Romans 12:6-8 - Homiletics

Gifts

( second homily ) . In enumerating the various gifts imparted by the Lord to his Church, the various services its members are called to render to one another, the apostle writes for all time. In the primitive congregations there were persons endowed with special and supernatural gifts; but these, with one exception, the apostle does not include in this instructive catalogue; he rather chooses to put upon record his own judgment as to the graces and qualifications necessary, through all ages, for the edification of the Church and the evangelization of mankind. We observe—

I. GIFTS INTELLECTUAL AND INSTRUCTIVE . The truth is the great gift and deposit entrusted by the Head of the Church. The truth is first apprehended and appropriated; and then, as a natural result, is communicated and propagated. And this has been and is done in various methods.

1. By prophecy. This is, in the strictest sense of the term, a supernatural gift; the word designates the power of uttering forth the mind and will of God, and implies a special illumination from above. There are traces, in the Book of the Acts, of the existence and ministry of such a class, who authoritatively announced the will of Heaven, and sometimes foretold events to come. We may justly regard the apostles as themselves prophetically endowed; so that we, and the whole Church, are benefited through the impartation of this gift.

2. By teaching. Christianity is a teaching religion, and commits to every generation the sacred duties of instructing the succeeding race, and assigns to the enlightened the office of evangelizing those who are in spiritual darkness and ignorance. When the Son of God became incarnate, he condescended to live the life of a Teacher; and when he committed to his apostles the final trust, he bade them go forth and teach all nations. In the early Church the office of the teacher was magnified; and it was an evil time for Christianity when the teacher became a priest. It is true that not every Christian has the qualifications of the teacher. Yet there is a vast amount of teaching power in many Christian congregations, which needs to be called out, sanctified, and employed in the holy cause of religion.

3. By exhortation , or consolation. Teaching appeals to the understanding; exhortation to the heart, the conscience, the will. We are reminded that human nature is reached in various ways. Teaching alone is apt to become dull and mechanical; exhortation, unless based upon sound, sober instruction, is vapid and unpractical. It is in the combination of the two that a spiritual ministry reaches its perfection.

II. GIFTS PRACTICAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE .

1. By ministry seems to be meant all practical service. The deacons or ministers of the early Churches were no doubt entrusted with the charge of the poor, and the administration of the secular affairs of the Christian community; yet their service seems to have been varied and general, and was limited only by their own powers and the several opportunities of their lives. The apostle here specifies several forms of ministry, as samples of the rest, and as of peculiar interest and value.

2. These gifts may take the practical form of government. Rule is a Divine idea, just as is teaching; and without rule, in some form and to some extent, no society of imperfect human beings can be held together. There is order and rule in the Church, which fails to answer its Founder's ends, and fails to produce a right impression upon the world, unless decency and order and harmony are maintained. There must be rule in the State, which is an organism in which the head must needs direct and control the members. And there should be order and law in the household, which should be the Church in miniature.

3. Some possess the gift, and are entrusted with the privilege of giving, of liberality. It is obvious that there is propriety in regarding this as a proper consequence of receiving from Heaven. "Freely ye have received; freely give." Gifts may be either for the relief of the poor and needy, or for the promotion of evangelization. In any case, we are here taught that giving should be with simplicity, without ostentation, and with a single eye to the glory of God.

4. Closely allied to this gift is that of showing mercy. Whether in ministrations to the aged, the sick, and the dying, in the release or ransom of captives, in the instruction of the young, or in the recovery of the degraded and the lost, there has ever been, and there still is, abundant room in sinful human society for the showing of mercy. We are admonished that this gift—that of compassion and kindness—should be exercised with cheerfulness. There should be a sense of the dignity and privilege of being called to so Christ-like, so God-like, a vocation. Not grudgingly, not even from a constraining sense of duty, merely; but with the spirit of the Divine Physician, the Divine Liberator, should the followers of Jesus engage in these sacred and beautiful ministrations.