How are people helped? How are people blessed? What is the answer? Only by Christ, not by us. Do we believe that? Do we really believe it? Then we must show it in the way we use our gifts. They are to communicate Christ.
This series will focus on the speaking and serving gifts. So, all our speaking, in whatever way, is to teach him, to explain him. I am not talking about our normal everyday conversations, of course. We behave like human beings, not like programmed pious robots. But whenever we are exercising our spiritual gift of speech, it is not for a church, it is not for a denomination, it is not for a particular doctrine, it is not for a code of conduct, it is not for a morality—it is for Jesus. It is to point to him, talk about him, and direct people to him. In the same way, all our serving is to transmit his love and his care, and to demonstrate what he is like.
In fact, there is a very real sense in which our usage of the gifts is Jesus himself ministering to his body and to all mankind. That is one of the reasons we are called the body of Christ. My body is the executor of my will. I decide to pick up an object. I decide that the object will rise six inches into the air. How is that to happen? Through my body—my body obeys my will. My body does what I decree, and my body acts on my behalf. I do it through my body.
How does Christ work in the world? He works chiefly through his body. How does Christ bring people to faith? Usually through his people, through their preaching, their witnessing, and their teaching. How does Christ show his compassion in the world? Through your hands, your heart, your time, your love, and your words. That is Christ acting through us. I am not saying that he cannot act independently of us; I believe he can and sometimes he does. But that is not his normal way of working in this world. It is through you and me that Jesus speaks in the world. It is through you and me that he acts. It is through you and me that he meets people. It is through you and me that he loves and shows compassion. So, it is all for Jesus. The complete use of our gifts is to be for his glory and for his praise.
In that sense, we are to be like the floodlight. We are the most Spirit‑filled not when people say,
What a wonderful Christian,but when they say,What a wonderful Saviour that must be!Peter puts in beautifully in 1 Peter 4:11,Whoever speaks, whoever serves [ . . . ] in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.So, Christ is the Giver, the Judge, the Pattern, and the Goal. That is the purpose of your life: to bring glory to Jesus Christ. That is why we are on earth: that in everything he might be pre‑eminent.1
Edward Donnelly
11 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.