Session 2: We are all Givers and Receivers of Ministry
In my previous session, we talked about how every Christian has at least one spiritual gift. What this means is that we all have a role to play, in actively discovering our spiritual gifts (which will be explored by King Wai in the next session) as well as in actively using them.
What’s the big deal about using our spiritual gifts? If we look at John 13:1-17, in which Jesus washes the disciples’ feet and then commands them to wash each other’s feet “just as I have done for you”, we notice that Jesus does not distinguish between the giver and recipient of the footwashing. It is a reciprocal action that the disciples are to perform for “each other”. Moreover, the fact that Jesus would take the trouble to set an example and command them to do likewise shows how central the concept of service is to Christian living. This implies that service is something that every Christian should be engaged in, not just the pastors and ministers in “full-time service”. In other words, WE ARE ALL GIVERS AND RECEIVERS OF MINISTRY. Within this context, divine outpouring of spiritual gifts to every Christian is God’s way of empowering each of us to serve — we all have been given spiritual gifts, therefore we have no excuse not to serve.
But why is it so important to serve? The second passage we looked at was Ephesians 4:1-16, which talks about the unity of the body of Christ. Although verse 3 exhorts us to ‘maintain’ the unity which originates from the Spirit, verse 13 says we are to ‘attain’ this unity. One way to reconcile these two verses is to remember that spiritual transformation is a process. The Spirit is the basis of our unity in the body, but beyond that point we have the responsibility to attain this unity in faith and obedience. Yes, we will never be able to achieve perfect unity in this world as the transformation process will only be complete when Christ comes again. But in the meantime, WE ARE TO STRIVE TO MAINTAIN AND ATTAIN OUR UNITY, and the only way we can do that is by serving each other, through the use of our spiritual gifts.