Paul continues to show, with one final emphasis, how you implement the will of God in the body of Christ. By a pure expression of godliness (vv. 9-21). There is a clean-cut dis tinction between the gifts and the fruit of the Spirit, but Paul stresses that they should be inter-related and coordinated. The Christian who has presented his body to Christ and is being transformed will be able to implement God's will in ways like these— in the pure good ness of the love of God. Take one example. "Let love be without hypocrisy." Paul means that in exercising our gifts we are not to be actors wearing masks and faking a love which we do not really have. Our whole hearts should be in it with the love which is the fruit of the Spirit. If a Chris tian's gift is prophecy, what he says to benefit others is to be with gen uine love and not false motives; if service he is to mean it and not be grasping after some prize plum for himself; if teaching, he is to do so with sincere concern for the high est good of others and not for his own advantage; if exhorting, he is to do it with real interest and not just words, words, and more words. A friend of our family visited a TV studio while a well-known lead er of a children's program was do ing a show. The leader gathered the children around him and in var ious ways acted lovingly toward them, laughed with them, and was very tender. Our friend was im pressed. The program ended, they were off the air, and the children had gone home. Then the leader let his hair down and did an about- face. He said, "Now that we've got those little brats out of our hair Page 8
for the day . . ." and some other bad things about the children. To our friend, the whole big thing suddenly dwindled to a cruel farce, a sorry bit of make-believe, the hypocrisy of an actor pacing him self through his motions. Let us, as Christians involved with other "children" of Cod, exercise our gifts with a pure expression of godliness, with the fruit of love which can be the genuine outflow of hearts possessed by the Spirit. How, then, do I exercise my gift? In short, this gift of the Spirit is to be in coordination with His fruit. I am to present my body to Cod and let Him transform my mind so that I might implement His will in the body of Christ and in all other spheres of life. I can do that will in the body of Christ by a proper estimation of my gift, a proper exercise of my gift, and a pure ex pression of godliness.
Dr. Rosscup is Associate Professor of Bible at Talbot Seminary.
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