18. Our relationship to ourselves: thinking soberly about our gifts
The link between Paul’s general appeal (1–2) and his particular instruction which now follows (3–8) seems to be the place of the mind in Christian discipleship. Our renewed mind, which is capable of discerning and approving God’s will, must also be active in evaluating ourselves, our identity and our gifts. For we need to know who we are, and to have an accurate, balanced and above all sober self-image. A renewed mind is a humble mind like Christ’s.
The formula Paul uses to introduce his encouragement to sober Christian thinking is impressively solemn: For by the grace given me I say to every one of you (3a). ‘I say to you’ reminds us of Jesus’ favourite expression, even without the ‘Amen’ or ‘Truly’ which often preceded it. Paul is addressing his Roman readers (every one of them, he claims) with the self-conscious authority of Christ’s apostle. For the grace given him, which qualifies him to write as he does, must refer to his appointment as an apostle which he regularly put down to God’s grace (e.g. 1:5, ‘grace and apostleship’; 15:15f.).
His message to them is this: do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment (3b). The fourfold repetition in the Greek sentence of the forms of the verb phronein, ‘to think’, makes the emphasis unmistakable. In thinking about ourselves we must avoid both too high an estimate of ourselves and (Paul might have added) too low an estimate. Instead, and positively, we are to develop a sober judgment. How? First by reference to our faith, and second, by reference to our gifts.
The clause in accordance with the faith [or ‘the measure of faith’] God has distributed to each of you (3c) is a well-known problem. C. E. B. Cranfield, with his customary thoroughness, says that ‘measure’ has seven possible meanings, ‘faith’ five, and ‘of’ two, making seventy possible combinations altogether! The main question is whether metron (‘measure’) means here an instrument for measuring or a measured quantity of something. If the latter is correct, as many think, the thought would be that God gives a varying amount of faith to different Christians, and, being something decided by God, this will keep us humble. Professor Cranfield argues, however, that metron here means ‘a standard by which to measure ourselves’; that this for all Christians is the same, namely saving faith in Christ crucified; and that only this gospel of the cross, indeed only ‘Christ himself in whom God’s judgment and mercy are revealed’, can enable us to measure ourselves soberly.
If God’s gospel is the first measure by which we should evaluate ourselves, the second is God’s gifts. In order to underline this, Paul draws an analogy between the human body and the Christian community. Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function (4), although (it is implied) the different functions are necessary for the health and enrichment of the whole, so in Christ, by our common union with him, we, though many, form one body (5a). Although Paul stops short of saying that we ‘are the body of Christ’ (as he does in 1 Cor. 12:27), yet his assertion that we are ‘one body in Christ’ will have had enormous implications for the multi-ethnic Christian community in Rome. As one body, each member belongs to all the others (5b). That is, we are dependent on one another, and the one-anotherness of the Christian fellowship is enhanced by the diversity of our gifts. This metaphor of the human body, which Paul develops in different ways in different letters, enables him here to hold together the unity of the church, the plurality of the members and the variety of their gifts. The recognition that God is the giver of the gifts is indispensable if we are to form a sober judgment of ourselves.
We have different gifts, Paul continues, according to the grace given to each of us (6a). Just as God’s grace had made Paul an apostle (3), so his grace (charis) bestows different gifts (charismata) on other members of Christ’s body. Paul proceeds to give his readers a sample of seven gifts, which he urges them to exercise conscientiously for the common good. He divides them into two categories, which might be called ‘speaking gifts’ (prophesying, teaching and encouraging) and ‘service gifts’ (serving, giving, leading and showing mercy).
The first charisma Paul mentions here is prophesying, that is, speaking under divine inspiration. In Ephesians 2:20 apostles and prophets are bracketed as the foundation on which the church is built. So this reference to foundation-prophets is likely to be to the biblical prophets, including those New Testament authors who were prophets as well as apostles, such as Paul and John. In two lists of charismata, however, prophets are placed in a secondary position to the apostles, suggesting that there was a lesser prophetic gift, subsidiary to that of the biblical prophets. Words spoken by such prophets were to be ‘weighed’ and ‘tested’, whereas the apostles were to be believed and obeyed, and no sifting process was deemed appropriate or necessary in their case. Another difference seems to have been that prophets spoke to a local situation, whereas the authority of the apostles was universal. Further, Hodge was surely right in finding ‘the point of distinction’ in that ‘the inspiration of the apostles was abiding’, whereas ‘the inspiration of the prophets was occasional and transient’. It is in the light of these differences that we should understand the regulation which Paul here places on the exercise of the prophetic gift: prophesy in accordance with your faith (6b). Some think that this is a subjective restriction, namely that prophets should speak only so long as they are sure of their inspiration; they must not add any words of their own. But it is more likely to be an objective restriction. In this case we should note that ‘faith’ has the definite article, and we should translate the phrase ‘in agreement with the faith’. That is, ‘the prophet is to make sure that his message does not in any way contradict the Christian faith’.
The remaining six gifts are more commonplace. If it [a person’s gift] is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach (7). Serving is diakonia, which is a generic word for a wide variety of ministries. For ‘there are different kinds of service, but the same Lord’. It is highly significant, for example, that in Jerusalem the ministry of the Word by the apostles and the ministry of tables by the seven are both called diakonia. So whatever ministry-gift people have been given, they should concentrate on using it. Similarly, teachers should cultivate their teaching gift and develop their teaching ministry. This is arguably the most urgently needed gift in the worldwide church today, as hundreds of thousands of converts are pressing into the churches, but there are few teachers to nurture them in the faith.
Four more gifts are included in the next verse: If it is to encourage, then give encouragement (8a). Parakaleō is a verb with a wide spectrum of meanings, ranging from encouraging and exhorting to comforting, conciliating or consoling. This gift may be exercised from a pulpit or platform (‘the gift of stirring speech’, neb), or through writing (12:1), but more often it is used behind the scenes as ‘the gift of counselling’ (reb), or in offering friendship to the lonely and giving fresh courage to those who have lost heart. Barnabas, the ‘son of encouragement’, evidently had this gift and used it in befriending Saul of Tarsus.
Next, if it is giving, then give generously (8b). Calvin thought this was a reference to ‘the deacons who are charged with the distribution of the public property of the Church’, and it could certainly include these. But personal giving is involved, and this is to be done en haplotēti, meaning either ‘with generosity’, without grudging, or ‘with sincerity’, without ulterior motives.
If it is to lead, do it diligently (8c). The verb proïstēmi can mean to ‘care for’ or ‘give aid’, and some commentators opt for this sense because this gift comes between ‘giving’ and ‘showing mercy’. But the more usual New Testament reference is to leadership, whether in the home or in the church.
Then finally, if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully (8d). Since our God is a merciful God (e.g. 12:1), his people must be merciful too. And to show mercy is to care for anybody who is in need or in distress, whether outsiders, orphans and widows, who are often mentioned together in the Old Testament, or those with disabilities, the sick and the dying. Moreover, mercy is not to be shown reluctantly or patronizingly, but cheerfully.
This list of seven spiritual gifts in Romans 12 is much less well known than either the two overlapping lists in 1 Corinthians 12 (nine in the first list and eight in the second) or the short list of five in Ephesians 4:11. It is important to note both the similarities and the dissimilarities between them. First, all the lists agree that the source of the gifts is God and his grace, although in Romans it is God the Father, in Ephesians God the Son and in 1 Corinthians God the Holy Spirit. As they are gifts of trinitarian grace (charismata), both boasting and envying are excluded. Second, all agree that the purpose of the gifts is related to the building up of the body of Christ, although Ephesians 4:12 is the most explicit, and 1 Corinthians 14:12 says that we should evaluate the gifts according to the degree to which they edify the church. Third, all the lists emphasize the variety of the gifts, each seeming to be a random selection of them. But, whereas students of the 1 Corinthians lists tend to focus on the supernatural (tongues, prophecy, healing and miracles), in Romans 12 all the gifts apart from prophecy are either general and practical (service, teaching, encouragement and leadership) or even prosaic (giving money and doing acts of mercy). It is clear that we need to broaden our understanding of spiritual gifts.