Your Calling - Blessings and Giftings

You've probably read or hear portions of 1 Corinthians 12 many times in the context of understanding your role in the church. It is a powerful passage that really brings home a few key points.

1) Our purpose in life is a gift to us from the Spirit.


When Paul talks of spiritual gifts and how we can use our gifts in the Church, he frequently the phrase "given through the Spirit". We call them gifts, but we don't often think through the what this word means and what it should bring to mind. As gifts, they should be treasured and honored to have received them. We should be thankful and full of praise for receiving them. And just like the gift of our salvation, we have not earned them but are given them freely (just as gifts should be).


2) Our giftings are unique, specific, and necessary for the completeness of the body of Christ.

God intends each person for a very specific purpose. While we are given our gifts by the same Spirit and serve in the name of the same Lord, our gifts our given according to the Spirit and our purpose in life. 

Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines. ~1 Cor 12:7-11

They are unique giftings and the body of Christ functions at its best when every part is in place and serving where it belongs.

The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!" On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. ~1 Cor 12:21-26

3) Our gifts are blessings.


We don't always appreciate the places we serve in the body or elsewhere. Sometimes we serve in positions because of a lack of laborers, not because of any great desire to serve in that way. We may have been given a gift, but we long for some other gift which we think is "better" or brings more glory to God.

But as we can see in the previous passage in 1 Corinthians, we should treat every part of the body of Christ with dignity, respect and honor. In fact, Paul goes so far as to say that the "unpresentable" parts should be shown an even greater amount of respect.

We give great honor to pastors, teachers and leaders in our midst. But we should be showing just as great an appreciation for the laborers who do the less visible work within the body and we should be proud to serve in those ways if we are called.