What Serving Others in the Church Should Look Like

Use Your Gifts Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness. —Romans 12:6–8 Each believer receives different gifts from God and is called by God to serve the local church in a unique way. These gifts are a grace, undeserved, freely bestowed by God. Paul says to use those gifts “according to the grace [God has] given to us.” Paul may mean we should use them in accordance with our own spiritual maturity (that is, one should not seek to teach beyond what she understands), or he might be indicating that one’s use of her gifts ought to be done in consistency with her faith (that is, one should never teach something contrary to God’s word). Paul says that whatever our gifts may be, we ought to use them well. When we serve in the church, we serve God himself, as well as his household. The humility Paul calls us to in verse 3 propels us to serve one another wholeheartedly. The gifts listed here...