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NASB | Ephesians 4:16 from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Ephesians 4:16 From Him the whole body [the church, in all its various parts], joined and knitted firmly together by what every joint supplies, when each part is working properly, causes the body to grow and mature, building itself up in [unselfish] love. |
Subject: More harm then good? |
Bible Note: Steve- You wrote.. "I don't know if "knowing our spiritual gifts" quite fits into Christianity 101 though. If it were this basic then I doubt there would be so much confusion and I doubt there would be so many Christians without a clue as to what their spiritual gift(s) were. I personally have seen many writings by mankind on how to identify your spiritual gift. But to my knowledge I don't recall any of them ever pointing to scripture to validate their claims :-(" I too do not know if knowing our spiritual gifts quite fits into Christianity 101. I do have an opinion, however, about why there is so much confusion about it all, especially in these times (and also like you I don't hang my hat on my opinion). I believe it's already been spoken of here, and I believe the biggest cause for confusion might be that SO MANY, for SO LONG, have plugged themselves into TO MANY ministries that they weren't called to. This has been going on for SO LONG that an accurate picture of a functioning local church that is fully seeking God and following His lead has likely never been observed by most. This is exacerbated by centuries of ignoring spiritual gifts, denying spiritual gifts, or inappropriate emphasis on spiritual gifts (or certain gifts). Finally, many of us are guilty of not honoring those gifts even when we have been convinced that He has given them. Finally, in speaking of Christianity 101 I'm of the "opinion" that the topic might fit for the simple reason that Scripture seems to speak of the gifts as a normal, expected part of the Christian experience. The lack of deep involvement in Scripture spelling out determining features may suggest that we take a complicated approach to what God intended as basic. Someone above talked about "natural gifts" (think it was lionheart but not sure) and appropriately so I believe. Most of us accurately realize when we are gifted in "natural" areas such as singing, sports, etc., whether we ever acknowledge God's grace to us or not. It may be that some Christians spend a lot of time debating with God when He is calling because they don't believe they "have the gift". If He's calling, He will provide the gift, that much we can all be sure of. God bless, Jeff |