God’s Rules For Using His Gifts

Spiritual gifts are often misused to serve ourselves.

Christians will at times use their gifts to advance themselves in the church and in the eyes of others.  Many use their gifts to get attention and recognition, to feel good about themselves.  Others use their gifts in the hope of finding their complete purpose in life and force the church to affirm it and them.  Some wield their gifts to oppose the leadership while claiming to be more spiritually-minded.  These are but a few examples.

1 Peter 4:10–11 ESV “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”

God’s Grace to Others

We should understand that our gifts given to us by God are for us personally, only in third place.  First, they are a means of God’s grace for God to get glory in and through them in dispensing his grace.  And then, they are for His grace in other people’s lives, not ours before them, but after them.

Each one of us has gifts from God to be used in the church.  These are all our talents, skills and abilities empowered by Holy Spirit for ministry in and through a local church.  There are lists in Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, and Ephesians 4; but here in 1 Peter there is no list, rather a going beyond the lists.  This is because God’s grace is of a very great variety and very amazing powers; no list could ever be complete!

This stewardship is a managerial task of ourselves that should cause us to be filled with the excitement of serving, and also shudder with the great responsibility to be used by God for Him giving grace to others! 

Speaking and Serving

The “speaking” and “serving” is not really to be seen as two sets of gift types, but more so as whenever you are doing these activities of “speaking” and “serving.”  All of us do both activities, and often at the same time while using our gifts in a church.

Common speaking roles include:  preaching, teaching, evangelism, singing, encouraging, and testifying, and a whole lot more, even every time we speak to one another.  We are to speak our words as “oracles of God,” not as though we are so important, or can really speak like an Old Testament prophet or New Testament Apostle, or other crazy ideas.  Rather, we speak with spiritual purpose into others’ lives and with God’s wisdom, not our opinions.  We speak with reverence for God, faithful to the Gospel of truth, with serious intentionality.  

Common serving roles include:  helping out, maintenance, doing things, giving, and merciful acts, and a whole lot more, even every time we work with or for one another.  We are to do our work in the “strength of God,” not in our own strength, or for ourselves.  We will wear ourselves out ministering from our own power but will be amazed at the difference when we work from the spiritual energy of God, how he keeps on giving it to us as we pray. 

For the Glory of Christ

The goal of using our gifts is to glorify God.  We want to glorify God the Father in our attitudes, our words, and our actions.  This glory is “through Jesus Christ” in that He founded His Church, and the Church is living out its identity as those who bear His Name.  We do it with Him in mind.  We do all things in the strength supplied by Jesus Christ Himself through the Holy Spirit.

This Jesus Christ is our God, the Ascended One, and to Him belongs all glory and dominion forever.  The doxology expresses our desire that all our powers be given more fully to Christ’s service even now in this world.  The coming end of all things motivates us to use His gifts.

How thrilling it is to be used by God as a means by which He brings His grace into His Church and into the lives of specific individuals!  Be ready and predisposed to use your gifts, and know that God will replenish you as you minister.  Follow His rules for using what are His gifts in the first place.  Focus on being good stewards of God’s gifts and being a means of His grace.