~ Spiritual Gift Analogies ~
Opening Comment ~ “Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures” (James 1:16-18).
Analogies ~ In the world around us we find many analogies of the need to function together for the good of the whole as opposed to selfishly.
The secular world provides examples.
(1) A Championship Sports Team – a key differentiating factor from other teams is functioning with good “chemistry.” Truly excellent teams have individual players who do what’s best to win as a team rather than what is good for their own statistics.
(2) An Excellent Company – has a clear focus, good communication, and all departments are working toward the same clear and understood goal.
Creation also shows this value of harmony.
(3) A Forest – individual trees will withstand gale winds quite well but a lone tree will blow down much easier during a storm.
(4) A Campfire – remove a red-hot ember and place it alone and it will cool rapidly.
(5) The Local Church – when operating as God intended will function like a championship organization (unfortunately, like sports teams and companies this is not common). See the next section.
Biblical Analogies ~ The Scriptures provide metaphors of a well-functioning local church.
(6) The Human Body – for example read 1 Corinthians 12:12-31 and Exodus 4:11-12.
(7) The Farming Process – “So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor” (1 Corinthians 3:7-8).
(8) A Family – “I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty” (2 Corinthians 6:18). “You are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God” (Ephesians 2:19).
(9) God’s Household – “I am writing these things to you so that… you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the Church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:14-15).
The Key Point ~ In all these examples there is a clear need for all talents and gifts to be operating together for the good of the entire organization. Each has an assigned purpose and role.
“And God Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head — Christ — from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love” (Ephesians 4:11-16).
Closing Comments ~ “Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity. Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the eldership. Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all. Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you” (1 Timothy 4:12-16).
“Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:6-7).
“As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God” (1 Peter 4:10).
~ Robert Lloyd Russell, ABUNDANT LIFE NOW blog.
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