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Commentary on "Social Support: The Tie That Binds"

 

 

Day 6: Thursday, June 24, 2010 - Serve One Another

 

Today's lesson leads the reader through the passages related to the gifts of the Spirit which God pours out on the members of the body of Christ. It concludes by diverting the topic back to the issue of health, commenting that when we serve others, we experience a sense of well-being and mental health.

The texts in this lesson have nothing to do with health, and we twist Scripture if we try to make them commentary on how to have good mental or physical health. Rather, these passages explain how God builds the body of Christ as a single unit in which each member has a unique function.

Before we can talk about spiritual gifts, however, we have to be born again. Natural man does not have spiritual gifts because he is not filled with the spirit but is in the domain of darkness (Col 1:13) and an object of wrath (Eph. 2:3). Only when we place our faith in the Lord Jesus, believing in Him and His completed work on the cross, are we sealed with the Holy Spirit (Eph 1:13-14).

When we have been born of the Spirit, then we receive our spiritual gifts and become part of the body of Christ. Spiritual gifts are never for the purpose of making ourselves or others "feel" better. They are never about achieving better mental or physical health. They are for the purpose of building up the body so we can be equipped for every good work and attain "unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ" (Eph 4:13).

When we submit our own desires and dreams to the Lord Jesus and allow Him to make us new and to glorify Himself in and through us, we are released from bondage into freedom. While receiving the life of God in the person of the Holy Spirit will change us profoundly, we may not necessarily experience healing from disease. Being healthy is never a biblical mandate or even an immediate promise. We are asked to function in the body of Christ, submitting to Jesus and to His gifting of us—gifting which we do not choose and which is different from our natural talents—for the good of the rest of the members of the body.

The biblical commands to serve others only make sense from a perspective of already being born again. Paul's exhortations to godly living always came in the context of the gospel, of the mystery of the incarnation and the atonement on the cross and the resurrection. Apart from submitting to the reality of Jesus bleeding to pay for our sin, dying, and rising again, the concept of service is irrelevant. All our righteous deeds which honor the law are worth nothing (Phil 3:6-7).

Only deeds done in the Spirit are truly righteous and can actually effectively help another.

The connection of spiritual gifts, service, and positive mental outlook with consequent medical benefits is nowhere taught in the Bible. Righteousness, service, and spiritual gifts are irrelevant topics until a person has submitted himself to the biblical gospel and repented, accepting the Lord Jesus' blood as His payment for sin and is righteous covering that qualifies him for eternal life. Only then can service and spiritual gifts make any sense at all.

 

Summary

  1. The texts in this lesson describe and list the gifts of the Spirit God gives members of Jesus' body.
  2. These texts have nothing to do with health; one cannot pursue "service" and expect to have better mental or physical health.
  3. Service flows from the life of God in a person who has been born of the Spirit.
  4. Apart from being born again, no one can do good that counts as "good". Even our altruism is as filthy rags.
  5. God's Spirit equips us to build each other up so we can achieve unity, maturity, and the fullness of Christ.
  6. "Service" is not something a believer does for others; it is something believers do in obedience to and as an offering to the Lord Jesus. Service that is "others" directed is self-serving. Service that flows from submitting one's time, dreams, and person to the Lord Jesus is the service that builds up the body.

 

GO TO DAY 7

 

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