Encouragers/ Exhorters: Be who you are!

Each member has his or her own gifts, which are not the same as those of other members. The Church needs all our gifts. We are to be the persons that God has made us to be fully, unreservedly, completely in proportion to the faith. To Encouragers/ Exhorters, God says: "Be who you are!" The rest of us would be in a bad place without you!

This passage teaches us first that every member of the Body of Christ has been given a gift to build up that Body, and each member has been given to the Church as a gift. Each member has his or her own gifts, which are not the same as those of other members. The Church needs all our gifts. Therefore, we must live in our own gifts—I must live in my own gifts, not yours. We are to be the persons that God has made us to be fully, unreservedly, completely in proportion to the faith.

I had to go to an unusual translation to find one that did justice to the Greek construction in this list of gifts.  Most English translations want to make this into a series of instructions about what to DO if you have a gift (which assumes you know that you have it).  But they really don’t tell anyone what to DO, they tell all of us who to BE.

Also, this teaches us that some members can perform certain functions better than others. That’s the nature of a gift.

My eye doesn’t have to work hard to be an eye, or to see (most of the time). It would be nice if it didn’t go blind on me because it really wants to be an ear. Otherwise, it only has to be an eye.

The same is true in the Body of Christ, except that we can decide that we really want to be something we are not (my eye can’t decide that) and stop functioning as what we are. Then everyone suffers!

One of the gifts, selectively given to some members, is exhortation. Verse 8 uses two words to identify this gift: the nouns “encourager” (Greek: parakalōn) and “encouragement” (Greek: paraklēsei), but both are derived from the verb parakaleō and mean that we are to encourage one another in the same way that the Holy Spirit encourages us. (Compare Hebrews 10:24-25 and my last post.)

This is something we should all be doing for each other, all the time. But some have a particular spiritual gift for it. It’s their main role, and it flows naturally from them, almost like breathing.

But it’s not a leadership role, and it’s usually not given much recognition. Still, Paul says, “Be who you are!” The rest of us would be in a bad place without you!

Next (for now): An important decision about my articles

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