Romans 12:7 - Printer Friendly

ESV: if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching;

NIV: if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach;

NASB: if service, in the act of serving; or the one who teaches, in the act of teaching;

CSB: if service, use it in service; if teaching, in teaching;

NLT: If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well.

KJV: Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering: or he that teacheth, on teaching;

NKJV: or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching;

Paul has described an amazing thing every Christian is meant to do. In fact, this is the first thing Paul describes when launching into how we should live in response to God giving us mercy in Christ. Every Christian receives God's Holy Spirit when we come to faith in Christ. The Spirit brings with Him spiritual gifts that God intends for us to use to serve each other in the church. Each of us is given different gifts to use for different purposes, but our universal command is to use those gifts according to the will of God.

Paul lists two more of those gifts in this verse. The first is the gift of serving. This gift of service, sometimes called "helps," is the ability to step in and meet the practical needs of individuals or the church as a whole. People with the gift of service often don't realize that it is, indeed, a gift. They assume that everyone can zero in on what another person needs help with and to provide that help at the right time and in the right way. They're wrong, though. The body of Christ could not function if those with the gift of service neglected their role in the church.

The second gift mentioned is teaching, and its one that most of us think of as a primary role in the church. It is the supernatural ability, in the Spirit, to make clear to a diverse group of hearers what God's Word means. The early church relied heavily on Spirit-gifted teachers to help believers understand the truth, just as we do today.

Romans 12:3–8 describes the first responsibility of every living-sacrifice Christian who worships the Lord. The church is like a body: Christ's body. Each Christian has a part to play using the specific spiritual gifts God has given to us. These gifts of grace provide all the power and ability we need to serve each other, but we must still do it, whether our gift is service, teaching, exhortation, mercy, or something else.

In Romans 12, Paul describes the worship of our God as becoming living sacrifices to our God, giving up seeking what we want from life and learning to know and serve what God wants. That begins with using our spiritual gifts to serve each other in the church. Paul's list of commands describes a lifestyle of setting ourselves aside. Our goal as Christians is to love and lift each other up. We must focus our expectation on eternity and wait with patience and prayer for our Father to provide. We must refuse to sink to evil's level, giving good to those who harm us instead of revenge.

Romans 11 ended with a hymn describing God's vast ownership of the universe. Romans 12 begins by asking the question, ''Since He owed us nothing and has given us great mercy, how should we respond?'' The answer is a life of self-sacrificing worship spent in serving the Lord and other believers, refusing revenge and overcoming evil with good. Romans 13 will continue to describe God's intended lifestyle for those in Christ.

The book of Romans is the New Testament's longest, most structured, and most detailed description of Christian theology. Paul lays out the core of the gospel message: salvation by grace alone through faith alone. His intent is to explain the good news of Jesus Christ in accurate and clear terms. As part of this effort, Paul addresses the conflicts between law and grace, between Jews and Gentiles, and between sin and righteousness. As is common in his writing, Paul closes out his letter with a series of practical applications.