Ministering

 DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS

MINISTERING

Rom 12:3-8

3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. 4 Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. 7 If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; 8 if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.

NIV

It is time to consider this gift of serving, but it would seem more appropriate to take on all the rest of these gifts, teaching, encouraging, contributing, leading, governing, and mercy. Yet, each of them has merit as stand-alone gifts, so perhaps we should look at each one as individual gifts, which again, as we understand, is the work of God as he divinely influences our hearts and minds, thus manifesting within us how he determines, as he is the potter and we are the clay. We do not think it is our nature to serve others, although Jesus has taught through his example and teaching that he who would be the greatest in the kingdom should serve others, as he even told his disciples that he did not come to be served, but to serve. Yet, this gift of serving goes beyond our normal call to serve others. This Greek word translated as serving here carries a more direct meaning of ministering, which is used in some other translations. So then if our gift is ministering, then let us minister well, in accordance to the divine influence of God. This Greek word is another tense or variation of the Greek word translated as deacon, or table waiter, which was the case used when the seven were chosen to minister food to the widows. Nevertheless, to minister still looks a lot like to serve. We also should remember that Paul in other letters indicates that any gift from God is to be used for the common good. So then if we are influenced to minister or serve, then we are to do that for the common good of all believers, at least in the local church in which we have been led to be a member. It would be difficult, at best, to minister to the church at large, so it would be most appropriate to see all these gifts manifested within the local church, such as Paul writing to the one church in Rome. But what does this gift of serving look like? What we should consider is that Paul uses this same Greek word in his letter to the Ephesians when he writes about the four gifts given to the church, Apostles, Prophets, Evangelist and Pastor and Teacher. All of these are for to be used for the perfecting of the saints, or believers, for the work of the ministry, edifying of the body of Christ. Thus, any serving, or ministering as influenced by the Spirit, or manifested in us through the power of the Spirit, is for the purpose of edifying all other believers. Therefore, we cannot boast or even think more highly of ourselves because we have been given the gift to serve others. If this ministering or serving has been influenced by the Spirit within us, then we need to serve in all humility.