someone who doesn’t know what your gift is? Maybe God hasn’t given you one that stands right out because you haven’t used the other gifts and abilities that He has given you already.
Maybe God wants to see you put to use the gifts that He has already given you first before He blesses you with bigger one.
Do you wonder why God hasn’t blessed you financially? Maybe God hasn’t seen you put to use for Him the money that He has blessed you with already.
God wants His precious gifts to be used to bring Him glory, to be used to further His kingdom, not to be selfish with them, not to waste them by not putting them to use for Him, but to use them to their fullest.
