“Getting A Clue: how Do I Fit In?”
1 Cor. 12:1-31; 1 John 4:7-12
As a college freshman I was invited to pledge a fraternity. Feeling honored and excited I agreed to do so. I knew most of the fraternity members and most of the pledges and was friends with many of them. But a few weeks into the pledging I began to feel uncomfortable. There was no one particular thing or issue – I just began to wonder how I fit in to the fraternity life-style. I could never answer that question to quell that feeling, so eventually I dropped out. I thought about that as I considered the question for today. So far in this series we’ve been talking about who and whose we are – rediscovering our identity through Jesus Christ. We’ve stressed that we have much in common and all are part of Jesus’ family. Yet we are also each different and unique. And as is the case with any large family, we, as family members, sometimes wonder how we fit in. What is our role? What can we contribute that makes a difference?
Our passages for today provide us with some clues. First, in his Corinthian letter Paul reminds us we fit in because of GOD’S GIFT DISTRIBUTION. Do you know that you have charisma?You are charismatic. Charisma, in our society, refers to someone with a dazzling personality, with enthusiasm, who draws the attention of others. We say that he or she has charisma. It’s an intangible influence on which no one can put a finger. While it might be nice to have that kind of charisma, it’s not what Paul refers to. As Paul uses the word, CHARISMA MEANS A GIFT OF GRACE. Listen again: “There are different kinds of gifts (charismata), but the same Spirit… to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given… All these are the work of one and the same Spirit…” You have been given charismata – gifts.
These charismata – these gifts – are SPECIAL MANIFESTATIONS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. God shows Himself, displays Himself, through these gifts. Michael Harper defines spiritual gifts this way: “Spiritual gifts are certain powers given to men (women) by the Holy Spirit and freely bestowed and manifested through our natural faculties (mind, mouth, hands, etc.) ...” (1) The gifts cannot be purchased, earned, imitated – they are given exclusively by the Holy Spirit.
The GIFTS ARE DISTRIBUTED BY THE SPIRIT’S CHOICE. (12:11): “All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one just as he determines.” (Heb. 2:4): “God also testified to it by signs, wonders, and various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.” Every gift I have, every gift you have, is by divine design.
And THERE IS A DIVERSITY OF GIFTS. Some of them as listed in the Bible are: prophecy, ministry (helps), teaching, exhorting, giving, governing, showing mercy, words of wisdom or knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, discernment, tongues, interpretation, evangelism, pastoring, administration, leadership, hospitality, and intercession. But EVERY CHRISTIAN HAS AT LEAST ONE GIFT – and most more than one – and no one has them all. If you have accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, if you have opened your heart to receive the Holy Spirit, you are charismatic - gifted! To be a Christian is to be charismatic – to be in possession of grace-gifts from God. Each of us is unique as the Spirit distributes our gift mixes. Even if we have the same gifts, we have different personalities, temperaments, and talents, different ministries through which we exercise the gifts. Therefore no two combinations are alike.
We fit in by using our spiritual gifts. In fact, Paul states that THEY ARE A UNIFYING FACTOR. “There are different kinds of gifts…to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good...” Too often we hate diversity and love conformity. In Peanuts, Sally once said to Linus, “I would have made a good evangelist. You know that kid who sits behind me in school? I convinced him that my religion is better than his religion.” “How’d you do that?” asked Linus. “I hit him with my lunch box.” When it comes to spiritual gifts, we have no need to beat each other over the head with our gifts; all the gifts come from God at His discretion, everyone has at least one, and no one has them all. As Leslie Flynn put it, “Practice of the biblical doctrine of gifts untaps reservoirs of godly manpower, thaws out frozen assets, roots out unemployment among saints…and edifies the church.”(2) We have no need to beat each other over the head with our gifts. The diversity of gifts, properly used, are to be a unifying factor.
Paul illustrates and emphasizes this through his analogy of the body. “The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body--whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free--and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.”
So how do we fit in? 1 Peter 4:10-11: “Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.” As the Heidelberg Catechism (55) states it: “…each member should consider it his duty to use his gifts…for the service and enrichment of the other members.”
A second way we fit in is by GOD’S LOVING DESIGN. The early verses of Genesis come to mind again. “Let us make man in our image...and let them rule...It is not good for the man to be alone...” WE ARE DESIGNED TO LIVE IN RELATIONSHIP. There are relationships with God (Let us make man in our image), with the world (and let them rule), and with others (let them rule) and It is not good for the man to be alone). Since our concern is ‘fitting in’, we will deal with only the relationship with others.
Wholeness, health, well-being, fulfillment come as we relate to one another. After affirming each step of the creation process with words of approval – “And God saw that it was good” – the Bible states (Genesis 2:18): “The Lord God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone.” This is the first time anything in creation is not good or complete. Adam was in a perfect relationship with God, the world, and himself yet it was not enough – he needed to be in relationship to another person or persons. We are not meant to be turtles in a shell. We are not self-contained creatures. We have our fullest meaning only in relationships. We simply cannot develop as human beings when we zero in totally upon ourselves. Just think of some young person who suddenly is smitten by love or engrossed in a new friendship – ever notice how he or she changes, comes alive, is suddenly filled with life? We exist for relationship. WE NEED EACH OTHER for healthy living. The giant Redwood trees of California are an outstanding illustration. They have a very shallow root system which spreads out in all directions. As a result all the roots of all the trees in a redwood grove are intertwined. They are locked together so that when the wind blows or a storm strikes, all the tress sustain and support one another. That is why redwoods seldom stand alone; they need one another to survive. The same principle is true for us as human beings.
Reuben Welch has written a stirring little book based upon I John, called We Really Do Need Each Other. He offers this insightful analysis: “Some of us are so westernized and individualized...that we have forgotten how much we really need each other....I think we have talked about personal salvation and individual salvation and ‘me’ and ‘my’ and ‘my inner life’ until we have almost isolated ourselves. And so we just get the idea that it’s my life and God’s life and you have your relationship to God and I have my relationship to God...you need Jesus but you also need someone to be Jesus to you...You see we really do need each other, not because of the inadequacies of God but because this is the way His grace works.” (3) For me that sheds some shining light on Jesus’ words that we must lose our life in order to find it.
To exemplify this truth Genesis uses marriage as an example of relationships. Keep in mind that it is a model for relationships not a necessity for wholeness. Even in the marriage relationship God tells the couple to take the focus off themselves, to “be fruitful and multiply”. Even marriage exists not for itself, not just for the couple, but for others, for deeper relationships. Every individual, whether in marriage or not, is to pour himself out in love. Every couple is to pour themselves out in love. As Helmut Thielicke wrote, “Life presents such a wealth of possibilities to love, serve, and suffer with other people that even the person who lives his life without a married partner is given the same opportunity to find and fulfill himself in devotion to others. Marriage, to which the text refers, constitutes only a kind of model for the fulfillment of love in our life. So even the person who lives a single life can find his orientation in this text. The point is that there are things in life – and one of them is the fulfillment of one’s personality – which cannot be attained by going after them directly, but which come to us, as it were, incidentally, really as ‘byproducts.’ Only the person who loves and does not think of himself actually finds himself; and inversely, the person who seeks himself is always cheated.’” We exist not for ourselves but for relationship.
That’s why GOD COMMANDS US TO LOVE. It’s not by accident that immediately following his discourse (chapter 12) on Spiritual gifts, Paul transitions by saying “I will show you a more excellent way” – and then writes what we call the love chapter, 1 Cor. 13. I’ve chosen a passage in john to consider the command to love because a succinct summary of the writings of the Apostle John is “Jesus laid down his life, so love one another. Do for others as He did for you.” Think about it: Jesus loved God by loving us; so we love God by loving others. In fact, the Bible tells us that is the way we perfect God’s love! Last week I said that God created us because his nature is love and love needs an object. Listen now to what Bruce Larson has written in a chapter entitled Learn to Love: “Erich Fromm says that when we need someone it is impossible truly to love him. He defines mature love as, ‘I love you, therefore I need you,’ rather than ‘I need you, therefore I love you.’ There is a profound difference. God needs us because He loves us, and when His love enters into us through Jesus Christ, we need people because we love them. The person who has not experienced this love of God must of necessity love others only because he needs them. Then true love is impossible.”
When we get up in the morning our usual question is “What am I going to do today?” It really ought to be “Whom am I going to love today?” We are designed to live in relationship so God commands us to love. But perhaps you are wondering, “Who can I love? Who’s out there for me?” Let me get at it by way of example. I often hear engaged couples refer to their future spouse as “the only one in the world for me.” That may or may not be the case. That is not the foundation of a marriage. The spouse becomes “the only one for me” through loving him or her. I have no clue as to whether or not I’d be married today if I had not met Barb. Is there another one for me? Or for Barb? Who knows? What I do know is that I’m deeply blessed because Barb decided to love me as the only one for her. That’s the foundation for marriage. And the same thing is true in all relationships – other people become significant to us only as we love them. RELATIONSHIPS MAKE OTHERS SIGNIFICANT FOR US. God wants us in relationships not to be served but to serve; He gives us humans so we can love, not so we can have someone meet our every need; God gives us to each other so we can help create and fulfill each other!
Char Meredith, -- previously married but at the time of this writing a single – in an article entitled Sometimes I Feel Lonely wrote: “Lately I’ve been feeling that maybe loneliness is a human sensation given to us to drive us into relationship, even as hunger drives us to food and tiredness to sleep. In that sense, it’s a beautiful gift, for without loneliness to make us hurt, some of us would wall ourselves in and wither in our separateness. As I’m driven into relationship by my loneliness, life opens up to me again. I have learned to say, ‘Can you come over for some homemade soup?’ Or ‘I need a hug.’”
WE MUST EXAMINE OUR LOVING. Whenever you feel unloved, whenever you feel lonely or wonder how you fit in, put yourself under God’s love. Ask yourself, “Have I been loving lately?” Check your relationships – do you have any? Do you need to build some? If you find others unloving or cold, is it because you’ve bestowed too little love? Has your lack of love cause them to be cold? Have they not absorbed enough love from you to share love? None of us can ever be be what we are meant to be from loving relationships. That’s what it means to be bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh – people will be boredom of our boredom, cold of our coldness, or love of our love. There are people all around us waiting, dying for love – crying out for that divine creative breath. Only as we love them do we learn who they really are, and who we really are. Without love we are all just undeveloped negatives. We never know who walks beside us until we love them; we never know who we are until we love and are loved. Is your life one where people meet their fundamental need for love? Is Hope Church a place where people experience God’s love? The answer can be “Yes’ if we each fit in by using our gifts and building loving relationships. Let’s pray as we commit to do so.
(1) Source unknown
(2) Leslie Flynn19 Gifts of the Spirit, Victor Books, © 1974 SP Publications, Inc., Ninth Printing 1980, p.12
(3) Reuben Welch, We Really Do Need Each Other, Impact Books, © by Impact Books, p.33
