Our question is what part of the body of Christ is our part? What gift have we been given by God in order to fulfill our service and find our place and purpose in the world? The list of gifts is found primarily in 1 Corinthians 12 but then alluded to in other books. If we were to divide the list into categories it could include teaching gifts, service gifts, and administration gifts. And there is a place for everyone, but the purpose of all of the gifts is to give them away. In other words, find our role and spend our lives working it out. Paul says to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.”1 Why “fear and trembling”? It is a reminder to guard against settling for less than the best. It sounds like a daunting task until we understand that “it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”2 God gives us the desire and the capability to work, which not only fulfills our need of being needed, but it gives God, the creator, great pleasure to see us become who we were created to be.
Therefore. As we study the list, we should find ourselves in at least one of the three areas. As we mature in Christ, our tasks might shift, but probably not the category. The main idea in the Corinthian passage is that every gift is as important as another. Believing our gift is more significant or less significant than any other position in the body of Christ is to misunderstand the roles entirely. “For the body does not consist of one member but of many.”3 That is precisely why we should consider ourselves different from everyone else. And wishing we had been given a different part than the one we have is not only a waste of time it is an impertinent response to God because “God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose.”4
But there is one more thing to consider when we hear ourselves say, “I do not belong to the body.”5 And that is this: maybe it is true! Maybe we do not belong to the current body we find ourselves in. Maybe we were a good fit at one time but not anymore—and for various good reasons. However, before we abruptly leave or rashly move on, we should ask ourselves this question: Have we finished our work? Is our job completed? Paul encouraged Timothy: “Fulfill your ministry.”6 In other words, we are to do our work because no one else can do what we are designed to do in that body. But then there might be a stopping point.
The purpose to our gifts should be “for the common good”7 and to “equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.”8 If our job is done, then perhaps we do not belong to that body of Christ, utilizing that particular gift. But it does not give us license to quit using our gifts altogether. We are simply to serve elsewhere or serve in a different capacity. We are never to retire completely. You see, “the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.”9 God is never done with us and our work is never done! Talk about job security!
Finding out where we belong is really discovering how to use our gifts. And this discovery is the most gratifying part of life. It is to finally understand the good purpose for which God created us. And this good purpose, his plan for our lives, is the perfect fit for us, and much better than we could possibly imagine “for no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him.”10 Understand this, however. To go after God’s good purpose for us, to live as a disciple of Christ, is an intentional sacrificial lifestyle. Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”11 It’s a choice. Why would anyone want to do that? Because of the reward: “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”12 We find the purpose of our lives when we lose ourselves in our designated work—the work designed for us particularly—and then use it for God’s glory.
Most people will never understand or embrace this discipleship lifestyle. They simply discover what they love to do and then reduce it to a hobby of some sort, but it is rarely their primary work. Sadly, it is usually pushed aside. Our work that God has created for us reaches down into the center of our souls, where our creative self lies. This creative urge inside us is where being made in God’s image is elevated to its greatest illumination. God, the great creator, made us in his image, and we, therefore, are created to create as well. And our work is never done!
Our purpose in life, then, is to find our gift, perfect our gift, and then give it away. Which is the purpose of a gift, is it not?
1Philippians 2:12 2Philippians 2:13 31 Corinthians 12:13 41 Corinthians 12:18 51 Corinthians 12:15 62 Timothy 5:4 71 Corinthians 12:7 8Ephesians 4:12 9Romans 11:29 101 Corinthians 2:9 11Matthew 16:24 12Matthew 16:25
