For I say, through the grace given to me,. . . – Romans 12:3
If you have been genuinely saved from your sins, you will be grateful to the Lord, and it won’t be long before you want to serve Him. You will want to share your faith with others so they too can experience eternal life. The Church is God’s means of building you up spiritually and providing you opportunities to serve Him. The Holy Spirit will empower you to serve and He will even provide you tools, spiritual gifts to fulfill His calling on your life.
How can we know what God would have us do? Where and how does God want us to serve Him? The first thing we have to do in answer to these questions is present ourselves to Him in full surrender to His will. The Apostle Paul was inspired to describe this first step as follows:
Romans 12:1-2 (NKJV) – 1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Paul exhorted his readers that, in view of all the mercies of God laid out before them in the first eleven chapters of Romans, the only reasonable and acceptable response was to present themselves to God as a living sacrifice. This means giving ourselves to God, all our hopes, dreams, ambitions, and objectives. To hear from God, we can’t approach Him with a mindset of conventional worldly wisdom, but with a renewed mind; with a Christian Biblical worldview. When we approach God like that, God’s promise is that we will “prove” or discover by examination, “what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
The word “acceptable” (Greek εὐάρεστος euarestos) occurs in each of these two verses This word means agreeable, acceptable, well pleasing. When we approach God in an acceptable way, we will discover God’s will to serve Him in an acceptable way. These first two verses tell us how we approach God is essential in serving the Lord.
The way we approach God to serve Him is so important that Paul elaborates further in the next few verses. In Romans 12:3-5 we learn what is the only acceptable attitude in serving God. If we approach God to serve with a wrong attitude, our engine to serve will sputter and leak and lack power to get where we need to go. What we learn first and foremost, up front and personal, is that it’s not about ME, it’s about HIM and US.
I mentioned earlier that the Holy Spirit empowers us and gives us tools or spiritual gifts to enable us to serve the Lord. But if we’re to receive such power and gifting, along with faith, we will need the right attitude or perspective on service for optimum God glorifying results. As Paul prepares to teach on spiritual gifting and our interactions inside and outside of church found in the rest of Romans, he calls his readers to an attitude check. He says:
Romans 12:3–5 (NKJV) – 3 For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. 4 For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, 5 so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.
In these verses are seven attitude checks for the Christian. If you’re gong to be used by God and serve in or outside the church in ministry of some kind, you need the proper attitude. That attitude involves the following.
First, be grace conscious. Paul said, “For I say, through the grace given me.” Paul knew he was who he was, by the grace of God. He worked hard and gave his all, but he knew and openly declared that anything good that came from him was a product of God’s grce working in and through him. Elsewhere he said it like this, “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me” (1 Corinthians 15:10). Grace can be understood by the acrostic God’s Riches/Resources At Christ’s Expense. Whatever we are and whatever we ever do, is all a product of God’s grace. Don’t ever forget that.
Paul is the Apostle of grace. He knew he wasn’t anything apart from God and His gracious provision to him. “So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase” (1 Corinthians 3:7). If we are to be productively used by God, we need to be conscious of God’s grace in our lives.
Second, don’t be high-minded. Paul continues, “to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think.” No one should be high minded or boast of themselves as superior to others. That doesn’t mean we walk around, head bowed, with downcast Eeyore attitude. We are complete in Christ! (Colossians 2:10). But we are who we are by God’s grace. We should never look down on anyone. Jesus had a way of lifting people up. We should have the same objective. But if we’re too high minded, we won’t be in a position to reach down to help people up. We should never think we are above doing certain services. Sometimes cleaning the urinal or washing out the toilet can be useful in keeping us on the right level of who we are in Christ.
Third, think soberly. Paul continues, “but think soberly.” “Soberly” (Greek sophroneo) means to be of a sound mind, sane, moderate, be in a right mind, exercise self-control, curb one’s passions. We shouldn’t let our feelings overwhelm us. We shouldn’t get full of ourselves or be so empty we don’t feel able to do anything. If we keep our eyes on Jesus and that “He must increase but we must decrease,” we will be on our way to proper sober balance in our way of thinking (John 3:30).
Fourth, remember God gives each person faith to fulfill His calling. Paul reminds his readers that, “as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.” God has a calling for each person. And to each person He gives “a measure of faith” to perform what He calls them to do. If God calls you to teach, He will give you the faith needed to teach. The same is true with whatever you do in His service. But if you think God is calling you to teach, but you’re not, God won’t give you the faith to teach. When we see others serving in ways different from ourselves, we should respect that God has given them the measure of faith needed to serve in that way. Again, we wouldn’t be serving at all if it weren’t for God’s grace. Enjoy what God enables you to do. Don’t envy what He isn’t calling you to do. Be satisfied in God’s particular calling for you.
Fifth, be congregationally not selfishly minded. Paul says, “For as we have many members in one body.” When the Holy Spirit works, He works and gifts “for the profit of all” (1 Corinthians 12:7). It’s not about me, but about Him and us. There’s nothing worse than a glory hog. God will not share His glory (Isaiah 42:8). God is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble (1 Peter 5:5-6). God designed the Church so that people could be known by the love they show for one another (John 13:35). The Church should never be like the world in its dog-eat-dog competition for “greatness.” The Church is a “team” where each player is valuable and essential and where the only One who gets glory is the One who Created the Team, Jesus.
Sixth, respect each other’s differences. Paul says, “but all the members do not have the same function.” We are God’s poetry (Ephesians 2:10). Some of us are verbs, some adjectives, some accent marks, paragraphs, sentences, and indentations. We are one in Christ, but we are all different. We should respect each other’s differences within the parameters of living out the truth of scripture. Jesus gave us the ordinance of the Lord’s Table so that we would keep our eyes on Him, and that we would see that though different we are of equal value in Christ. Just as the pieces of unleavened bread are all different, they all come from the same loaf. We should respect each other and value each other, love each other.
Seventh, be united in Jesus. Above all Paul says, “so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually member of one another.” It’s all about Jesus! As we all draw near to Jesus, we come closer to each other. We are to follow in the steps of Jesus (1 Peter 2:21), walk as Jesus walked (1 John 2:6), we are to cooperate with God as he molds us into the likeness of His Son Jesus (Romans 8:29). When we keep our eyes on Jesus, and not ourselves, and not our perceived envies of others, we will be united and effectively used by the Lord for His glory.
Grace consciousness, not being high minded, being sober, faith, being congregationally not selfishly minded, respecting each other’s differences, and above all rely on and be united in Christ. These are the components of the attitude of service acceptable to God. If you want to serve the Lord, you’ll have to accept that, serving is not about ME, it’s about HIM and what He wants, and it’s about teamwork, unity in Christ as we serve. Do that in faith relying on the Spirit and you can expect to be used by the Lord.