But unto every one of us is grace given according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
Grace determining function
I. The function or office of any Christian in the church depends upon the gift which he possesses.
II. This gift originates in the grace of Christ.
1. It is not merely by nature or education.
2. Nor is it the reward of desert.
3. Still less is it arbitrary or capricious.
III. Therefore the position and task determined by this grace should be accepted with grateful unquestioning obedience.
1. Every Christian has received some gift fitting him for usefulness.
2. Loyalty and faith towards the Head of the Church demands that he should make the utmost use of it.
3. By so doing he is the more certain to receive increase of grace for further and higher service. “Every gift of the Spirit is a prophecy of greater gifts.” (A. F. Muir, M. A.)
The gift of Christ
“The gift of Christ” is the gift which He confers. That gift is measured, and each individual receives according to the sovereign will of the Supreme distributor. And whether the measure be great or small, whether its contents be of more brilliant endowment or of humbler and unnoticed talent--all is equally Christ’s gift, and of Christ’s adjustment, and all is equally indispensable to the union and edification of that Body in which there is “no schism.” The law of the Church is essential unity in the midst of circumstantial variety. Differences of faculty or temperament, education or susceptibility, are not superseded. Each gift in its own place completes the unity. What one devises another may plead for, while a third may act out the scheme; so that sagacity, eloquence, and enterprise form a “three-fold cord, not easily broken.” It is so in the material creation--the little is as essential to symmetry as the great--the star as well as the sun--the raindrop equally with the ocean, and the hyssop no less than the cedar. The pebble has its place as fittingly as the mountain, and colossal forms of life are surrounded with the tiny insect whose term of existence is limited to the summer twilight, Why should the possession of this grace lead to self-inflation? It is simply Christ’s gift. The amount and character of “grace” possessed by others ought surely to create no uneasiness nor jealousy, for it is of Christ’s measurement as well as of His bestowment, and every form and quantity of it as it descends from the one source is indispensable to the harmony of the Church. The one Lord will not bestow conflicting graces, nor mar nor disturb, by the repulsive antipathy of His gifts, that unity which Himself creates and exemplifies. (J. Eadie, D. D.)
Gifts differ--be natural
Now you that have lately been converted, do not go and learn all the pretty phrases that we are accustomed to use. Strike out your own course. Be yourself. “But I should be odd.” You need not mind that. All the trees that God makes are odd. The Dutch chip them round, or make them into peacocks, but that style of gardening is not to our mind. Some people say, “What a lovely tree.” I say, “What a horribly ugly thing it is.” Why not let the tree grow as God would have it. Do not clip yourselves round or square, but keep your freshness. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Use your own gift
It is said that in Derby resides Mr. Thomas Eyre, a veteran in the temperance cause, for forty years an abstainer and an earnest worker, but unable now to go out and labour, being paralyzed. In his window is hung a small board, with the following notice: “A temperance pledge kept here. All who are weary of drinking, come in and sign.” “Yesterday,” said our aged friend, “one who has long been a slave to drink, and in great distress, came in, and for the first time signed the pledge.” This example is worthy of being imitated.
