This article is a sermon given at UNEPREF’s spiritual gifts training courses. It follows on from what I said in my article Seeking of Peace!

Hello everyone, it’s a pleasure to be with you this morning! For those of you I haven’t met yet this weekend, my name is Lucas Cobb, I’m a final-year master’s student at the Faculté Jean Calvin and I’m also an intern at the Église réformée évangélique de Berre-l’Étang. This weekend, with Pastor Serge Regruto, we were invited to talk about spiritual gifts, and as we’ve already pointed out, something that strikes us a lot is that, when we talk about spiritual gifts, we always end up talking about something else, and in particular about what the Church is. The question of spiritual gifts is inseparable from our vision of the Church. That’s why, this morning, I’d like us to take a look at how the Bible describes the Church, and I’d like us to start by imagining what the perfect Church would look like in your eyes! What do you think the Church should look like? Maybe you imagine that there should be more musicians and singers, older or more modern songs, more Church meals, more volleyball (I understand you really like volleyball at the grand-combe), etc. To think about how the Bible describes the Church, I invite you to read with in the epistle to the Ephesians 4:1-16

I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, ²with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, ³making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.⁴There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, ⁵one Lord, one faith, one baptism, ⁶one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all. ⁷But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift. ⁸Therefore it is said, “When he ascended on high he made captivity itself a captive; he gave gifts to his people.” ⁹(When it says, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth?¹⁰He who descended is the same one who ascended far above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things.) ¹¹The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, ¹²to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, ¹³until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. ¹⁴We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. ¹⁵But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, ¹⁶from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.

I. Community life: the vision

So, what should the Church look like? It’s a debate that has spilled a lot of ink and will continue to do so, because we often have personal preferences that we seek to impose on others. It’s vital not to reduce the Church to our personal preferences. The German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer said that « He who loves his dream of community more than the Christian community itself becomes a destroyer of the latter, even if his personal intentions are as honest, sincere and sacrificial as ever. »¹ When thinking about this, it’s important not to lose sight of what the Church is all about. Often, we think of the Church as an association or club where like-minded people get together to have a good time. In fact, the Church is a community, a people who are united, not because its members have a common passion or a common interest, but because they have been chosen by Christ to be part of the same family, to be forgiven and saved. The Church is a people who have decided to abandon sin and submit together to Christ, who is their King, their Head. It’s not for nothing that Paul speaks of Jesus as the head of the body (v. 16), from whom all orders come for the body to be well coordinated. But this implies that we are bound together by bonds that are greater than our mere feelings, not by what is natural but by what is spiritual. Look at verse 3, we are united by the Holy Spirit (and this is a reality that is already given but must be lived). What unites us is that we have the same King, whom we want to love and obey. Without understanding this, we cannot grasp what the Church is all about. Dietrich Bonhoeffer drew a sharp distinction between spiritual communities and what he called human or psychic communities, because they are based on human capacities. This is what he said:

In the spiritual realm, it’s the Spirit who governs; in the human community, it’s psychological techniques and methods. In the first case, a naive, non-psychological, non-methodological life of help is directed towards the brother; in the second, psychological analysis and construction; in the one, service to the brother is simple and humble; in the other, service consists of meticulous, calculating analysis of the stranger.²

In a community that draws its strength from its own abilities, the bond between each other will be an unhealthy love, a possessive attachment to the other. Whereas in a spiritual community, the bond between each other is Christ: instead of being attached to a community ideal, we’re going to be attached to what’s best for others.

You’ve probably had to help a friend make a decision that was going to be difficult for you, but that was for their own good. When a friend of mine started dating for the first time, I vividly remember supporting him because she was a girl committed to the faith who would help him grow. But I remember it cost me because I had to let go of my possessive love for my friend and I had to increase my love for Jesus by encouraging him to spend time with this girl, because I knew he was going to grow more spiritually by spending time with her than spending time with me. In the Church, it should be the same: our love should first go through Christ. Bonhoeffer goes on to say:

Because Christ stands between me and others, I dare not desire direct communion with them. Just as only Christ can speak to me so that I may be saved, so others can only be saved through Christ himself. This means that I must free the other person from any attempt on my part to regulate, coerce and dominate them through my love. The other person needs to retain his or her independence from me; to be loved for what he or she is, the one for whom Christ became man, died and rose again, for whom Christ bought forgiveness of sins and eternal life. Because Christ has long since acted decisively for my brother, before I can begin to act, I must allow him his freedom to be in Christ; I must meet others only through the mediation of Christ. This is the meaning of the proposition that we can only meet others through the mediation of Christ. Human love constructs its own image of the other, of what they are and what they must become. It takes the other’s life into its own hands. Spiritual love recognizes the true image of the other that it has received from Jesus Christ; the image that Jesus Christ himself incarnated and that he wishes to imprint on all men and women.³

We need to keep reminding ourselves that in the Church what binds us together is Christ (v. 5), and what he has done for us is the love of God the Father (v. 6). As a result, our love for others implies not bringing them to us, but bringing them to Christ, to God, even if it costs us, even if it can sometimes break the relationship. This is where Paul’s words are crucial: we must speak « the truth with love » (v. 15). In UNEPREF, we like to be « benevolent » and we sometimes forget that we have to tell the truth: we have to remind people that we are sinners, that we don’t love God by nature, that sometimes (often) we stray from him, etc. But this must always be done with love, and with respect. But this must always be done with love, remembering that this is what God has done for us: he was both just and loving in sending his Son Jesus to die on the cross.

II. Diversity in unity: spiritual gifts

What binds us together is Christ (v.5) and what he has done for us is the love of God the Father (v.6). God didn’t want us to be Christians on our own, but he did want to create the Church so that we could grow together, and that’s what Paul is trying to explain here. In this strong unity, we are also different from one another. We are therefore complementary and interdependent on one another. God did not intend to give everyone the same gifts. In so doing, God teaches us that if we’re on our own, we can’t grow effectively. For example, how can I grow in the gift of mercy if I don’t see Christians showing mercy? How can I grow in the gift of generosity, if I’m not encouraged by someone who has the gift of generosity? In this passage, Paul says something that has always amazed me: it is through Jesus that the body « grows… and builds itself up in love » (v. 16). In fact, in this passage we find an interesting way of working. Church leaders are not there to do and organize all the Church’s activities, but to equip the saints: so that Church members can build each other up, and so that we can grow together in the Church.

Imagine a child whose parents don’t give him any responsibility at all. The parents will do everything for him and try to protect him from all life’s problems. This child will grow up to be immature and will not be able to enter adult life. Paul’s use of this image is quite striking. He says that « we will no longer be children » (v. 14). The Greek word Paul uses, νήπιος, refers to a child who is a little gullible and has known nothing of life. Paul is saying that, precisely, when we don’t organize ourselves according to the gifts and the leaders do everything, instead of equipping the Church, then we’ll be like children and have no strength.

This passage calls on us to rethink our understanding of the Church. Pastors, elders, deacons and evangelists are not there to do the work for others, but to discern God’s will for the Church, communicate that vision and help the Church organize itself so that it lives according to spiritual gifts. If we live this out, drawing our strength from Jesus Christ, we will experience a spiritual unity, a unity of thought, a spiritual growth where we surrender every part of our lives to Christ and we will be able to live out a true love for one another. Not a human love but a divine love where our aim is not to draw people to us but to Christ. We can do this because Christ has loved us and sacrificed himself for us, because his love has touched and marked us so much that we want others to experience it too, in every area of my life.

1 BONHOFFER D., Life Together, trad. DOBERSTEIN J., Harper & Row Publishers, San Francisco, 1954, with changes, p. 27.

2 BONHOFFER D., Life Together, trad. DOBERSTEIN J., Harper & Row Publishers, San Francisco, 1954, with changes, p. 32.

3BONHOFFER D., Life Together, trad. DOBERSTEIN J., Harper & Row Publishers, San Francisco, 1954, with changes, p. 35-36.