Romans 12.8a-The Permanent Spiritual Gift Of Encouragement
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Wednesday October 21, 2009
Romans: Romans 12:8a-The Permanent Spiritual Gift Of Encouragement
Lesson # 410
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 12:1.
This evening we will begin to note Romans 12:8 by noting the gift of encouragement.
Romans 12:1, “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.”
Romans 12:2, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Romans 12:3, “For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.”
Romans 12:4-5, “For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.”
Romans 12:6, “Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith.”
Romans 12:7, “If service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching.”
The gift of service or helps is manifested in a multitude of ways in the sense that it can be manifested through cleaning the church building or the homes of those who are in need or are incapacitated.
It is manifested by those who maintain the upkeep of the church building by performing carpentry work, electrical work or mowing the lawn of the church building or those who are in need and are incapacitated.
Construction work can manifest this gift by the construction of a church building.
This gift can manifest itself in cooking by providing meals for the body of Christ at funerals, weddings or pot-lucks or food for families who have lost loved ones.
This gift can manifest itself in the publications department of a ministry whether editing the pastor’s books or producing them.
It can involve maintaining the website of your church or taking care of the computers of the pastor and the church.
This gift manifests itself through financial or accounting work by keeping the books of the church and overseeing its finances.
The gift of service or helps is manifested through helping out in the prep-school by teaching the children.
The Bible does not teach that women have the gift of teaching but only men as we will see when we study the verb didasko.
However, women do manifest the gift of helps or service by serving in the prep-school and teaching children or immature Christian women with regards to how to love their husbands and children the way the Bible prescribes (See Titus 2:3).
Therefore, we can see that this gift is absolutely essential for the body of Christ since it function encompasses a wide range of activities unlike the gift of pastor-teacher, which functions through studying and teaching or the evangelist, communicating the gospel to the unsaved.
Romans 12:7, “If service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching.”
“He who teaches” refers to the function of the permanent spiritual gift of teaching or communicating the Word of God to the congregation.
This involves the responsibility of being devoted to studying and teaching the Word of God (1 Timothy 4:11; 6:2; 2 Timothy 2:15, 24; Ezra 7:10).
It also involves being devoted to prayer (Acts 6:1-6) and to exemplify the Christian way of life (1 Timothy 4:11-12; Hebrews 13:7).
The man who has the spiritual gift of teaching also holds the office of pastor since the pastor shepherds his flock by providing his flock spiritual nourishment, which is the Word of God (Matthew 4:4; John 21:15-17).
This is also indicated in Ephesians 4:11 by the expression “pastors and teachers,” which because of the figure of hendiadys refers to one individual and not two.
The term “pastor” refers to a position of authority in the body of Christ, which was subordinate to the apostles and prophets in the first century apostolic church prior to the completion of the canon of Scripture.
During the post canon period of the church age with the completion of the canon of Scripture, they now exercise the highest position of authority in the church.
The term “teacher” emphasizes the manner in which his authority functions, namely by communicating the Word of God.
The term “pastor” emphasizes his office while “teacher” emphasizes his spiritual gift.
He is to exercise this authority in order to further the spiritual growth of his congregation to Christ-likeness.
Every believer in the church age has been assigned to a pastor-teacher without exception (1 Pet. 5:1-4).
Every believer has been assigned to a pastor-teacher who has charge over them in the Lord (1 Thessalonians 5:12-13).
The pastor has been delegated authority from the Lord Jesus Christ and is accountable to Him (James 3:1; Hebrews 13:17).
Romans 12:8, “Or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.”
“He who exhorts” is the articular nominative masculine singular present active participle form of the verb parakaleo (parakalevw), which is a compound verb composed of the preposition para, “beside” and the verb kaleo, “to call, invite,” thus the word literally means “to call to one’s side.”
In Romans 12:8, the verb parakaleo means “to encourage” and refers to the function of the permanent spiritual gift of encouraging members of the body of Christ to live in a manner worthy of their calling, to grow up to become like Christ.
This gift manifests itself in the person who gives advice to other members of the body of Christ that is consistent with Scripture and under the guidance and direction of the Holy Spirit.
It manifests itself by encouraging other believers to live according to the Word of God and can involve not only encouraging but also warning other believers in a humble and loving way when they are going astray from doing the will of God.
This spiritual gift can involve comforting those members of the body of Christ who have lost love ones or are experiencing suffering whether emotionally or physically.
It can manifest itself through helping and giving support to a weaker, or immature believer when they are having problems with a certain temptation or difficult trial that they are facing.
This spiritual gift can involve helping those members of the body of Christ deal with a particular burden that is too heavy to bear alone.
It can manifest itself by simply being available to another believer when they need someone to talk to so as to encourage them when they are depressed, frustrated or grieving.
The spiritual gift of encouraging can also manifest itself by helping other members of the body of Christ understand and apply that which is taught by the pastor-teacher.
Though all believers are commanded to encourage one another according to 1 Thessalonians 4:18 and 5:11, the spiritual gift of encouraging functions or manifests itself in a manner that goes beyond what is normally exercised by Christians who obey the command to encourage one another.
To encourage another believer demands that one knows the Word of God and how to apply God’s will in any given situation.
Romans 12:8, “Or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.”
“In his exhortation” is composed of the preposition en (e)n), “in” and the articular dative feminine singular form of the noun paraklesis (paravklhsi$) (par-ak-lay-sis), “his exhortation.”
In Romans 12:8, the noun paraklesis refers to the activity or function of the spiritual gift of encouraging other members of the body of Christ.
The preposition en functions as a marker of means and the noun paraklesis as a dative instrumental of means indicating the means by which the action of the verb parakaleo, “the one whose function it is to encourage” is accomplished.
This indicates that the function of the spiritual gift of encouragement is manifested “by means of” encouraging members of the body of Christ.