Romans 12:3-8 – The call to think rightly

In Romans 12:1-2 Paul called believers to live a consecrated and transformed life. He said that to do so would require believers to have their minds renewed. Having encouraged that, he then turned to ask believers to cultivate an attitude that should not cherish an inflated self-ego. He told them to have a proper self-evaluation according to the measure of grace given by God. When believers have such an attitude then they can experience unity in diversity. Like a body that has different parts, and yet each part is functioning in a way that profits the rest of the body, so also should the believers. Each is a member of the same body and hence, each should function inter-dependently to the other members in order to profit the whole.

Not only should there be unity in diversity, there should be diversity in unity. In verses 6-8, Paul delineated for us a list of gifts. This list of gifts is probably not exhaustive but representative; they are samples of the different spiritual gifts. God alone decides the gift or gifts each should receive. The spiritual gifts are given by grace and they are not given to show one’s spirituality. Hence, no one should be proud or arrogant over the gift he has received. In calling for the exercise of the gifts, Paul exhorts believers to be self-sacrificing for he understood the human tendency to be self-centered and self-serving.

It behooves us to think rightly about ourselves, about others and how we ought to exercise our God given gifts. God had called us be Christ centered as we focus on the need of the community of believers. We must seek to build each other with our gifts so that as a community we will glorify Christ.