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Romans 12:3-6, For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. 4 For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, 5 so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. 6 Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly….
Paul has called us to present ourselves to God as a living and holy sacrifice and to renew our mind with God’s Word so that we can discern what God’s will is. Now he is ready to give us lots of application to our lives, and the first area is in our serving in Christ’s body. Questions we should keep before us are these. How committed am I to the local church? What gifts has God given me? How am I serving with those gifts?
Wayne Mack wrote a fine book, Life in the Father’s House. He asks, “Is it possible to have a vibrant spiritual life and successfully nurture our relationship with God apart from the local church?” He answers, “Far from being only one of many options for the Christian, the church is the primary means through which God accomplishes His plan in the world.” Paul thoroughly agrees. Remember this – the church is not a club you join but a body of which you are a member. When you are saved, you’re immediately joined to the body of Christ and gifted to serve in the body. Paul did not conceive of a true believer separate from his place in the body of Christ. There are no lone-ranger Christians in the Bible.
But before he gets into the spiritual gifts and how they function in the ministries of the church, he first zeroes in on our attitude. The key attitude for a thriving, healthy church is humility. In Ephesians 4:1-3 the first attitude he calls us to is humility, and then gentleness. Peter says the proper clothing for God’s people is humility: 1 Peter 5:5b, “All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, for GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE.” Nothing will destroy a church faster than spiritual pride. There is nothing uglier than spiritual pride and arrogance. Jonathan Edwards said about pride, “This is the main handle by which the devil has hold of religious persons, and the chief source of all the mischief that he introduces, to clog and hinder a work of God.”
And so, Paul calls us immediately to an attitude of humility. As we think about the importance of the local church and how we should be serving in the body of Christ, there are five truths about humility we need to be developing by the grace of God and by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Humility thrives in the grace of God. In verse 3 Paul highlights his ministry as “through the grace given to me.” Then in verse 6, “according to the grace given to us.” Paul is quick to say, “I am what I am by the grace of God.” Every spiritual blessing, from our election before the foundation of the world to justification by faith to our calling to serve in the body of Christ, is all by the grace of God. God called us and placed us here by His grace, His undeserved favor. Paul’s attitude was a grace attitude, and that’s what we need. Listen to him in 1 Corinthians 15:9-10, “For I am the least of the apostles, and not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am.” In other places he described himself as the chief of sinners, the least of the apostles, even the least of all the saints, and the slave of Christ. Paul never massages his ego in his writings. This is the attitude that nurtures a healthy church. I’m here purely by the grace of God. I don’t deserve this ministry or this salvation.
I am emphasizing this because grace removes any ground of boasting or spiritual pride on our part. Grace will never puff you up. It will always humble you. We all must confess, “By the grace of God I am what I am.” Grace is the rich soil in which humility thrives. If all you have is knowledge without humility, you are like a clanging cymbal. So, we start in our serving in the body of Christ with grace.
Humility submits to the authority of God. Paul speaks in great humility, but then also with his God-given apostolic authority. “I say to everyone among you.” What right does Paul have to tell us how to live? Because God called him by grace and gave him his apostolic ministry to instruct us, even command us as God’s people. And humility is quick to submit to God’s authority. Instead of resenting this man telling us what to do, we want him to teach us. As we preach and teach the Word of God, we teach with the authority of God and call the church to submit to that authority.
Pride resents this Bible, our God-breathed Book. But when God humbles us, convicts us of our sin, draws us to Himself in the gospel, we want to be instructed. In a culture that rejects any objective, higher law from God, we actually love God’s law, as long as what we’re hearing is from the Word of God. Paul told Titus in Titus 2:15, “These things speak and exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no one disregard you.” Satan loves to undercut the authority of God in His Word. “Has God indeed said?” Someone recently heard a pastor say, “We don’t need a book. We need love.” No, we need the Book, or we go far astray like the Israelites in the Judges when everyone did what was right in their own eyes. They were untethered from God’s law, and the result was spiritual and moral chaos. As believers saved by the grace of God, we love and humbly submit to God’s Word. And take notice, Paul is addressing whom? Everyone among you. The whole church – elders, deacons, teachers, servers, men, women – everyone.
Humility fights the sin of pride. What’s the first issue Paul goes after? Pride! The poison of the soul and the church. “I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.” There is a play on words here. Paul is saying, “Don’t be high-minded above what he ought to be minded, but to be minded so as to be sober minded.”
What does it mean to be high-minded? There are plenty of examples in the Bible, from Satan on. Remember Diotrephes in 3 John? Here’s a guy I’m sure was extremely gifted, but he was all puffed up about his own ministry. He loved the preeminence; he wanted to be first. Charles Hodge says being high-minded is to be puffed up with the idea of our own importance and superiority. Paul warned Timothy to be careful about putting a recent convert in the position of an elder or pastor: 1 Timothy 3:6, “and not a new convert, so that he will not become conceited and fall into the condemnation incurred by the devil.” The word “conceited” has the idea of all puffed up with smoke. Ever see a puffer fish? Some are smooth, but some have like-sharp skeletal thorns sticking out. A spiritually proud person knows more than everyone else and is not teachable. He resents being corrected and blames others for problems in the church. Matthew Henry said, “Pride is bred in the bone of all of us.” Humility fights the sin of pride. Nothing is so heinous as a proud Christian, even worse, a proud preacher. Some can cloak that pride under a superficial layer of affected humility.
God has given us plenty of examples of pride in the Bible. In Numbers 12, Aaron and Miriam got infected with a spirit of jealous pride and charged Moses with exalting himself, even though God said Moses was the humblest of men. In Numbers 16, Korah and his crew demonstrated the same attitude against Moses. Not content to be Levites, they became jealous of Moses’ leadership, and God called out Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. They had a showdown and God opened the earth and down they and their families went. Pride goes before destruction.
Spurgeon tells the story about a young man who wanted to attend his school for pastors. The young man was very confident in his own abilities. He thought if only Spurgeon would interview him, he’d know how extraordinary his talents and gifts were. Spurgeon popped his puffed-up pride. “I’m sorry, I cannot receive you.” “Why not?” “I don’t want to insult you by receiving you into our college where we just have ordinary men. You would have to condescend too far to come among us.”
Even Christ’s disciples illustrate the dangers of pride. In Luke 9 the twelve disciples began arguing among themselves as to which was the greatest. Jesus knew what they were thinking and brought a child to His side and said, “The one who is least among you is the one who is greatest.” Then, in the last week before the crucifixion, these guys did the same thing in Luke 22:24, “arguing about which one was the greatest.” Jesus’ answer is so good. “Which one is greater, the one who reclines at the table or the one who serves?” Of course, the one reclining at the table. Jesus in His unequalled humility said, “I am among you as one who serves.”
Humility fights against pride. God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. As God’s people serving in the body of Christ, the leading attitude must be humility. Humility crushes pride.
Humility has a realistic view of self. Paul says don’t think too highly of yourself, but he doesn’t say think of yourself as worthless, like “I’m such a loser, I couldn’t possibly serve in the body of Christ.” Paul says think of yourself with sound, sober, or realistic judgment, since God has given you a measure of faith, which speaks of the spiritual giftedness God gives to every believer. So, humility realizes all you have is from the hand of God. Your giftedness is sovereignly given to you so you can serve others in the body of Christ. God has something for you to do in the body. We’ll be looking at the spiritual gifts, but we need to remember, God gives gifts to His people so we can serve one another in all kinds of ways. Peter breaks down gifts into two broad categories: speaking and serving gifts.
1 Peter 4:10-11, As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. 11 Whoever speaks, is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God; whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Paul’s encouragement is not to say, “I’m a nobody, I can’t do anything, I have no purpose here, I’ll make a mistake.” Hey, we all make mistakes, say the wrong thing. If the church was only served by people who didn’t make mistakes, there would be no church, right? Mistakes are a given. Have you ever offended someone in the church? I have. Probably way more than I realize. But I’ve had to face my own sin and go to my brother and ask forgiveness. That’s a humbling experience.
Sound judgment means you prayerfully evaluate what you can do, and in humility and gratitude you get busy serving the Lord, mistakes and all. Don’t compare yourself with other people and what they are doing. The issue is, what has God gifted you to do?
When God called Moses to go back to Egypt and talk to Pharaoh, what did Moses do? He put up a fight. He fell into the “Yes, but” syndrome. You can read about it in Exodus 3-4: “Who am I?” (3:11) “What shall I say?” (3:13) “What if they won’t believe me?” (4:1) “Please, Lord, I can’t speak well.” (4:10) “Please Lord, I don’t want to. Send someone else.” (4:13) God’s response? God became angry at Moses. When God calls you to ministry, He’ll provide what you need. I’ve been pastoring since 1978. I still feel inadequate, but by the grace of God I am what I am. Christ says, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in your weakness.” That’s one of my favorite promises.
Let’s remember, the person with the least number of gifts with a sweet, humble spirit who is willing to serve and learn and grow is far more useful to God than that character who comes loaded to the gills with brilliance and abilities and maybe half the alphabet after his name but has an overweening view of his own importance. Don’t be a spiritual narcissist. I looked up narcissist this week. Here’s the definition: “a person who has an excessive interest or admiration of themselves.”
Humility stands ready to joyfully serve and recognizes the value of others in the body of Christ. In verse four Paul uses the figure of the body to illustrate the importance of each member and of all the members. Verse five says we are each a member of one another.
Romans 12:4-6, For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, 5 so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. 6 Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly….
Think about the body, one and many. One part isn’t the body, but it is part of the body and needs the rest of the body to function. When you eat lunch today, just think of all the members of your body functioning in harmony. First you stand to get your food – your whole skeleton and spine is holding you up with muscles strung all along. Then you sit down, and your elbows get busy serving. Your wrists and fingers get a grip on the food and bring it to your face. Funny, when food heads to your face, your jaw opens, you insert the baby carrots, your teeth go to work preparing it for the slide down the esophagus into your stomach… shall we stop right there? Every member of your body is important.
In 1 Corinthians 12 Paul says even the unseemly members are important. And each of us is a member of the whole. In the body of Christ there are functions to fulfill, ministries to accomplish, work to be done. Every believer is to be a giver, to contribute to the whole, to function, to give, not just take. And our gifts differ, as we’ll see. Humility recognizes the value of other members. There are no glory hounds in the church. Imagine a football team lining up with the ball, the center hikes the ball, and the whole offensive line runs down the field to catch a pass to get the glory. Ridiculous. No glory hounds or narcissists in the church.
SO WHAT?
People whose hearts God has touched know that all they are and have is by the sheer grace of God. They have been humbled before the Lord. There is no attitude more important than humility to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bonds of peace. People who are puffed up with their own self-importance and significance can bring great heartache and trouble to the body. Paul calls us to this humility in Philippians 2.
Philippians 2:3-5, Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; 4 do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. 5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,
And then he reminds us in verse 8 that Christ humbled himself, coming into this world to become obedient to the Father to death, even the death of the cross.
He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
We are here in God’s family by the grace of God and the only attitude that grows out of a true awareness of God’s grace in our lives is humility, a humility that is willing to serve joyfully in the body of Christ. I hope that’s your heart.