Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Romans 12:6

Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, [let us prophesy] according to the proportion of faith;

6. whether prophecy, &c.] The Gr. construction from hence to the end of Rom 12:8 is peculiar, because elliptical; but the E. V. well interprets the ellipses.

prophecy ] Here probably the charisma, or special miraculous gift, of preaching; of utterance in the Christian assemblies under immediate Divine impulse and guidance. It is now no longer possible to analyze minutely this sacred phenomenon; but we gather (from the great passage on the subject, 1 Corinthians 14) that up to a certain point the utterances were under the conscious will of the utterer, and (as we see in the present passage) might be, by negligence or extravagance of will, distorted and otherwise misused. See next note.

according to the proportion of faith ] Lit. according to the proportion of the faith, i.e. the faith of the utterer. The meaning “ the (Christian) faith ” would in itself be allowable, but in this Epistle (see note “on measure of faith” above) it is not probable. The Gr. word rendered “ proportion ” is analogia, (whence our analogy). It is used in classical Greek for arithmetical proportion, and in its derived meanings closely resembles our word “proportion.” Here, accordingly, we may fairly render in proportion to his faith; as regulated by his faith, in respect of less or more. This may be explained thus: The “prophecy” would, above all else, deal with Christ, His Person and Work; with Christ as made known to the “prophet” as the Object of his own faith; a faith which itself (if genuine) was based not on his own impulses and reveries, but on the solid ground of Divine revelation, verifiable as such. Accordingly the “prophet,” in exercising his gift, was to watch over his utterances, and not to allow them to fluctuate with his own independent thinking or wishing, but to see that they were steadily adjusted to the eternal Truth concerning his Lord, already revealed to him as a believer.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Having then gifts – All the endowments which Christians have are regarded by the apostle as gifts. God has conferred them; and this fact, when properly felt, tends much to prevent our thinking of ourselves more highly than we ought to think, Rom 12:3. For the use of the word rendered gifts, see Rom 1:11; Rom 5:15-16; Rom 6:23; Rom 11:29; 1Co 7:7; 1Co 12:4, 1Co 12:9,1Co 12:28, etc. It may refer to natural endowments as well as to the favors of grace; though in this place it refers doubtless to the distinctions conferred on Christians in the churches.

Differing – It was never designed that all Christians should be equal. God designed that people should have different endowments. The very nature of society supposes this. There never was a state of perfect equality in any thing; and it would be impossible that there should be, and yet preserve society. In this, God exercises a sovereignty, and bestows his favors as he pleases, injuring no one by conferring favors on others; and holding me responsible for the right use of what I have, and not for what may be conferred on my neighbor.

According to the grace – That is, the favor, the mercy that is bestowed on us. As all that we have is a matter of grace, it should keep us from pride; and it should make us willing to occupy our appropriate place in the church. True honor consists not in splendid endowments, or great wealth and function. It consists in rightly discharging the duties which God requires of us in our appropriate sphere. If all people held their talents as the gift of God; if all would find and occupy in society the place for which God designed them, it would prevent no small part of the uneasiness, the restlessness, the ambition, and misery of the world.

Whether prophecy – The apostle now proceeds to specify the different classes of gifts or endowments which Christians have, and to exhort them to discharge aright the duty which results from the rank or function which they held in the church. The first is prophecy. This word properly means to predict future events, but it also means to declare the divine will; to interpret the purposes of God; or to make known in any way the truth of God, which is designed to influence people. Its first meaning is to predict or foretell future events; but as those who did this were messengers of God, and as they commonly connected with such predictions, instructions, and exhortations in regard to the sins, and dangers, and duties of people, the word came to denote any who warned, or threatened, or in any way communicated the will of God; and even those who uttered devotional sentiments or praise. The name in the New Testament is commonly connected with teachers; Act 13:1, There were in the church at Antioch certain prophets, and teachers, as Barnabas, etc.; Act 15:32, and Judas and Silas, being prophets themselves, etc.; Act 21:10, a certain prophet named Agabus. In 1Co 12:28-29, prophets are mentioned as a class of teachers immediately after apostles, And God hath set some in the church; first apostles, secondly prophets; thirdly teachers, etc.

The same class of persons is again mentioned in 1Co 14:29-32, 1Co 14:39. In this place they are spoken of as being under the influence of revelation, Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the other judge. If anything be revealed to another that sitteth by, let the first hold his peace. And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets; 1Co 14:39, Covet to prophesy, and forbid not to speak with tongues. In this place endowments are mentioned under the name of prophecy evidently in advance even of the power of speaking with tongues. Yet all these were to be subject to the authority of the apostle. 1Co 14:37. In Eph 4:11, they are mentioned again in the same order; And he gave some apostles; and some prophets; and some evangelists; and some pastors, and teachers, etc. From these passages the following things seem clear in relation to this class of persons:

(1) They were an order of teachers distinct from the apostles, and next to them in authority and rank.

(2) They were under the influence of revelation, or inspiration in a certain sense.

(3) They had power of controlling themselves, and of speaking or keeping silence as they chose. They had the power of using their prophetic gifts as we have the ordinary faculties of our minds, and of course of abusing them also. This abuse was apparent also in the case of those who had the power of speaking with tongues, 1Co 14:2, 1Co 14:4,1Co 14:6, 1Co 14:11, etc.

(4) They were subject to the apostles.

(5) They were superior to the other teachers and pastors in the church.

(6) The office or the endowment was temporary, designed for the settlement and establishment of the church; and then, like the apostolic office, having accomplished its purpose, to be disused, and to cease. From these remarks, also, will be seen the propriety of regulating this function by apostolic authority; or stating, as the apostle does here, the manner or rule by which this gift was to be exercised.

According to the proportion – This word analogian is no where else used in the New Testament. The word properly applies to mathematics (Scheusner), and means the ratio or proportion which results from comparison of one number or magnitude with another. In a large sense, therefore, as applied to other subjects, it denotes the measure of any thing. With us it means analogy, or the congruity or resemblance discovered between one thing and another, as we say there is an analogy or resemblance between the truths taught by reason and revelation. (See Butlers Analogy.) But this is not its meaning here. It means the measure, the amount of faith bestowed on them, for he was exhorting them to Rom 12:3. Think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. The word faith here means evidently, not the truths of the Bible revealed elsewhere; nor their confidence in God; nor their personal piety; but the extraordinary endowment bestowed on them by the gifts of prophecy.

They were to confine themselves strictly to that; they were not to usurp the apostolic authority, or to attempt to exercise their special function; but they were to confine themselves strictly to the functions of their office according to the measure of their faith, that is, the extraordinary endowment conferred on them. The word faith is thus used often to denote that extraordinary confidence in God which attended the working of miracles, etc., Mat 17:26; Mat 21:21; Luk 17:6. If this be the fair interpretation of the passage, then it is clear that the interpretation which applies it to systems of theology, and which demands that we should interpret the Bible so as to accord with the system, is one that is wholly unwarranted. It is to be referred solely to this class of religious teachers, without reference to any system of doctrine, or to any thing which had been revealed to any other class of people; or without affirming that there is any resemblance between one truth and another. All that may be true, but it is not the truth taught in this passage. And it is equally clear that the passage is not to be applied to teachers now, except as an illustration of the general principle that even those endowed with great and splendid talents are not to over-estimate them, but to regard them as the gift of God; to exercise them in subordination to his appointment and to seek to employ them in the manner, the place, and to the purpose that shall be according to his will. They are to employ them in the purpose for which God gave them; and for no other.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Rom 12:6-8

Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us.

Gifts of grace

1. Their common source.

2. Diverse character.

3. Liberal distribution.

4. Faithful exercise.

5. Happy influence. (J. Lyth D.D.)

Gifts: their Divine source

As many vapours, rising from the sea, meet together in one cloud, and that cloud falls down divided into many drops, and those drops run together, making rills of water, which meet in channels, and those channels run into brooks, and those brooks into rivers, and those rivers into the sea; so it either is or should be with the gifts and graces of the Church. They all come down from God, divided severally as He will to various Christians. They should flow through the channels of their special vocations into the common streams of public use for church or commonwealth, and ultimately return into the great ocean of His glory, from whence they originally came. (Bp. Hall.)

Gods gifts to the Church to be used for His service

I. Those of whom the apostle speaks. Members of Christs body, i.e., the Church (Eph 1:22-23).

1. But what is the Church? Ask Roman Catholics, the members of the Greek Church, some members of our own Church, or the various sects, they would claim each for themselves the title of the Church. Now these are equally wrong. The Church here spoken of is no particular ecclesiastical government whatsoever, but the spiritual Church of Gods elect throughout the whole world.

2. Here is the test of Church membership–the measure of faith. No person is a member of this Church but a true believer, nor can he exercise the gifts here spoken of except he has the gift of faith. The apostles illustration of the human body is totally inapplicable to the nominal Church. No such sympathy can be exercised unless men be mentally and morally conformed to God. Again, the string of spiritual duties inculcated in the text cannot be performed by mere nominal Christians. If you want a description of real Church members, read the opening address of almost every Epistle.

II. The persons of whom the apostle speaks are all possessed of gifts.

1. The time would fail me to tell of the gifts of God to individual members of His Church–outward gifts, such as station, property, influence, talent; official gifts, gifts of prophecy, of instruction, or those more directly spiritual gifts accumulated in the Church.

2. But the point of the passage is its reference to the diversity of gifts. Sometimes they almost appear to be capricious; one man rich, another poor; one richly gifted, another next akin to idiotcy; some with dispositions very amiable, others just the reverse. Spiritual gifts are not equally given to all. Some have such views of truth, such contemplations of heavenly things, that they seem to be admitted within the veil. Others seem just the reverse, going on heavily, and oftentimes cast down. So it is with all spiritual knowledge and attainments. This point is illustrated under the figure of the human body. What harmony, yet what diversity there! There is the head, the seat of wisdom; the countenance, of feeling and animation; then the various limbs or members of the body, more or less honourable; yet is the whole fitly framed together, each part marvellously adjusted to the other, and all mutually dependent.

3. But the most striking thought is that all are gifts of God. Money we may have earned by our own intelligence and diligence, but God gave us that diligence and intelligence. So with regard to our station in life. So most preeminently with His spiritual gifts. If we have any knowledge of the Scriptures, it is revealed to us by the Spirit of God.

4. Mark the lessons.

(1) The least of Gods gifts are talents entrusted to us, and should not be despised. Do not despise the day of small things, and say, I have nothing, or I can do nothing. Perhaps, too, there is a greater danger of our despising small gifts in others.

(2) These talents being the gift of God, we must not be unduly elated by them (verse 3; 1Co 4:7). How humbling the thought that we have nothing we can call our own!

(3) The lowest gifts are as much Gods as the highest. He that planted the sun in the firmament taught the little glow-worm to shine on the summer bank. He that raises up the most talented to fill with honour distinguished situations is the same God that puts the candle in the cottage and bids it shine there. How encouraging is this to the weakest, the poorest, the youngest!

III. It is their duty and privilege to consecrate those gifts to the service of God. As masters and servants, parents and children, brothers and sisters, as individual members of Christs universal Church, we have each gifts entrusted to us; and whether our talents be few or many, feeble or strong, they are the gifts of God, and must be thrown by us into the common treasury of the Church for the glory of God and the salvation of souls. (Dean Close.)

Varied gifts

There is not greater variety of colour and qualities in plants and flowers, with which the earth, like a carpet of needlework, is variegated, for the delight and service of man, than there is of gifts natural and spiritual in the minds of men, to render them useful to one another, both in civil society and Christian fellowship. (W. Gurnall.)

Gifts, diversity of

Every man has received some gift–no man has all gifts; and this, rightly considered, would keep all in a more even temper; as, in nature, nothing is altogether useless, so nothing is self-sufficient. This, duly considered, would keep the meanest from repining and discontent, even him that hath the lowest rank in most respects; yet something he hath received that is not only a good to himself, but rightly improved, may be so to others likewise. And this will curb the loftiness of the most advanced, and teach them not only to see some deficiencies in themselves, and some gifts in far meaner persons which they want; but, besides the simple discovery of this, it will put them upon the use of lower persons, not only to stoop to the acknowledgment, but even withal to the participation and benefit of it; not to trample upon all that is below them, but to take up and use things useful, though lying at their feet. Some flowers and herbs that grow very low are of a very fragrant smell and healthful use. (Abp. Leighton.)

Unity and diversity

Diversity without unity is disorder; unity without diversity is death. (J. P. Lange, D.D)

Unity in diversity

The spirit resolves the variety into unity, introduces variety into the unity, and reconciles unity to itself through variety. (Baur.)

The requirements of true religion

I. Faithfulness in the church. Our gifts must be improved for the common edification (verses 6-8).

II. Love to the brethren–it must be faithful, yet kind.

III. Consistency in the world.

1. Diligence.

2. Fervour.

3. Cheerfulness.

4. Patience.

5. Prayer.

IV. Kindness to all men.

1. To the saints.

2. To enemies.

3. To all according to their need.

V. Humility.

1. In our intercourse with others.

2. In our aims.

3. In our judgments. (J. Lyth, D.D.)

Usefulness, the least Christian to aim at

Many true saints are unable to render much service to the cause of God. See, then, the gardeners going down to the pond and dipping in their watering-pots to carry the refreshing liquid to the flowers. A child comes into the garden and wishes to help, and yonder is a little watering-pot for him. Note well the little water-pot, though it does not hold so much, yet carries the same water to the plants; and it does not make any difference to the flowers which receive that water, whether it came out of the big pot or the little pot, so long as it is the same water, and they get it. You who are as little children in Gods Church, you who do not know much, but try to tell to others what little you know; if it be the same gospel truth, and be blessed by the same Spirit, it will not matter to the souls who are blessed by you whether they were converted or comforted under a man of one or ten talents. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith.

The gift of prophecy

I. Its nature and requisites.

II. Its design.

1. The edification of the Church.

2. The spread of truth.

3. Salvation of souls.

III. Its use.

1. According to the analogy of faith.

2. In faith. (J. Lyth, D.D.)

The proportion of faith

1. Prophet means one who is the interpreter of anothers thought. In the Hebrew word there is involved the idea of a fountain bubbling up as from between rocks, subjected to pressure from without. The prophet often declared future events; but we must not limit his function to the prediction. He brought messages to men pertaining to the present practical duty of life.

2. According to the proportion of faith. The sense is made clearer by inserting the or our faith, i.e., the objective system of truth, the gospel. It is a vast, vital, co-ordinated system, built up a unity, like the root, the stem, and branch, or the wall, the tower, and spire of a building. The balance of every part with every other part is hinted at. What is it that Gods Word brings?

I. Great doctrines.

1. The eternal personality of God–a thought the pagan mind did not grasp. And science is dwarfed when it hides this pivotal thought.

2. His providential goodness and redeeming grace. His hand is in history. The history of the race is the history of redemption. It was God who led Paul to Damascus, Augustine to Rome, Savonarola to Florence, and Luther to Worms, His creative power, His providence and grace, like the mysterious trinity of Being to which they are related, fill us with adoring wonder. The Bible lifts the race, exalting its intellectual as well as its moral capacity.

II. The law of God which is as great as the doctrine of God. It is high above the codes of uninspired teachers. Love to God and man are the essential elements. Every element of life is reached and ruled by it. As one sunshine floods the breadth of the sea and the face of the smallest flower, so the law touches alike the mightiest and the meanest. It enters into the whole man. Courtesy in manner is philanthropy in a trait, and heroism of character is shown in the patience of love. In a word, the law is matched to the doctrine in its supernal character and reach.

III. A Saviour as great as either. He was announced by angels; a star led worshippers to His cradle; at His baptism a voice proclaimed Him the well-beloved of the Father. He laid claims on mans service–blasphemous were He not God. He put Himself between parent and child, wife and husband; or, rather, above them all, in supreme authority. By His pierced hands, Christ, the crucified and risen Redeemer, has been guiding the course of empires, and is bringing in millennial eras. Really, though often unconsciously, has the world in its advancing civilisation reflected the glory of this majestic Prince of Life. He shall yet see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied. On His head will rest many crowns.

IV. A universal spiritual kingdom is coincident in majesty and might with the foregoing elements. The idea of such a kingdom is unique and grand. To the Greeks other nations were but barbarians. Rome made other peoples her captives, without extinguishing their enmity or assimilating their life. But Christ founded His throne in the love of His redeemed people. All genius shall be developed, and all wealth shall be consecrated under the supremacy of Christ. Christianity shall be the glory of the nations.

V. Great warnings. How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation? Here is, then, the proportion of faith, the harmony of truth, the analogy which knits all together in a definite unity. These are the substructural truths of revelation, which are to be studied and proclaimed, each in its time, place, and proportion. Conclusion:

1. As we infer the genius of the architect from the grandeur of the building, the genius of the poet from his verse, or that of the statesman and jurist from what emanates from each, so we infer the sublime greatness of God from this revelation of truth. Can any one say that the Scriptures are the product of the Jewish mind? As well might we say that the Atlantic came from the upsetting of a childs breakfast-cup!

2. Attacking one point of this revelation is an attack on the whole. If one part be in error the value of the whole is vitiated, the entire edifice tumbles to pieces. All these facts of our common faith stand or fall together, as heart and brain are united. If one be paralysed, the whole suffers. If one stone be plucked from the arch, they all tumble in one heap; but in their entirety they reflect the Divine unity and eternity.

3. We rise into sympathy with God as we come into fuller comprehension of His truth. How unwise it is for one to try to banish Gods Word from his thoughts! Here is the romance of the world. The imagination, as well as the conscience of the race, is exalted by the truth of God. It ennobles the whole man. It enriches the life that is, as well as the life that is to come. (R. S. Storrs, D.D.)

Right proportions of truth

I. What is faith here?

1. If we are to understand the trust of the heart towards God, then the passage will mean, that if any man prophesy, or preach, he must do it according to the spiritual experience which God has given him. The measure of the faith is the measure of the life; and if we wish to raise the standard of our life, we must begin by elevating our faith. We cannot go beyond our faith; and we must not fall short of it. The great business of life is to square our words and actions to the faith which God has given us.

2. But we are to take faith here rather as signifying not the belief, but the things believed–our creed–the faith once delivered to the saints.

II. We must keep the general symmetry of the whole body of the truth as it is in Jesus.

1. There is no greater danger than disproportion–the source of almost all error. For the enemy of truth to present what is palpably false would at once startle and offend! But he secures his end much better, by putting before us what is in itself perfectly true, but which becomes false when not balanced by another and equal truth.

2. God has been pleased to give us a revelation; but He has given us also common sense. The Bible was never intended to be cut up into isolated texts. No book would bear it. If you take single sentences you may prove Socinianism, Popery, anything. What we have to do is to know all; to collate all; and to gather, from the Bible, in its integrity, the mind of God.

III. One or two things in which it is most important to keep the proportion of faith.

1. Each Person in the Blessed Trinity has His own prerogative, office, and dispensation. Some persons religion is all of the Father, others all of the Son, others all of the Spirit. See, however, how the works of each stand related to each other in the proportion of faith. The Father loved the world, and gave His Son to save it. The Son wrought out for us a complete salvation, and with Him we have union by faith. That union is our strength, and our life. That union once made, the Holy Spirit flows into us as the blood flows into a member of the body; or, as the sap flows into a branch, grafted into the tree. So that it is impossible to say to which we owe most.

2. According to the proportion of faith, there is a wide distinction between the process of our justification and our sanctification. We are justified at once, and perfectly, by a single act of faith; hut we are sanctified by degrees with effort, and even painfulness. (J. Vaughan, M.A.)

The doctrine of proportion

Proportion means things in their right place, i.e., when one object does not unduly attract our attention above another. A well-proportioned figure, e.g., is where the head is not too large, or the hands and feet too small for the body. A well-proportioned building is that in which nothing is out of place or too large or small for its place. Apply this doctrine to–

I. Christian practice.

1. It is not enough to ask what is right in itself, but what is right under the circumstances. It is a great thing to have right men in right places, but it is also a great thing to have the right man doing the right thing in the right place, in the right way. A right thing done in a wrong way is often more mischievous than a thing done wrong altogether. A saying most true loses all its savour if said at a wrong time; and it is no defence to argue that it was good years ago or miles away. Is it good for us here and now?

2. Congruity, fitness, proportion, are the graces required for the spiritual as well as the material temple. We are not mere isolated blocks of stone, but living stones, built up into a spiritual house. What in one station or age is a grace, in another is a deformity. To everything there is a season, etc., says the preacher in that ancient discourse on the doctrine of proportion. How many good plans have come to nought, not from wickedness or opposition, but because men have exalted a virtue or custom out of proportion, and so have driven men into an equal disproportion on the other side–over strictness leading to over laxity, excessive rashness to excessive caution, etc.

3. And so the apostle tells us to act according to the gifts given to us. He that is endowed with the gift of preaching is to exercise his gift not in any other line, but in that. He that has the gift of practical work is not to rush out of his way in prophesying. Each has his own special calling; let us not waste our time or mar our usefulness by intruding into provinces disproportioned to our powers. Any one faculty indulged in excess becomes a curse, e.g., music, study, mechanical pursuits. How fatal to Louis XVI., who in the crisis of the French monarchy devoted himself to his favourite craft rather than to the task of saving the state; how useful to Peter the Great, who made it the means of civilising his barbarian empire!

4. In the defence of Lucknow the courage, subordination and zeal of each individual was sustained by the consciousness that on him rested the safety of the whole–a single outpost lost would be the loss of all. So if the fortress of goodness and truth is to be saved, it must be by every one doing at his own post the work that belongs to him alone. What discipline effects in the army is effected in our moral duties by a sense of the apostolical doctrine of proportion. Each one has his own work assigned him by the Captain of his salvation. Allow in others, claim for yourselves a division of labour and responsibility. A good master, servant, soldier, teacher, is made in no other way but by waiting on his place.

II. Christian method.

1. He that giveth with simplicity. How greatly the value of a gift depends on the manner of giving! He gives twice who gives soon; so he who gives with simplicity, i.e., with singleness of purpose, gives a hundredfold more than he who gives grudgingly, late, or ostentatiously. A thousand gifts ill given are hardly better than none.

2. He that ruleth, with diligence. He that has charge of a household, school, or commonwealth, may rule imperiously, and so that the institution may go on in apparent prosperity; and yet there may be wanting that peculiar method which will give life and substance to the whole. What is wanted is that he should rule with diligence, i.e. with heart and soul. This is the true secret of influence.

3. He that showeth mercy, with cheerfulness. How easy to show mercy in such a way that it shall be no mercy! What is wanted is the bright smile, the playful word.

III. Christian truth.

1. It is important for the teacher to teach according to the proportion of his own faith; not to assume feelings which are not his own, not to urge truths of which he does not feel the value, but to teach according to his own knowledge and experience.

2. It is important for us all so to seek, find, and teach all truth, so as not to forget what are the due proportions of the truth itself. Christian truth is not of one kind only. It has lights and shades, foregrounds and distances, lessons of infinitely various significance. Woe be to us if instead of rightly dividing the word of truth, we confound all its parts together. We may believe correctly on every single point, yet if we view these points out of their proper proportions our view may be as completely wrong as if on every point we had been involved in error. (Dean Stanley.)

The danger of exaggerations in religion

1. Lord Bacon compares religion to the sun, which invigorates and cheers live animal substances, but turns the dead to corruption. Similarly religion invigorates a sound mind, and cheers a sound heart, while in a morbid mind it breeds superstitions, scruples, and monstrous fancies. We have only to survey the history of Christianity to see how just their comparison is. What follies, superstitions, licentious doctrines, have been founded on the Bible! This has arisen from a certain morbid tendency in the human mind to caricature truths presented to it.

I. Every heresy has been a caricature of some one point of Christian truth–an exaggeration by which the fair proportion of the faith has been distorted.

1. The truth upon which the Quaker founds his system, is that the New Dispensation is spiritual. No truth can well be more vital, and through the subtle encroachments of formalism it is necessary for all of us every now and then to ask ourselves whether we are properly awake to the fact that the law, under which Christians live, is the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, written on the fleshy table of the heart, and that God is a Spirit, and therefore to be worshipped in spirit and in truth. The Quakers would have deserved the warmest thanks if they had done nothing more than bring these truths forward. But, unhappily, they caricatured them, and robbed the Church of her sacraments.

2. The fundamental truth of our religion is that God is love, and that He has shown His love by the sacrifice of His dear Son. Now certain divines have perceived this truth clearly, and it is impossible to perceive it too clearly, or proclaim it too loudly. But to say that anger is inconsistent with love, or that justice is inconsistent with compassion, and to acknowledge no relations with God as a Judge, because He stands to us in the relation of a Father, is to caricature the faith and mar its fair proportions. God loves me deeply, but He hates my sin, and will never consent to save me from its guilt without saving me from its power.

3. And where there is no actual heresy, this tendency may lead to a vast amount of unsuspected mischief. In many spiritual books a strain is put upon certain precepts which caricatures them, sets them at issue with other precepts, and cramps the mind which should strive after obedience to them. Take an example. When St. Francis of Sales was dying, he said to one of his attached disciples, Bishop, God has taught me a great secret, and I will tell it you, if you will put your head closer. The bishop did so, anxious to know what Francis considered as the crowning lesson of a life of holiness. He has taught me, said the dying man, who was acutely suffering, to ask nothing, and to refuse nothing. Now at this a sentimental pietism might perhaps whisper, What beautiful resignation! But is it in conformity to the Word of God, and the mind of Christ? We admit that we should refuse nothing which comes from our Fathers hand. But where has God taught His people to ask nothing? Did not our Lord pray, Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me? Good St. Francis erred by exaggeration, and caricatured the grace of resignation. Resignation is a heavenly and Christ-like grace; but if you will push it to every length, it becomes absolutely mischievous. Thus one might conceive a beggar doing nothing to improve his condition, on the plea that such was the will of God, and that mendicancy was the state of life to which tie had been called; forgetting that there is a maxim which says that if any man would not work, neither should he eat. In the lives of the Scriptural saints nothing is so remarkable as their perfect naturalness, and freedom from all overstrained spirituality. The great Apostle of the Gentiles, after a miraculous escape from shipwreck, gathers a bundle of sticks, and puts them on the fire (for St. Paul was not above feeling cold and wet); and when writing under the affiatus of the Holy Ghost, he bids Timothy bring the cloak which be left at Troas with Carpus, in anticipation of an approaching winter, and the books, but especially the parchments; for what studious man can bear to be without his books and papers? Among the early disciples you would have seen nothing overcharged in character or manner; nay, you would have seen little foibles, of temper, of superstition, of prejudice–you might have heard sharp words passing between great apostles, and you might have seen a damsel, recently engaged with others in prayer, in such a joyful trepidation of nerves when the answer arrived, that she opened not the gate for gladness.

II. How, then, shall the devout man keep his mind free from exaggerations both in doctrine and practice? By an impartial study of the whole of Scripture. Pray for the Bereans nobleness of mind who brought even the doctrine of apostles to the test of inspiration, and searched the Scriptures daily, whether these things were so. How much more, when men are not apostles, must their doctrine be thus searched and sifted! (Dean Goulburn.)

The proportion of faith

It has been a matter of controversy whether the faith is to be understood in its objective or subjective sense, in other words, whether the caution is intended to guard the preacher against violating the due relation existing between one and another of the truths of revelation; or whether he does not rather use the word faith in its subjective meaning, and bid the Christian who is to exercise the prophetic office so to regulate his teaching as may be in accordance with the measure of faith attained by himself or his hearers. I can myself see no reason why we should not use the words in both applications.

I. First, taking the text in its objective meaning, what shall we say is the true proportion which is to guide us in our teaching? Surely in the first instance we must go to the Catholic creeds: these, surely, in the first place, are the natural exponents to us of the revelation of the New Testament. The great truth of the incarnation of the eternal Son lies, as we all should admit, at the root of all sound teaching connected with mans relation to God. It is the one great central truth round which a theologian would group all the subsidiary truths, which we connect with the words atonement, reconciliation, pardon, justification, and the like. A number of other points of teaching, whether we count them matters of faith or of opinion, flow out of this central head. A clergyman–a scribe instructed into the kingdom of heaven–ought to see this relation between the several parts of revelation; but every clergyman even is not a formal theologian; and, deep as is the reverence still amongst our people for the English Bible, St. Pauls Epistles are mostly read for other purposes than for that of tracing the interdependence of religious truth. We complain sometimes, and not without reason, of the way in which a past generation so magnified one particular doctrine, which they thought to be embodied in St. Pauls writings, as to obscure altogether collateral and complementary truths; so as to give a thoroughly distorted image of the apostles teaching concerning the doctrine nearest to their own hearts. Our generation surely is not altogether clear from the same error.

II. But I suggested that St. Pauls words, where he speaks of the proportion of faith, might fairly bear the subjective as well as the objective interpretation; in other words, he seems to imply that prophecy, to be effective for the edification of the Church, must be exercised in subordination, not only to the analogy of the faith of the Church itself, but also to the faith of the preacher, and I think also of the hearer. Am I wrong in saying that the prophecy of our days has not been always mindful of this rule? And has not this forgetfulness been one fruitful source of much of the disappointment which has waited on the ministry of good and earnest men? And we hear a great deal about the importance of defending the outworks from some who do not seem to understand altogether what is the citadel which they suppose these outworks to defend. I do not at all mean that there is of necessity any insincerity in all this, but there is, I think, a measure of unreality. The learner is not attracted by very decided statements on the part of the teacher, so long as there is a certain secret instinct in his own mind that the conviction of the speakers heart is not altogether in unison with the strength of his language. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh–words not spoken out of that abundance fall dead and powerless even upon the untaught ear. But there is a third, and a different aspect of the whole question.

III. The proportion of faith which we have to take into account is the faith of our hearers as well as the faith of the Church at large, and the force with which we ourselves have apprehended the realities with which faith deals. The days in which we live are days of excitement, of controversy; I must add also days of failure and disappointment to those who have the cure of souls. We have gone out, many of us, full of expectation, and we have returned full of disappointment, we have sown much and we have brought in little, and the bright lights of the early morning have ended in a very sober grey. Doubtless there are many causes working up to this result. Our expectation has been unreasonable, and it has been good for us that tears, prayers, and watchings should fail. But I venture to think that there has been also a great forgetfulness of St. Pauls precept among us clergy. We have again and again looked for a sympathy amongst our people, which we had no right to expect; we have failed to apprehend the very wide difference between their standpoint and our own: we have expected to quicken their interest in religious truth, simply because our own has been quickened: and that new, possibly important, phases of doctrine should commend themselves to the spiritual apprehension of our people because they have so commended themselves to our own. These things are doubtless in a measure inevitable. I suppose every clergyman, in reviewing his own work and teaching, has found that he has fallen into many a mistake in his younger days from attempting to build up a super-structure where there was no sufficient foundation already laid. Sympathy with the spiritual and intellectual condition of others must of course be the result of experience. In a word, as years go on, I believe the oldest and the simplest standards alike of faith, and of devotion, and of practice satisfy us best. For dogmatic statements about the sacraments we turn to the catechism of our childhood, and we learn to see that all the refinements of more elaborate definition have added not one whit to the clearness of our apprehension of what is confessedly mystical. In like manner as the Lords prayer becomes to us the most complete and satisfying formula of communion with God, each petition in its iteration becoming more and more formal, but ever pregnant with fresh meaning and with new life, so also do the Catholic creeds supply us with all that we want as a standard of faith. Curious and intricate questions about which we were once very much inclined to speculate, we are content to leave where the creeds leave them, implicitly contained perhaps in their statements of truth, but no more. It is in them that we learn the true balance, the real proportion; and alike for our own souls guidance and for the teaching of our people, we fall back upon truths learnt at our mothers knee, and we find words which once sounded a little cold and formal become ever instinct with a new life; for that indeed they contain all that a Christian ought to know and believe to his souls health, the love of the Father, the Incarnation of the Son, and the indwelling power of the Spirit of God. (Archdn. Pott.)

Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering.—

Waiting on our ministering needs extra grace

I was in Cologne on a very rainy day, and I was looking out for similes and metaphors, as I generally am; but I had nothing on earth to look at in the square of the city but an old pump, and what kind of a simile I could make out of it I could not tell. All traffic seemed suspended, it rained so hard; but I noticed a woman come to the pump with a bucket. Presently I noticed a man come in with a bucket; nay, he came with a yoke and two buckets. As I kept on writing and looking out every now and then, I saw the same friend with the often-buckets and blue blouse coming to the same pump again. In the course of the morning I think I saw him a dozen times. I thought to myself, Ah, yon do not fetch water for your own house, I am persuaded: you are a water-carrier; you fetch water for lots of people, and that is why you come oftener than anybody else. Now, there was a meaning in that at once to my soul, that, inasmuch that I had not only to go to Christ for myself, but had been made a water-carrier to carry the water of everlasting life to others, I must come a great deal oftener than anybody else. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

He that teacheth, on teaching; or he that exhorteth, on exhortation.—

The faculties of teaching and exhorting

May be combined in the same individual; and indeed in these days, they are best laid upon one person, the ordinary minister of a congregation. Yet the two faculties are so far separate, as in other times to have given rise to separate functions; and accordingly, in the machinery of more churches than one, have we read both of the doctor and the pastor as distinct office-bearers. The one expounds truth; the other applies it, and presses it home on the case and conscience of every individual. The didactic and the hortatory are two distinct things, and imply distinct powers–insomuch, that, on the one hand, a luminous, logical, and masterly didactic may be a feeble and unimpressive hortatory preacher; and, on the other, the most effective of our hortatory men may, when they attempt the didactic, prove very obscure and infelicitous expounders of the truth. Both are best; and we should conform more to the way of that Spirit who divideth His gifts severally as He will, did we multiply and divide our offices so as to meet this variety. It were more consonant both to philosophy and Scripture, did we proceed more on the subdivision of employment in things ecclesiastical. (T. Chalmers, D.D.)

Requisites to faithful teaching

I. Study–to secure right material.

II. Method–or the right way of communicating the truth.

III. Diligence.

IV. Simplicity–Or a right aim.

V. Above all faith–Or dependence upon Divine help. (J. Lyth, D.D.)

Duty of teachers and ministers

On Egypts far-off soil, away from friends and home, just as the morning beams lit up the Eastern sky, an officer lay dying. With gallant daring he had led his followers through many a devious path, guided alone by the pale starlight of the heavens, until at last they reached the enemy; and now the strife is over, but he is wounded, mortally! As the general, his cheeks bedewed with tears, gazed down with sadness on his face, a sudden radiancy illumined for a moment the youths countenance as, looking up to Wolseley, he exclaimed, General, didnt I lead them straight? and so he died. Oh, brothers, when Oer our eyes there steals the film of death, and when the soul flits solemnly from time into eternity, may it be ours to say in truthful earnestness to Christ concerning those committed to our care, We led the people straight. (H. D. Brown, B.A.)

He that giveth, let him do it with simplicity.–

The triple lesson

What is the great object of human life?

1. To prepare to die, say many, an answer which contains a small modicum of right, and an overwhelming preponderance of wrong. To be prepared to meet death is, of course, a great object, but it is not itself the great object of life. If it were, on the same principle the great object of a journey would be to get home again; and of getting up in the morning to go to bed again at night, of a fire to consume fuel, and of reading a book to get through its pages. These absurdities bring out the truth that the fag end of a thing is not always the chief object of it.

2. The great object of life is to live, i.e., to do ones duty as a Christian. And wherever this object is fairly and fully followed out, the last stage of life will be safe and easy. What thought is there so disheartening and disturbing as the thought that we must die, and we know not how soon? Let it be chased away with the reflection that it is our present duty to live, and the text is suited exclusively to living men; to men who will one day have to die, but whose business now is to live and do their duty.

I. To give with simplicity. The word simplicity is the opposite of duplicity. Let him do it with a single eye and heart, and without any second or double meaning. Let there be no undercurrent of unworthy motive, but one pure and simple desire of benefiting the recipients of his bounty (Luk 6:35). The case of those who never, or scarcely ever, give anything, is not mentioned. Perhaps the apostle left it as a case which carried its own condemnation with it, and therefore required no special mention. But those who do give are to watch the motive of their giving. They have been bought with a price, and they must give out of a feeling of gratitude to Him who hath done so much for them. Whatever they have has been given to them by God, and sooner or later they will have to give an account of their stewardship. That they may do so with joy they must aim at simplicity in the exercise of their trust.

II. To rule with diligence.

1. Persons in authority are too apt to forget or shelve their responsibilities; and there are numbers who repudiate the idea of having any authority at all. But there are very few who do not exercise some influence. Now the text drops a word of warning to all, from the queen downwards, and condemns those who talk about taking it easy, and leaving things to take care of themselves.

2. Ruling is not a process which can be performed anyhow. It requires care, and thought, and discretion. And if parents, masters, and mistresses will not take the trouble to look after their dependents, or lack moral courage to do it, we may be sure of an unsatisfactory result sooner or later. Wherever habits of idleness and indulgence, waste and extravagance, recklessness and imprudence, of unbecoming finery in dress, and morbid delicacy in eating, go uncorrected, there the seed of a fruitful crop of social evils is being sown broadcast. Such habits cling tenaciously to young people, and in the case of servants, the humble fare of whose future homes may present a painful contrast to the profusion of domestic service, such habits make them poor and keep them so.

III. To show mercy with cheerfulness. There is a great deal in the way in which a thing is done. The man who does a kind action, accompanying it with kind words and looks, doubles the favour which he confers. The term cheerfulness refers particularly to looks. What a beautiful illustration of the spirit of our religion, which seeks to bring our whole man, body as well as soul, our very looks as well as our words and actions, into captivity to the obedience of Christ! How it carries us back to the example of our Master, who never said an unkind word, or gave an unkind look, or did a favour grudgingly. There is a good deal of kindness in the world, but the kindness we experience is not always associated with cheerfulness. Who has not heard of the poor relation, and the dependent friend, mourning in secret, not always over unkind actions, but over kind actions unkindly done? (J. Mould, M.A.)

Giving

I. Is a Christian duty. Because–

1. An acknowledgment of our stewardship.

2. An expression of–

(1) Gratitude to God.

(2) Self-denial.

(3) Goodwill to man.

II. Should be performed with simplicity. With–

1. A generous heart.

2. A single eye.

3. A clean hand. (J. Lyth, D.D.)

Giving with simplicity

is giving just as if giving were so natural that when a man gave he did not think of changing his countenance, manners, or air at all; but did it quietly, easily, beautifully. When you are going around for proper help, some men give so that you are angry every time you ask them to contribute. They give so that their gold and silver shoot you like a bullet. Others give with such beauty that you remember it as long as you live; and you say, It is a pleasure to go to such men. There are some men that give as springs do. Whether you go to them or not they are always full, and your part is merely to put your dish under the ever-flowing stream. Others give just as a pump does where the well is dry and the pump leaks! (H. W. Beecher.)

Giving, blessedness of

It is told of John Wesley that when he bestowed a gift or rendered any one a service he lifted his hat as though he were receiving instead of conferring an obligation.

Giving, penalty of not

A lady who refused to give, after hearing a charity sermon, had her pocket picked as she was leaving church. On making the discovery she said, The parson could not find the way to my pocket, but the devil did.

Giving, a sign of perfectness

When wheat is growing it holds all its kernels tight in its own ear. But when it is ripe the kernels are scattered every whither, and it is only the straw that is left. (H. W. Beecher.)

He that ruleth, with diligence.—

Ruling with diligence

I. The necessity of the ruler.

1. In the world.

2. In the Church.

II. The functions of the ruler

1. To maintain order.

2. Protect liberty.

3. Secure the common weal.

III. The duty of the ruler. Diligence, implying–

1. Self-sacrifice.

2. Attention to all. (J. Lyth, D.D.)

He that showeth mercy, with cheerfulness—

Showing mercy with cheerfulness

This instruction may mean–

1. That we should carry sunshine with us in our visits to the sick chamber or distressed home. In no case is cheerfulness or brightness so needed or so welcome.

2. That we should perform kind offices to the sick or sorrowful, not of constraint, but of a ready mind, con amore; not because it is our business as the paid or voluntary staff of a Church, nor as a matter merely of principle or habit, but of pleasure and privilege. That manner is something to everybody, and everything to some, is a maxim we should act upon when consoling those claiming our compassion. Besides, it is our privilege to show cheerfulness in soothing the sorrows of the afflicted, for no task tends more than this, if entered upon in a right spirit, to banish gloom and discontent from our own minds, and to enliven our own souls. (C. Neil, M.A.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 6. Having then gifts differing, c.] As the goodness of God, with this view of our mutual subserviency and usefulness, has endowed us with different gifts and qualifications, let each apply himself to the diligent improvement of his particular office and talent, and modestly keep within the bounds of it, not exalting himself or despising others.

Whether prophecy] That prophecy, in the New Testament, often means the gift of exhorting, preaching, or of expounding the Scriptures, is evident from many places in the Gospels, Acts, and St. Paul’s Epistles, see 1Co 11:4, 1Co 11:5; and especially 1Co 14:3 : He that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort. This was the proper office of a preacher; and it is to the exercise of this office that the apostle refers in the whole of the chapter from which the above quotations are made. See also Lu 1:76; Lu 7:28; Ac 15:32; 1Co 14:29. I think the apostle uses the term in the same sense here-Let every man who has the gift of preaching and interpreting the Scriptures do it in proportion to the grace and light he has received from God, and in no case arrogate to himself knowledge which he has not received; let him not esteem himself more highly on account of this gift, or affect to be wise above what is written, or indulge himself in fanciful interpretations of the word of God.

Dr. Taylor observes that the measure of faith, Ro 12:3, and the proportion of faith, Ro 12:6, seem not to relate to the degree of any gift considered in itself, but rather in the relation and proportion which it bore to the gifts of others; for it is plain that he is here exhorting every man to keep soberly within his own sphere. It is natural to suppose that the new converts might be puffed up with the several gifts that were bestowed upon them; and every one might be forward to magnify his own to the disparagement of others: therefore the apostle advises them to keep each within his proper sphere; to know and observe the just measure and proportion of the gift intrusted to him, not to gratify his pride but to edify the Church.

The , which we here translate the proportion of faith, and which some render the analogy of faith, signifies in grammar “the similar declension of similar words;” but in Scriptural matters it has been understood to mean the general and consistent plan or scheme of doctrines delivered in the Scriptures; where every thing bears its due relation and proportion to another. Thus the death of Christ is commensurate in its merits to the evils produced by the fall of Adam. The doctrine of justification by faith bears the strictest analogy or proportion to the grace of Christ and the helpless, guilty, condemned state of man: whereas the doctrine of justification by WORKS is out of all analogy to the demerit of sin, the perfection of the law, the holiness of God, and the miserable, helpless state of man. This may be a good general view of the subject; but when we come to inquire what those mean by the analogy of faith who are most frequent in the use of the term, we shall find that it means neither more nor less than their own creed; and though they tell you that their doctrines are to be examined by the Scriptures, yet they give you roundly to know that you are to understand these Scriptures in precisely the same way as they have interpreted them. “To the law and to the testimony,” says Dr. Campbell, “is the common cry; only every one, the better to secure the decision on the side he has espoused, would have you previously resolve to put no sense whatever on the law and the testimony but what his favourite doctrine will admit. Thus they run on in a shuffling, circular sort of argument, which, though they studiously avoid exposing, is, when dragged into the open light, neither more nor less than this; ‘you are to try our doctrine by the Scriptures only; but then you are to be very careful that you explain the Scripture solely by our doctrine.’ A wonderful plan of trial, which begins with giving judgment, and ends with examining the proof, wherein the whole skill and ingenuity of the judges are to be exerted in wresting the evidence so as to give it the appearance of supporting the sentence pronounced before hand.” See Dr. Campbell’s Dissertations on the Gospels, Diss. iv. sect. 14, vol. i, page 146, 8vo. edit., where several other sensible remarks may be found.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us; or, seeing we have different gifts and offices, according as the grace of God hath bestowed them upon us, let us use them aright. This is added to prevent pride and envy: none should be proud of that he hath himself or envy what another hath, seeing all is of grace.

Whether prophecy, let us prophesy; the words, let us prophesy, are not in the text; but they are put in by our translators, to fill up the sense. There is an ellipsis in the words, and something must be inserted. Some make the supply from the last words in the foregoing verse: Let us be one anothers members in prophesying, teaching, exhorting, &c. Others think it ought to be supplied out of Rom 12:3; q.d. Whether we have prophecy, let us be wise unto sobriety in prophesying; and so in all the rest that follow: in all the several gifts and offices, he showeth how they should behave themselves. The Greek scholiast will have supplied in them all, let us persevere. By prophesying, in this place, you may understand an extraordinary gift that some had in understanding Divine mysteries and Old Testament prophecies, with a wonderful dexterity in applying the same; to which was joined sometimes the revelation of secret and future things: see Act 11:27; 21:9.

According to the proportion of faith; i.e. they that have this gift of prophesying, must exercise it according to the measure of knowledge, in heavenly mysteries, that God hath given them; or else, in their prophesying they must have regard to the articles of Christian faith, and see that they regulate themselves according thereunto. Some think he calls the Holy Scripture in general, an analogy or proportion of faith; by these, the false prophets of old were discerned, if they delivered anything contrary thereunto, Deu 13:1, &c. Others think he speaks of certain principles, or heads of Christian religion, see Heb 6:1 from which the prophets and others were not to swerve; yea, some think he aims at the symbol and creed, called the Apostles, which, from the beginning, was called the analogy of faith.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

6-8. Having then gifts differingaccording to the grace given to usHere, let it be observed,all the gifts of believers alike are viewed as communications of meregrace.

whetherwe have thegift of

prophecythat is, ofinspired teaching (as in Ac15:32). Anyone speaking with divine authoritywhether withreference to the past, the present, or the futurewas termed aprophet (Ex 7:1).

let us prophesyaccording to the proportion of faithrather, “of ourfaith.” Many Romish expositors and some Protestant (as CALVINand BENGEL, and, though,hesitatingly, BEZA andHODGE), render this “theanalogy of faith,” understanding by it “the general tenor”or “rule of faith,” divinely delivered to men for theirguidance. But this is against the context, whose object is to showthat, as all the gifts of believers are according to their respectivecapacity for them, they are not to be puffed up on account of them,but to use them purely for their proper ends.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Having then gifts, differing,…. As in a natural body, the various members of it have not the same office, and do not perform the same actions, thus they have not the same, but different faculties; one has one faculty, another another; the eye has the faculty of seeing, the ear of hearing, c. thus in the spiritual body the church, as there are different members, these members have not the same work and business assigned them some are employed one way, and some another; also they have diversities of gifts for their different administrations and operations, and all from Christ their head, by the same Spirit, and for the service of the whole body,

according to the grace that is given unto us; for all these gifts are not the effects of nature, the fruits of human power, diligence, and industry, but flow from the grace of God, who dispenses them when, where, and to whom he pleases in a free and sovereign manner; and therefore to be acknowledged as such, and used to his glory, and for the good of his church and people. Wherefore

whether prophecy, [let us prophesy] according to the proportion of faith. The offices here, and hereafter mentioned, are not of an extraordinary, but ordinary kind, such as are lasting, and will continue in the church unto the end of time: and are divided into two parts, which are after subdivided into other branches. The division is into “prophesying” and “ministering”. By “prophesying” is meant, not foretelling things to come, thought this gift was bestowed upon some, as Agabus, and others in the Christian church; but this, as it is of an extraordinary nature, so it is not stinted and limited according to the proportion of faith; but preaching the Gospel is here designed, which is the sense of the word in many places of Scripture, particularly in 1Co 13:2. Now such who have this gift of prophecy, or of opening and explaining the Scriptures, ought to make use of it, and constantly attend toil: “let us prophesy”; diligently prepare for it by prayer, reading and meditation, and continually exercise it as opportunity offers; nor should any difficulty and discouragement deter from it: or whereas this last clause is not in the original text, it may be supplied from Ro 12:3; thus, “let us think soberly”, who have this gift, and not be elated with it, or carry it haughtily to those who attend on the exercise of it: but behave with sobriety, modesty, and humility, in the discharge thereof: “according to the proportion of faith”. There must be faith, or no prophesying; a man must believe, and therefore speak, or speak not at all; a Gospel minister ought not to be a sceptic, or in doubt about the main principles of religion; such as concern the three divine persons, the office, grace, and righteousness of Christ, and the way of salvation by him: he should be at a point in these things, should firmly believe, and with assurance assert them, nor fear to be called dogmatical on that account: he is to preach according to his faith, the proportion of it: which may be the same with the measure of it, Ro 12:3. And so the Syriac version reads it, , “according to the measure of his faith”; to which the Arabic version agrees; that is, according to the measure of the gift of Christ he has received; according to the abilities bestowed on him; according to that light, knowledge, faith, and experience he has; he ought to preach up unto it, and not in the least come short of it; or by “the proportion”, or “analogy of faith”, may be meant a scheme of Gospel truths, a form of sound words, a set of principles upon the plan of the Scriptures, deduced from them, and agreeably to them; and which are all of a piece, and consistent with themselves, from which the prophesier or preacher should never swerve: or the Scriptures themselves, the sure word of prophecy, the rule and standard of faith and practice: the scope of the text is to be attended to, its connection with the preceding or following verses, or both; and it is to be compared with other passages of Scripture, and accordingly to be explained: and this is to follow the rule directed to.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Differing (). Old adjective from , to differ, to vary. So Heb 9:10.

According to the proportion of our faith ( ). The same use of (faith) as in verse 3 “the measure of faith.” Old word. (our word “analogy”) from (analogous, conformable, proportional). Here alone in N.T. The verb (present active volitive subjunctive, let us prophesy) must be supplied with which agrees. The context calls for the subjective meaning of “faith” rather than the objective and outward standard though does occur in that sense (Gal 1:23; Gal 3:23).

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

Prophecy. See on prophet, Luk 7:26. In the New Testament, as in the Old, the prominent idea is not prediction, but the inspired delivery of warning, exhortation, instruction, judging, and making manifest the secrets of the heart. See 1Co 14:3, 24, 25. The New – Testament prophets are distinguished from teachers, by speaking under direct divine inspiration.

Let us prophesy. Not in the Greek.

According to the proportion of faith [ ] . Analogia proportion, occurs only here in the New Testament. In classical Greek it is used as a mathematical term. Thus Plato : “The fairest bond is that which most completely fuses and is fused into the things which are bound; and proportion [] is best adapted to effect such a fusion” (” Timaeus, “31).” Out of such elements, which are in number four, the body of the world was created in harmony and proportion “(” Timaeus,” 32). Compare “Politicus,” 257 The phrase here is related to the measure of faith (ver. 3). It signifies, according to the proportion defined by faith. The meaning is not the technical meaning expressed by the theological phrase analogy of faith, sometimes called analogy of scripture, i e., the correspondence of the several parts of divine revelation in one consistent whole. This would require hJ pistiv the faith, to be taken as the objective rule of faith, or system of doctrine (see on Act 6:7), and is not in harmony with ver. 3, nor with according to the grace given. Those who prophesy are to interpret the divine revelation “according to the strength, clearness, fervor, and other qualities of the faith bestowed upon them; so that the character and mode of their speaking is conformed to the rules and limits which are implied in the proportion of their individual degree of faith” (Meyer).

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

1) “Having then gifts,” (echontes de charismata) “Having or holding (therefore) charismatic gifts”; just as members of the Corinth Church did, 1Co 12:1-31 and the Ephesians brethren Eph 4:7-11. These gifts are for edification of the church, the body, or assembly of Jesus Christ, in, thru which we honor him, Eph 4:14; Eph 4:16, Col 2:19.

2) “Differing according to the grace that is given to us,” (Kata ten charin ten dotheisan hemin diaphora) Differing in kind and nature (as charismatic gifts) according to the grace given to us”; or doled out to each of us as to the Corinth brethren, 1Co 12:8-11; 1Pe 4:10. The talents and gifts of each church member are to be used for the help of the whole body, not for selfish purposes, 1Co 4:2.

3) “Whether prophecy,” (eite propheteian) “Whether or (if it be) the gift of prophecy”; the most helpful of all the gifts for edifying for the general help and information of the church as a whole, Act 15:32; 1Co 14:1; 1Co 14:3-6; 1Co 14:12; 1Co 14:31; 1Co 14:39.

4) “Let us prophesy, according to the proportion of faith,” (kata ten analogian tes pisteos) “Let it be according to the proportion (doled out charismatic gift)of the faith”; that is let him prophesy by the gift, but let it be in harmony with “the faith”, or system of teachings of Jesus Christ. Any seeming Charismatic teaching, preaching, or prophesying not in harmony with “the saints”, or the church, is to be rejected as false, spurious, or counterfeit, Jud 1:3; 2Ti 3:16-17; 1Ti 2:15; 2Jn 1:8-11.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

6. Having gifts, etc. Paul speaks not now simply of cherishing among ourselves brotherly love, but commends humility, which is the best moderator of our whole life. Every one desires to have so much himself, so as not to need any help from others; but the bond of mutual communication is this, that no one has sufficient for himself, but is constrained to borrow from others. I admit, then that the society of the godly cannot exist, except when each one is content with his own measure, and imparts to others the gifts which he has received, and allows himself by turns to be assisted by the gifts of others.

But Paul especially intended to beat down the pride which he knew to be innate in men; and that no one might be dissatisfied that all things have not been bestowed on him, he reminds us that according to the wise counsel of God every one has his own portion given to him; for it is necessary to the common benefit of the body that no one should be furnished with fullness of gifts, lest he should heedlessly despise his brethren. Here then we have the main design which the Apostle had in view, that all things do not meet in all, but that the gifts of God are so distributed that each has a limited portion, and that each ought to be so attentive in imparting his own gifts to the edification of the Church, that no one, by leaving his own function, may trespass on that of another. By this most beautiful order, and as it were symmetry, is the safety of the Church indeed preserved; that is, when every one imparts to all in common what he has received from the Lord, in such a way as not to impede others. He who inverts this order fights with God, by whose ordinance it is appointed; for the difference of gifts proceeds not from the will of man, but because it has pleased the Lord to distribute his grace in this manner.

Whether prophecy, etc. By now bringing forward some examples, he shows how every one in his place, or as it were in occupying his station, ought to be engaged. For all gifts have their own defined limits, and to depart from them is to mar the gifts themselves. But the passage appears somewhat confused; we may yet arrange it in this manner, “Let him who has prophecy, test it by the analogy of faith; let him in the ministry discharge it in teaching,” (386) etc. They who will keep this end in view, will rightly preserve themselves within their own limits.

But this passage is variously understood. There are those who consider that by prophecy is meant the gift of predicting, which prevailed at the commencement of the gospel in the Church; as the Lord then designed in every way to commend the dignity and excellency of his Church; and they think that what is added, according to the analogy of faith, is to be applied to all the clauses. But I prefer to follow those who extend this word wider, even to the peculiar gift of revelation, by which any one skillfully and wisely performed the office of an interpreter in explaining the will of God. Hence prophecy at this day in the Christian Church is hardly anything else than the right understanding of the Scripture, and the peculiar faculty of explaining it, inasmuch as all the ancient prophecies and all the oracles of God have been completed in Christ and in his gospel. For in this sense it is taken by Paul when he says,

“

I wish that you spoke in tongues, but rather that ye prophesy,” (1Co 14:5😉

“

In part we know and in part we prophesy,” (1Co 13:9.)

And it does not appear that Paul intended here to mention those miraculous graces by which Christ at first rendered illustrious his gospel; but, on the contrary, we find that he refers only to ordinary gifts, such as were to continue perpetually in the Church. (387)

Nor does it seem to me a solid objection, that the Apostle to no purpose laid this injunction on those who, having the Spirit of God, could not call Christ an anathema; for he testifies in another place that the spirit of the Prophets is subject to the Prophets; and he bids the first speaker to be silent, if anything were revealed to him who was sitting down, (1Co 14:32😉 and it was for the same reason it may be that he gave this admonition to those who prophesied in the Church, that is, that they were to conform their prophecies to the rule of faith, lest in anything they should deviate from the right line. By faith he means the first principles of religion, and whatever doctrine is not found to correspond with these is here condemned as false. (388)

As to the other clauses there is less difficulty. Let him who is ordained a minister, he says, execute his office in ministering; nor let him think, that he has been admitted into that degree for himself, but for others; as though he had said, “Let him fulfill his office by ministering faithfully, that he may answer to his name.” So also he immediately adds with regard to teachers; for by the word teaching, he recommends sound edification, according to this import, — “Let him who excels in teaching know that the end is, that the Church may be really instructed; and let him study this one thing, that he may render the Church more informed by his teaching:” for a teacher is he who forms and builds the Church by the word of truth. Let him also who excels in the gift of exhorting, have this in view, to render his exhortation effectual.

But these offices have much affinity and even connection; not however that they were not different. No one indeed could exhort, except by doctrine: yet he who teaches is not therefore endued with the qualification to exhort. But no one prophesies or teaches or exhorts, without at the same time ministering. But it is enough if we preserve that distinction which we find to be in God’s gifts, and which we know to be adapted to produce order in the Church. (389)

(386) The ellipsis to be supplied here is commonly done as in our version, adopted from [ Beza ]. The supplement proposed by [ Pareus ] is perhaps more in unison with the passage; he repeats after “prophecy” the words in verse 3, changing the person, “let us think soberly,” or “let us be modestly wise.” — Ed.

(387) It is somewhat difficult exactly to ascertain what this “prophecy” was. The word “prophet,” נביא, means evidently two things in the Old Testament and also in the New — a foreteller and a teacher, or rather an interpreter of the word. Prophecy in the New Testament sometimes signifies prediction, its primary meaning. Act 2:17; 2Pe 1:21; Rev 1:3; but most commonly, as it is generally thought, the interpretation of prophecy, that is, of prophecies contained in the Old Testament, and for this work there were some in the primitive Church, as it is supposed, who were inspired, and thus peculiarly qualified. It is probable that this kind of prophecy is what is meant here. See 1Co 12:10; 1Co 13:2; 1Co 14:3; 1Th 5:20

That is was a distinct function from that of apostles, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, is evident from Eph 4:11; and from the interpretation of tongues, as it appears from 1Co 12:10; and from revelation, knowledge, and doctrine, as we find from 1Co 14:6. It also appears that it was more useful than other extraordinary gifts, as it tended more to promote edification and comfort, 1Co 14:1. It is hence most probable that it was the gift already stated, that of interpreting the Scriptures, especially the prophecies of the Old Testament, and applying them for the edification of the Church. “Prophets” are put next to “apostles” in Eph 4:11. — Ed.

(388) “ Secundum analogiam fidei,” so [ Pareus ]; κατὰ τὴν ἀναλογίαν της πίστεως; “ pro proportione fidei — according to the proportions of faith,” [ Beza ], [ Piscator ]; that is, as the former explains the phrase, “according to the measure or extent of the individual’s faith;” he was not to go beyond what he knew or what had been communicated to him by the Spirit. But the view which [ Calvin ] takes is the most obvious and consistent with the passage; and this is the view which [ Hammond ] gives, “according to that form of faith or wholesome doctrine by which every one who is sent out to preach the gospel is appointed to regulate his preaching, according to those heads or principles of faith and good life which are known among you.” The word ἀναλογία means properly congruity, conformity, or proportion, not in the sense of measure or extent, but of equality, as when one thing is equal or comformable to another; hence the analogy of faith must mean what is conformable to the faith. And faith here evidently signifies divine truth, the object of faith, or what faith receives. See Rom 10:8; Gal 3:23; Titus 1:4; Jud 1:3. — Ed.

(389) Critics have found it difficult to distinguish between these offices. The word διακονία, ministry is taken sometimes in a restricted sense, as meaning deaconship, an office appointed to manage the temporal affairs of the Church, Act 6:1; 1Ti 3:8; and sometimes in a general sense, as signifying the ministerial office, 2Co 6:3; Eph 3:7; Col 1:23. As the “teacher” and “exhorter” are mentioned, some think that the deaconship is to be understood here, and that the Apostle first mentioned the highest office, next to the apostleship — prophecy, and the lowest — the deaconship, and afterwards named the intervening offices — those of teachers and exhorters.

But what are we to think of those mentioned in the following clauses? [ Stuart ] thinks that they were not public officers, but private individuals, and he has sustained this opinion by some very cogent reasons. The form of the sentence is here changed; and the Apostle, having mentioned the deaconship, cannot be supposed to have referred to the same again. The word that seems to stand in the way of this view is what is commonly rendered “ruler,” or, “he who rules:” but ὁ προϊστάμενος, as our author shows, means a helper, an assistant, (see Rom 16:2,) as well as a ruler; it means to stand over, either for the purpose of taking care of, assisting, protecting others, or of presiding over, ruling, guiding them. Then ἐν σπουδὣ, with promptness or diligence, will better agree with the former than with the latter idea. The other two clauses correspond also more with this view than with the other. It has been said, that if a distributor of alms had been intended, the word would have been διαδιδοὺς and not μεταδιδοὺς. See Eph 4:28. The expression ἁπλότητι, means “with liberality, or liberally.” See 2Co 8:2; 2Co 9:11; Jas 1:5. — Ed.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(6) Gifts differing according to the grace.The English loses a point here. The word translated gifts means specially gifts of grace, grace standing here for the operation of the Spirit. Different kinds of grace, with different forms of expression, are given to different individuals, and they are to be cherished and used accordingly.

Prophecy.The gift of prophecy is treated at length in 1 Corinthians 14. From the detailed description there given, we gather that it was a kind of powerful and inspired preaching which, unlike the gift of tongues, was strictly within the control of the person who possessed it. What precise relation this bore to the prediction of future events, mentioned in Act. 11:27-28; Act. 21:10-11, does not appear.

According to the proportion of faith.It seems best to take this, not as having reference to the objective rule of faith or doctrine, the due proportions of which are to be preserved, but rather of the active faculty of faith present in him who prophesies. It would then be very nearly equivalent to the condition aboveaccording as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. The prophet is to let his utterances be regulated strictly by the degree of faith of which he is conscious in himself. The inward inspiration and the outward deliverance must keep pace, and advance step by step together. Preaching in which this proportion is not observed is sure to become rhetorical and insincere.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

6. Gifts Charisms or supernatural endowments; sometimes added to and heightening particular natural endowments. The possessors of the gifts who are here mentioned might be divided into those of utterance and those of action. To the former class belong prophets, teachers, and exhorters; to the latter ministers, (servitors, stewards,) distributers, (almoners,) compassionaters. (Note on Rom 12:8.)

Prophecy Primarily, the inspired prediction of future events; secondly, the inspired utterance of any divine truth; thirdly, the living and powerful preaching of truth contained in God’s inspired word. In fact all Bible truth, being originally inspired and taking hold of the eternal future, is prophecy; and every true preacher is in a true sense a prophet. The New Testament prophet blended and exercised by turn, as grace was given him, these various gifts.

Proportion of faith Conceded to each one.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘And having gifts differing according to the grace that was given to us.’

These gifts are not natural gifts, they are charismata. The naturally gifted may not be spiritual and may become a danger to the church (compare 3Jn 1:9). But these are gifts given by the Spirit (1Co 12:8; 1Co 12:11) through the gracious activity of God, as He gives gracious gifts to each. The list is interesting as including in charismata the gifts of giving, and of demonstrating compassion and mercy in works of mercy. These are equally with the others ‘spiritual gifts’.

The gifts are then outlined in detail, together in each case with an exhortation with regard to its use: the gift of service, the gift of teaching, the gift of exhortation, the gift of being able to give generously, the gift of ruling with diligence, the gift of showing mercy and compassion cheerfully through a demonstration of practical love. Note that the gifts are sevenfold indicating their divine completeness. He could, of course, have listed others as is apparent from the list in 1Co 12:8-11. But it would appear that the Roman Christians did not have the same tendency to utilise the ‘extraordinary gifts’ that was found at Corinth, although in both cases prophecy is prominent.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

‘Whether prophecy, (let us prophesy) according to the proportion of our faith;’

The gift of prophecy was an important one in the early church, when there was no New Testament and the Spirit guided men in interpreting the (Old Testament) Scriptures for the benefit of the new community. It was not basically a gift of foretelling the future (although that did occur), but a gift of presenting the truth adequately. And it was not to be uncontrolled. In 1 Corinthians we learn that what was prophesied had to be assessed by other prophets (1Co 14:29-32). And here he stresses that it should be given ‘according to the proportion of our faith’. But in the New Testament faith is not a nebulous thing. It is faith in a revealed body of truth. So the prophet is both not to go beyond his own spiritual ability, and beyond the true knowledge which results from truly believing in what has been revealed. In other words, beyond the teaching which is in accordance with the traditions of the Apostles as maintained within the early church and finally laid down in the New Testament.

Any prophet or any church which goes beyond what is found there is to be brought back by other prophets and churches to that body of revealed truth. Anything beyond that is speculation.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Rom 12:6. According to the proportion of faith This proportion of faith, and the measure of faith, Rom 12:3 seem not to relate to the degree of any gift considered in itself, but rather to the relation and proportion which it bore to the gifts of others: for it is plain, that the Apostle is here exhorting every man to keep soberly withinhis own sphere. It is natural to suppose that the new converts might be puffed up with the several gifts which were bestowed upon them, and every one might be forward to magnifyhis own, to the disparagement of others; which would be attended with bad consequences. Therefore the Apostle advises them to keep every man within his proper sphere; to know and observe the just measure and proportion of his gift, intrusted with him not to gratify his own pride, but to edify the church. Prophesy originally implied the foretelling of the future events relating to the church, to the comfort and edification of the assembly; and those effects generally attending the act of prophesy, in a little time assumed its name: but the proper sense of prophesy is the foretellingof things to come; the import, the interpretation of sacred Scripture; and the explaining of prophesies already delivered. See 1Co 14:20-32 and for an account of the spiritual gifts and offices in the primitive church, Lord Barrington’s Miscell. Sacr. Essay 1:; Benson’s History of the first Planting of Christianity, ch. 1. sect. 4, 5 and 1Co 12:28.; Castalio, Erasmus, Bengelius, and others, connect this with the preceding verse: We are members one of another; but, having gifts differing, &c.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Rom 12:6-8 . In the poseession, however, of different gifts . This . . . corresponds to , Rom 12:4 .

As regards the construction , the view adopted by Reiche, de Wette, and Lachmann makes a participial definition of , Rom 12:5 ; accordingly, and depend on as a specifying apposition to ; whilst the limiting definitions . . ., ., ., . . . . are parallel to the . , and with the discourse varies, without however becoming directly hortatory. Comp. also Rckert. But usually . . ., . . . ., are regarded as elliptical hortatory sentences , whilst is by some likewise attached to the foregoing (Theodoret, Erasmus, Luther, Castalio, Calvin, Estius, and others, including Flatt, Tholuck, Reithmayr), and with others begins a new sentence (so Olshausen, Fritzsche, Baumgarten-Crusius, Philippi, van Hengel, Hofmann, following Beza). The usual construction is the only correct one (in which, most suitably to the progressive , a new sentence commences with ), because, under the mode followed by Reiche and de Wette, the alleged limitations ., ., and . either express nothing, or must be taken arbitrarily in a variety of meaning different from that of the words with which they stand; and because , , and , Rom 12:8 , are obviously of a hortatory character, and therefore the previous expressions with may not be taken otherwise. By way of filling up the concise maxims thrown out elliptically, and only as it were in outline, it is sufficient after . . . to supply: , after : , after ; , the same after ; and lastly, after the three following particulars, . . ., the imperatives of the corresponding verbs ( . . .). Comp. the similar mode of expression in 1Pe 4:10-11 .

] denotes the different peculiar aptitudes for the furtherance of Christian life in the church and of its external welfare, imparted by God’s grace through the principle of the Holy Spirit working in the Christian communion (hence , 1Co 12:1 ), On their great variety, amidst the specific unity of their origin from the efficacy of this Spirit, see esp. 1Co 12:4 ff.

Paul here mentions by way of example (for more, see 1Co 12 ), in the first instance, four of such , namely: (1) , the gift of theopneustic discourse , which presupposes , and the form of which, appearing in different ways (hence also in the plural in 1Co 13:8 ; 1Th 5:20 ), was not ecstatic, like the speaking with tongues, but was an activity of the enlightened and filled with the consecration of the Spirit’s power, disclosing hidden things, and profoundly seizing, chastening, elevating, carrying away men’s hearts, held in peculiar esteem by the apostle (1Co 14:1 ). Comp. on 1Co 12:10 . Further, (2) : the gift of administration of the external affairs of the church , particularly the care of the poor, the sick, and strangers; comp. 1Co 12:28 , where the functions of the diaconia are termed . Act 6:1 ff.; Phi 1:1 ; 1Ti 3:8 ; 1Ti 3:12 ; 1Pe 4:11 ; Rom 16:1 . The service of the diaconate in the church, which grew out of that of the seven men of Act 6 , is really of apostolic origin: Clem. Cor . 1:42, 44; Ritschl, altkath. Kirche , p. 359; Jul. Mller, dogmat. Abh . p. 560 ff. (3) The , the gift of instruction in the usual form of teaching directed to the understanding ( , Chrysostom, ad 1Co 12:28 ), see on Act 13:1 ; Eph 4:11 ; 1Co 14:26 . It was not yet limited to a particular office; see Ritschl, p. 350 f. (4) , the gift of hortatory and encouraging address operating on the heart and will , the possessor of which probably connected his discourses, in the assemblies after the custom of the synagogue (see on Act 13:15 ), with a portion of Scripture read before the people. Comp. Act 4:36 ; Act 11:23-24 ; Justin, Apol . I. c. 67.

. . .] Conformably to the proportion of their faith the prophets have to use their prophetic gift, i.e. (comp. Rom 12:3 ): they are not to depart from the proportional measure which their faith has, neither wishing to exceed it nor falling short of it, but are to guide themselves by it, and are therefore so to announce and interpret the received , as the peculiar position in respect of faith bestowed on them, according to the strength, clearness, fervour, and other qualities of that faith, suggests so that the character and mode of their speaking is conformed to the rules and limits, which are implied in the proportion of their individual degree of faith. In the contrary case they fall, in respect of contents and of form, into a mode of prophetic utterance, either excessive and overstrained, or on the other hand insufficient and defective (not corresponding to the level of their faith). The same revelation may in fact according to the difference in the proportion of faith with which it, objectively given, subjectively connects itself be very differently expressed and delivered. , proportio , very current (also as a mathematical expression) in the classics (comp. esp. on . . Plato, Polit . p. 257 B, Locr . p. 95 B; Dem. 262. 5), is here in substance not different from , Rom 12:3 ; comp. Plato, Tim . p. 69 B: . Hofmann groundlessly denies this (in consequence of his incorrect view of , Rom 12:3 ), yet likewise arrives at the sense, that prophetic utterance must keep equal pace with the life of faith. Paul might, in fact, have written , and would have thereby substantially expressed the same thing as . . . . or . . The old dogmatic interpretation (still unknown, however, to the Greek Fathers, who rightly take . subjectively, of the fides qua creditur) of the regula fidei ( in the objective sense, fides quae creditur), i.e. of the conformitas doctrinae in scripturis (see esp. Colovius), departs arbitrarily from the thought contained in Rom 12:3 , and from the immediate context ( . . . . ), and cannot in itself be justified by linguistic usage (see on Rom 1:5 ). It reappears, however, substantially in Flatt, Klee, Glckler, Kllner, Philippi (“to remain subject to the norma et regula fidei Christianae”), Umbreit, Bisping, although they do not, like many of the older commentators, take prophecy to refer to the explanation of Scripture .

] If it be the case that we have diaconia (as ), let us be in our diaconia . The emphasis lies on . He who has the gift of the diaconia should not desire to have a position in the life of the church outside of the sphere of service which is assigned to him by this endowment, but should be active within that sphere . That by is not intended any ecclesiastical office generally (Chrysostom, Luther, Reithmayr, Hofmann), is shown by the charismatic elements of the entire context. On , versari in , comp. 1Ti 4:15 ; Plato, Prot . p. 317 C, Phaed . p. 59 A; Demosth. 301. 6, et al .; Krger, ad Dion. Hist . p. 269, 70.

] Symmetrically, Paul should have continued with ( sc . ), as A. actually reads. Instead of this, however, he proceeds in such a way as now to introduce the different possessors of gifts in the third person , and therefore no longer dependent on the we implied in . The change of conception and construction may accordingly be thus exhibited: “While, however, we have different gifts, we should, be it prophecy that we have, make use of it according to the proportion of our faith, be it diaconia that we have, labour within the diaconia, be it that it is the teacher , (he should) be active within the sphere of teaching, etc.” After , simply is to be supplied: if it , viz. one charismatically gifted, is the teacher . The apostle, in the urgent fulness of ideas which are yet to be only concisely expressed, has lost sight of the grammatical connection; comp. Buttmann, neut. Gr . p. 331. Hofmann’s expedient, that here are subordinated to the preceding , and and are to be taken as a parenthetical apposition to the subject of the verb to be supplied (“ be it that he, the teacher, handles teaching ,” etc.), is an artificial scheme forced upon him by his incorrect view of , and at variance with the co-ordinated relation of the first two cases of .

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith; (7) Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering: or he that teacheth, on teaching; (8) Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that showeth mercy, with cheerfulness. (9) Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good. (10) Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honor preferring one another; (11) Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord; (12) Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer; (13) Distributing to the necessity of saints; given to hospitality. (14) Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not. (15) Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep. (16) Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits. (17) Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men. (18) If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.

Here are gracious directions, which arise out of a life of grace in the heart, and such as are suited to the whole members of Christ’s mystical body; both to the ministers and people. And what is necessary to be observed, they were not given for the Church in that age only, but had respect to the Church of God in all ages. I mention this the rather, because it might be supposed from what the Apostle saith about prophecy, that as the gift of prophecy, or fortelling future events, hath long since ceased, as being no longer necessary, this exhortation is done away. But the prophecy the Apostle seems to have had in view, when writing to the Church in common, as in this instance, had no reference whatever to that sense of prophesying which means predictions. Prophesying is sometimes used for preaching, see Mat 7:22 . And the Apostle recommended the Church at Corinth, to follow after charity, and to desire spiritual gifts, but father that they might prophesy. By which may be supposed he meant preaching, if the Lord should call them to it, 1Co 14:1 .

In like manner, when the Apostle in this exhortation, recommends the Church not to be slothful in business; it cannot be supposed that he meant worldly business, and the concerns of this life. For, although it would be at all times reproachful for men to neglect the laudable and honest concerns of themselves and families, for the maintenance in the station of life where the Lord in his providence hath placed them; yet, for the most part, men are too much alive, and even the Lord’s people also, to the pursuits of things temporal, to need exhortations on this point to worldly cares, it is plain that Paul, when he said, not slothful in business, meant spiritual business, for he immediately added, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. And this became a sweet and gracious recommendation of the Apostle, and a proof of his feeling in himself what he had said to others just before, of being kindly affectioned. But had Paul been living in the present hour of the Church, what would he have said to that cold indifference which marks the age in the lukewarm, Laodicean spirit, so painful to the real follower of the Lord Jesus, and so highly reproved by Christ himself! Rev 3:15-16 .

There is not only a great loveliness in the Christian graces which the Apostle hath enumerated in those verses, but also a beautiful order in the manner in which he hath marked them down. Rejoicing in hope, is very suitably placed before the being patient in tribulation. And the rejoicing with the happy, before the weeping with them that Weep. For until the child of God is himself established in the grace of hope, he cannot know how to minister to others the consolation. Neither can one mingle the tear of grace with the mourner, unless he himself hath had his own tears mingled with the spiced wine of the pomegranate. I refer the Reader to my Commentary on these points for the right apprehension, according to my view, of those sweet and gracious employments, Rom 5:1-5 ; Mat 5:1-12 .

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

6 Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith;

Ver. 6. According to the proportion ] That form of sound words, 2Ti 1:13 , those principles of the doctrine of Christ, Heb 6:1 , with which all interpretations of Scripture must bear due proportion.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

6 .] The = ‘and not only so, but’. , see above, Rom 12:3 , on . . These are called, 1Co 12:7 , . “These are next specified. The two first accusatives are grammatically dependent on : by degrees the Apostle loses sight of the construction, and continues with the concrete , which still he binds on to the foregoing by , but at , omits this also, and, at Rom 12:9 , introduces the abstract .” Thol.

] There is some dispute about the construction of these clauses. The ordinary rendering regards them as elliptical, and supplies before and , or or the like. But Reiche, Meyer, De Wette, suppose no ellipsis , joining ., &c. to the foregoing substantives, as to . This construction must however be dropped at , which is manifestly to be rendered with a verb supplied: and (2) it reduces the four first mentioned gifts to a bare catalogue, and deprives the passage of its aim, which is to keep each member of the body in its true place and work without any member boasting against another. Tholuck quotes a passage of very similar construction from Epictet. Dissert. iii. 23. 5. He is speaking of reading and philosophizing from ostentation, and says that every thing which we do, must have its aim, its ; , , . , . ; , , , , . See also the same construction in 1Pe 4:10-11 .

On , the gift of the , see note, Act 11:27 .

. . . . .] ( let us prophesy ) according to the proportion (compare Justin Mart. Apol. i. 17, p. 54: “each will be punished ”) of faith . But what faith? Objective (‘fides qu creditur’), or subjective (‘fides qu creditur’)? the faith, or our faith? The comparison of above, and the whole context, determine it to be the latter; the measure of our faith: ‘quisque se intra sortis su metas contineat, et revelationis su modum teneat, ne unus sibi omnia scire videatur.’ To understand . . objectively, as ‘the rule of faith,’ as many R.-Cath. expositors, and some Protestant, e.g. Calvin, ‘fidei nomine significat prima religionis axiomata,’ seems to do violence to the context, which aims at shewing that the measure of faith, itself the gift of God, is the receptive faculty for all spiritual gifts, which are therefore not to be boasted of, nor pushed beyond their provinces, but humbly exercised within their own limits.

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Rom 12:6 ff. At this point an application, apparently, is made of what has been said in Rom 12:4-5 , but the grammar is very difficult. Both A.V. and R.V. supply what is needed in order to read the verses as an exhortation; thus in Rom 12:6 , “ let us prophesy ”; in Rom 12:7 , “ let us wait ”; and in Rom 12:8 , answering to the change of construction in the Greek, “ let him do it ”. This is the simplest way out of the difficulty, and is followed by many scholars (Meyer, Lipsius, Gifford). But it is not beyond doubt, and there is something to say for the more rigorous construction adopted by Weiss and others, who put only a comma after at the end of Rom 12:5 , and construe with . In either case, there is an apodosis to be supplied; but while in the former case it is hinted at in the second half of every clause (as is seen in our English Bibles), in the latter it is simply forgotten. It is as if Paul had said, “We are members one of another, and have gifts differing according to the grace given to us; our gift may be prophecy, prophecy in the proportion of our faith; it may be in the sphere appropriate for that; another instance would be that of the teacher in his department, or of the exhorter in his ; or again you may have the distributor, whose gift is in the form of ; or the ruler, who is divinely qualified for his function by the gift of , moral earnestness; or the man who to show mercy is endowed with a cheerful disposition”. All this requires an apodosis, but partly because of its length, partly because of the changes in construction as the Apostle proceeds, the apodosis is overlooked. Its import, however, would not vary, as in the A.V., from clause to clause, but would be the same for all the clauses together. Even with the ordinary punctuation, which puts a period at the end of Rom 12:5 , I prefer this reading of the passage. The varying apodoses supplied in the English Bible to the separate clauses are really irrelevant; what is wanted is a common apodosis to the whole conception. “Now having gifts differing according to the grace given to us as one may see by glancing at the phenomena of church life let us use them with humility (remembering that they are gifts) and with love (inasmuch as we are members one of another).” It is easier to suppose that the construction was suspended, and gradually changed, with some general conclusion like this before the mind from the beginning, than that it broke down, so to speak, as soon as it began; which we must suppose if we insert in Rom 12:6 . But it is not a question which can be infallibly decided. It ought to be observed that there is no hint of anything official in this passage; all ministry is a function of membership in the body, and every member has the function of ministry to some intent or other. : Rom 1:11 , 1Co 1:7 ; 1Co 12:4 ; 1Co 12:9 ; 1Co 12:31 ; 1Co 12:1 P. Rom 4:10 . With the exception of 1 P. Rom 4:10 (which is not without relation to this passage) Paul alone uses in the N.T. Every is a gift of the Holy Spirit given to the believer for the good of the Church. Some were supernatural (gifts of healings, etc.), others spiritual in the narrower sense: this passage is the best illustration of the word. , sc. , when we believed. . is the highest of , 1Co 14:1 ff. When one has it, he has it . = in the proportion of his faith. The faith meant is that referred to in Rom 12:3 , the measure of which is assigned by God: and since this is the case, it is obviously absurd for a man to give himself airs on the strength of being a : this would amount to forgetting that in whatever degree he has the gift, he owes it absolutely to God. The expression implies that the more faith one has the more completely Christian he is the greater the prophetic endowment will be. [In theology, “the analogy of the faith” is used in quite a different sense, though it was supposed to be justified by this passage. To interpret Scripture, e.g. , according to the analogy of the faith meant to interpret the parts, especially difficult or obscure parts, in consistency with the whole. The scope of the whole, again, was supposed to be represented in the creed or rule of faith; and to interpret . . . meant simply not to run counter to the creed. In the passage before us this is an anachronism as well as an irrelevance. There was no rule of faith when the Apostle was thinking out the original interpretation of Christianity contained in this epistle; and there is no exhortation or warning, but only a description of fact, in the words.] as opposed to and the other functions mentioned here probably refers to such services as were material rather than spiritual: they were spiritual however (though connected only with helping the poor, or with the place or forms of worship) because prompted by the Spirit and done in it. One who has this gift has it , i.e. , in the qualities and in the sphere proper to it: it is in its own nature limited; it is what it is, and nothing else, and fits a man for this function and no other. This is not “otiose,” and it provides a good meaning without importing anything. : it is in his teaching that the possesses the gift peculiar to him: 1Co 14:26 . : so again with the exhorter, the man who speaks words of encouragement: cf. Rom 15:4-5 ; Act 4:36 ; Act 9:31 ; Act 13:15 . It is in his , and not in something else, that his lies. Thus far Paul has not defined the quality of the , or shown in what they consist; the functionary is merely said to have his gift in his function teaching, exhorting, or service. But in the cases which follow, he tells us what the gift, proper to the special functions in view, is; in other words, what is the spiritual quality which, when divinely bestowed, capacitates a man to do this or that for the Church. Thus there is ( cf. Eph 4:28 , Luk 3:11 ), the man who imparts of his means to those who need; he has his in . Cf. 2Co 9:11 ; 2Co 9:13 ; Jas 1:5 . It is not exactly “liberality,” though in these passages it approaches that sense: it is the quality of a mind which has no arrire-pense in what it does; when it gives, it does so because it sees and feels the need, and for no other reason; this is the sort of mind which is liberal, and God assigns a man the function of when He bestows this mind on him by His Spirit. is the person who takes the lead in any way. He might or might not be an official ( 1Th 5:12 , 1Ti 5:17 , 1Ti 3:4-5 ; 1Ti 3:12 : cf. also Rom 16:2 , and Hort, The Christian Ecclesia , p. 126 f.); but in any case he had the which fitted him for his special function in , moral earnestness or vigour. A serious masculine type of character is the pre-supposition for this gift. Finally , he who does deeds of kindness, has his charisma in . A person of a grudging or despondent mood has not the endowment for showing mercy. He who is to visit the poor, the sick, the sorrowful, will be marked out by God for His special ministry by this endowment of brightness and good cheer. Cf. 2Co 9:7 = Pro 22:8 and Sirach 32(35):11: , .

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

Romans

GRACE AND GRACES

Rom 12:6 – Rom 12:8 .

The Apostle here proceeds to build upon the great thought of the unity of believers in the one body a series of practical exhortations. In the first words of our text, he, with characteristic delicacy, identifies himself with the Roman Christians as a recipient, like them, of ‘the grace that is given to us,’ and as, therefore, subject to the same precepts which he commends to them. He does not stand isolated by the grace that is given to him; nor does he look down as from the height of his apostleship on the multitude below, saying to them,-Go. As one of themselves he stands amongst them, and with brotherly exhortation says,-Come. If that had been the spirit in which all Christian teachers had besought men, their exhortations would less frequently have been breath spent in vain.

We may note

I. The grace that gives the gifts.

The connection between these two is more emphatically suggested by the original Greek, in which the word for ‘gifts’ is a derivative of that for ‘grace.’ The relation between these two can scarcely be verbally reproduced in English; but it may be, though imperfectly, suggested by reading ‘graces’ instead of ‘gifts.’ The gifts are represented as being the direct product of, and cognate with, the grace bestowed. As we have had already occasion to remark, they are in Paul’s language a designation of natural capacities strengthened by the access of the life of the Spirit of Christ. As a candle plunged in a vase of oxygen leaps up into more brilliant flame, so all the faculties of the human soul are made a hundred times themselves when the quickening power of the life of Christ enters into them.

It is to be observed that the Apostle here assumes that every Christian possesses, in some form, that grace which gives graces. To him a believing soul without Christ-given gifts is a monstrosity. No one is without some graces, and therefore no one is without some duties. No one who considers the multitude of professing Christians who hamper all our churches to-day, and reflects on the modern need to urge on the multitude of idlers forms of Christian activity, will fail to recognise signs of terribly weakened vitality. The humility, which in response to all invitations to work for Christ pleads unfitness is, if true, more tragical than it at first seems, for it is a confession that the man who alleges it has no real hold of the Christ in whom he professes to trust. If a Christian man is fit for no Christian work, it is time that he gravely ask himself whether he has any Christian life. ‘Having gifts’ is the basis of all the Apostle’s exhortations. It is to him inconceivable that any Christian should not possess, and be conscious of possessing, some endowment from the life of Christ which will fit him for, and bind him to, a course of active service.

The universality of this possession is affirmed, if we note that, according to the Greek, it was ‘given’ at a special time in the experience of each of these Roman Christians. The rendering ‘was given’ might be more accurately exchanged for ‘has been given,’ and that expression is best taken as referring to a definite moment in the history of each believer namely, his conversion. When we ‘yield ourselves to God,’ as Paul exhorts us to do in the beginning of this chapter, as the commencement of all true life of conformity to His will, Christ yields Himself to us. The possession of these gifts of grace is no prerogative of officials; and, indeed, in all the exhortations which follow there is no reference to officials, though of course such were in existence in the Roman Church. They had their special functions and special qualifications for these. But what Paul is dealing with now is the grace that is inseparable from individual surrender to Christ, and has been bestowed upon all who are His. To limit the gifts to officials, and to suppose that the universal gifts in any degree militate against the recognition of officials in the Church, are equally mistakes, and confound essentially different subjects.

II. The graces that flow from the grace.

The Apostle’s catalogue of these is not exhaustive, nor logically arranged; but yet a certain loose order may be noted, which may be profitable for us to trace. They are in number seven-the sacred number; and are capable of being divided, as so many of the series of sevens are, into two portions, one containing four and the other three. The former include more public works, to each of which a man might be specially devoted as his life work for and in the Church. Three are more private, and may be conceived to have a wider relation to the world. There are some difficulties of construction and rendering in the list, which need not concern us here; and we may substantially follow the Authorised Version.

The first group of four seems to fall into two pairs, the first of which, ‘prophecy’ and ‘ministry,’ seem to be bracketed together by reason of the difference between them. Prophecy is a very high form of special inspiration, and implies a direct reception of special revelation, but not necessarily of future events. The prophet is usually coupled in Paul’s writings with the apostle, and was obviously amongst those to whom was given one of the highest forms of the gifts of Christ. It is very beautiful to note that by natural contrast the Apostle at once passes to one of the forms of service which a vulgar estimate would regard as remotest from the special revelation of the prophet, and is confined to lowly service. Side by side with the exalted gift of prophecy Paul puts the lowly gift of ministry. Very significant is the juxtaposition of these two extremes. It teaches us that the lowliest office is as truly allotted by Jesus as the most sacred, and that His highest gifts find an adequate field for manifestation in him who is servant of all. Ministry to be rightly discharged needs spiritual character. The original seven were men ‘full of faith and of the Holy Ghost,’ though all they had to do was to hand their pittances to poor widows. It may be difficult to decide for what reason other than the emphasising of this contrast the Apostle links together ministry and prophecy, and so breaks a natural sequence which would have connected the second pair of graces with the first member of the first pair. We should have expected that here, as elsewhere, ‘prophet,’ ‘teacher,’ ‘exhorter,’ would have been closely connected, and there seems no reason why they should not have been so, except that which we have suggested, namely, the wish to bring together the highest and the lowest forms of service.

The second pair seem to be linked together by likeness. The ‘teacher’ probably had for his function, primarily, the narration of the facts of the Gospel, and the setting forth in a form addressed chiefly to the understanding the truths thereby revealed; whilst the ‘exhorter’ rather addressed himself to the will, presenting the same truth, but in forms more intended to influence the emotions. The word here rendered ‘exhort’ is found in Paul’s writings as bearing special meanings, such as consoling, stimulating, encouraging, rebuking and others. Of course these two forms of service would often be associated, and each would be imperfect when alone; but it would appear that in the early Church there were persons in whom the one or the other of these two elements was so preponderant that their office was thereby designated. Each received a special gift from the one Source. The man who could only say to his brother, ‘Be of good cheer,’ was as much the recipient of the Spirit as the man who could connect and elaborate a systematic presentation of the truths of the Gospel.

These four graces are followed by a group of three, which may be regarded as being more private, as not pointing to permanent offices so much as to individual acts. They are ‘giving,’ ‘ruling,’ ‘showing pity,’ concerning which we need only note that the second of these can hardly be the ecclesiastical office, and that it stands between two which are closely related, as if it were of the same kind. The gifts of money, or of direction, or of pity, are one in kind. The right use of wealth comes from the gift of God’s grace; so does the right use of any sway which any of us have over any of our brethren; and so does the glow of compassion, the exercise of the natural human sympathy which belongs to all, and is deepened and made tenderer and intenser by the gift of the Spirit. It would be a very different Church, and a very different world, if Christians, who were not conscious of possessing gifts which made them fit to be either prophets, or teachers, or exhorters, and were scarcely endowed even for any special form of ministry, felt that a gift from their hands, or a wave of pity from their hearts, was a true token of the movement of God’s Spirit on their spirits. The fruit of the Spirit is to be found in the wide fields of everyday life, and the vine bears many clusters for the thirsty lips of wearied men who may little know what gives them their bloom and sweetness. It would be better for both giver and receiver if Christian beneficence were more clearly recognised as one of the manifestations of spiritual life.

III. The exercise of the graces.

There are some difficulties in reference to the grammatical construction of the words of our text, into which it is not necessary that we should enter here. We may substantially follow the Authorised and Revised Versions in supplying verbs in the various clauses, so as to make of the text a series of exhortations. The first of these is to ‘prophesy according to the proportion of faith’; a commandment which is best explained by remembering that in the preceding verse ‘the measure of faith’ has been stated as being the measure of the gifts. The prophet then is to exercise his gifts in proportion to his faith. He is to speak his convictions fully and openly, and to let his utterances be shaped by the indwelling life. This exhortation may well sink into the heart of preachers in this day. It is but the echo of Jeremiah’s strong words: ‘He that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the Lord. Is not my word like as fire, saith the Lord, and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?’ The ancient prophet’s woe falls with double weight on those who use their words as a veil to obscure their real beliefs, and who prophesy, not ‘according to the proportion of faith,’ but according to the expectations of the hearers, whose faith is as vague as theirs.

In the original, the next three exhortations are alike in grammatical construction, which is represented in the Authorised Version by the supplement ‘let us wait on,’ and in the Revised Version by ‘let us give ourselves to’; we might with advantage substitute for either the still more simple form ‘be in,’ after the example of Paul’s exhortation to Timothy ‘be in these things’; that is, as our Version has it, ‘give thyself wholly to them.’ The various gifts are each represented as a sphere within which its possessor is to move, for the opportunities for the exercise of which he is carefully to watch, and within the limits of which he is humbly to keep. That general law applies equally to ministry, and teaching and exhorting. We are to seek to discern our spheres; we are to be occupied with, if not absorbed in, them. At the least we are diligently to use the gift which we discover ourselves to possess, and thus filling our several spheres, we are to keep within them, recognising that each is sacred as the manifestation of God’s will for each of us. The divergence of forms is unimportant, and it matters nothing whether ‘the Giver of all’ grants less or more. The main thing is that each be faithful in the administration of what he has received, and not seek to imitate his brother who is diversely endowed, or to monopolise for himself another’s gifts. To insist that our brethren’s gifts should be like ours, and to try to make ours like theirs, are equally sins against the great truth, of which the Church as a whole is the example, that there are ‘diversities of operations but the same Spirit.’

The remaining three exhortations are in like manner thrown together by a similarity of construction in which the personality of the doer is put in the foreground, and the emphasis of the commandment is rested on the manner in which the grace is exercised. The reason for that may be that in these three especially the manner will show the grace. ‘Giving’ is to be ‘with simplicity.’ There are to be no sidelong looks to self-interest; no flinging of a gift from a height, as a bone might be flung to a dog; no seeking for gratitude; no ostentation in the gift. Any taint of such mixed motives as these infuses poison into our gifts, and makes them taste bitter to the receiver, and recoil in hurt upon ourselves. To ‘give with simplicity’ is to give as God gives.

‘Diligence’ is the characteristic prescribed for the man that rules. We have already pointed out that this exhortation includes a much wider area than that of any ecclesiastical officials. It points to another kind of rule, and the natural gifts needed for any kind of rule are diligence and zeal. Slackly-held reins make stumbling steeds; and any man on whose shoulders is laid the weight of government is bound to feel it as a weight. The history of many a nation, and of many a family, teaches that where the rule is slothful all evils grow apace; and it is that natural energy and earnestness, deepened and hallowed by the Christian life, which here is enjoined as the true Christian way of discharging the function of ruling, which, in some form or another, devolves on almost all of us.

‘He that showeth mercy with cheerfulness.’ The glow of natural human sympathy is heightened so as to become a ‘gift,’ and the way in which it is exercised is defined as being ‘with cheerfulness.’ That injunction is but partially understood if it is taken to mean no more than that sympathy is not to be rendered grudgingly, or as by necessity. No sympathy is indeed possible on such terms; unless the heart is in it, it is nought. And that it should thus flow forth spontaneously wherever sorrow and desolation evoke it, there must be a continual repression of self, and a heart disengaged from the entanglements of its own circumstances, and at leisure to make a brother’s burden its very own. But the exhortation may, perhaps, rather mean that the truest sympathy carries a bright face into darkness, and comes like sunshine in a shady place.

Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren

Having then = But having.

gifts. Greek. charisma. App-184.

differing. Greek. diaphoros. Only here; Heb 1:4; Heb 8:6; Heb 9:10.

according to. Greek. kata. App-104.

whether. Greek. eite. See App-118.

proportion. Greek. analogia. Only here.

faith = the faith (Rom 12:3).

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

6.] The = and not only so, but. , see above, Rom 12:3, on . . These are called, 1Co 12:7, . These are next specified. The two first accusatives are grammatically dependent on : by degrees the Apostle loses sight of the construction, and continues with the concrete , which still he binds on to the foregoing by ,-but at , omits this also, and, at Rom 12:9, introduces the abstract . Thol.

] There is some dispute about the construction of these clauses. The ordinary rendering regards them as elliptical, and supplies before and , or or the like. But Reiche, Meyer, De Wette, suppose no ellipsis, joining ., &c. to the foregoing substantives, as to . This construction must however be dropped at , which is manifestly to be rendered with a verb supplied: and (2) it reduces the four first mentioned gifts to a bare catalogue, and deprives the passage of its aim, which is to keep each member of the body in its true place and work without any member boasting against another. Tholuck quotes a passage of very similar construction from Epictet. Dissert. iii. 23. 5. He is speaking of reading and philosophizing from ostentation, and says that every thing which we do, must have its aim, its ;-, , . , . ; , , , , . See also the same construction in 1Pe 4:10-11.

On , the gift of the , see note, Act 11:27.

. . . . .] (let us prophesy) according to the proportion (compare Justin Mart. Apol. i. 17, p. 54: each will be punished ) of faith. But what faith? Objective (fides qu creditur), or subjective (fides qu creditur)? the faith, or our faith? The comparison of above, and the whole context, determine it to be the latter; the measure of our faith: quisque se intra sortis su metas contineat, et revelationis su modum teneat, ne unus sibi omnia scire videatur. To understand . . objectively, as the rule of faith, as many R.-Cath. expositors, and some Protestant, e.g. Calvin, fidei nomine significat prima religionis axiomata,-seems to do violence to the context, which aims at shewing that the measure of faith, itself the gift of God, is the receptive faculty for all spiritual gifts, which are therefore not to be boasted of, nor pushed beyond their provinces, but humbly exercised within their own limits.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Rom 12:6. , having) This word also depends on [Rom 12:5]: for there is an apodosis at the end of Rom 12:4; but denotes we are, and at the same time inclines to [borders on] a gentle exhortation [let us be, by implication], as Gal 4:28, note. Hence in the several parts of this enumeration, the imperative ought to be understood, comp. Rom 12:14; but it is Pauls characteristic , not to express the imperative often, after it has been once put at the beginning, as in Rom 12:3.-, gifts) these are of different kinds, , grace is one.-, prophecy) This stands first among the gifts. Act 2:17-18; Act 11:27; Act 13:1; Act 15:32; Act 19:6; Act 21:9-10; 1Co 11:4, etc., 12, etc.; Eph 2:20; Eph 3:5; Eph 4:11; 1Th 5:20; 1Ti 1:18; 1Ti 4:14; Rev 1:3, etc. When these passages are compared together, it is evident, that prophecy is the gift, by which the heavenly mysteries, sometimes also future events, are brought under the notice of men, especially believers, with an explanation of Scripture prophecies, which could not be elicited by the ordinary rules of interpretation. But the other gifts, which we find in the first epistle to the Corinthians, are not added in this epistle, which is otherwise so copious. See ch. Rom 1:11; 1Co 9:2, notes.-, according to) Repeat, we having, viz., the gift, prophecy, and so in succession. So just before, according to the grace, [as here, according to the proportion of faith]. As it is given to a man, so ought a man to be of service to others.- , the proportion [analogy of faith]) i.e., as God distributes (to every prophet) the measure of faith, Rom 12:3 : for there already Paul slightly touched upon this point, and he now returns to it, after some other topics had been introduced in the intervening verses. Prophecy and faith are closely connected, 1Co 12:9-10; 1Co 13:2. Peter treating of the same subject, first epistle Rom 4:11, says, , as the oracles of God. It is much the same as if Paul were to say, whether it be prophecy, [let it be restricted within the limits of, or] in prophecy; with which compare what follows: let it not be carried outside of and beyond the bounds of faith; nor let any one prophesy from the promptings of his own heart, beyond what he has seen; and again, on the other hand, let him not conceal or bury the truth; let him only speak so far as he has seen, and knows, and believes,[130] see Col 2:18; Rev 1:2. Paul himself affords an example of such a proportion [analogy], 1Co 7:25. Erasmus says, The phrase, ACCORDING TO THE PROPORTION, gives one to understand, that the gifts are the greater [are bestowed in the greater number], in proportion as ones faith shall have [hath] been the more perfect; so also, Corn. a Lapide, Piscator, Peter Martyr. Basilius M. on the Holy Spirit, He fills all things with His powerful working, and they, who are worthy, can alone receive Him, nor is He merely received in one, , measure, but, , according to the proportion of faith, He distributes his operations, c. 9. Chrysostom: for although it is grace, yet it is not poured out uniformly, but taking the several measures [the various proportions in which it is poured out] from the [several states] of those who receive it, it flows in proportionally to what it has found the size of the vessel of faith presented to it. Lichtscheid discusses this point at great length in Tr. Germ. vom ewigen evangelio (of the everlasting Gospel), p. 60, etc. As with Paul here, so with Mark the Hermit, the measure, , and the proportion, , are one and the same thing: see his book, (concerning those who think that they are justified by works), a little past the middle. The knowledge of a mans affairs (business, conduct) depends on the proportion in which he puts in practice the precepts of the law, but the knowledge of the truth (of the doctrine of salvation) depends on the measure of faith in Christ; and this same writer often uses the word, , in this sense. In the writings of Paul, however, the word is used in the sense of limiting, in reference to moderation or the avoiding of excess; whereas has a fuller meaning (if we compare it with what follows) in reference to the avoiding of deficiency [the full proportion]. In what theologians call the creed, all the heads agree together in an admirable analogy [completeness of proportion], and each article, respecting which a question occurs, should be decided according to the articles already certainly known, the interpretation of the rest should be adjusted according to the declaration [the dictum] of Scripture clearly explained; and this is the analogy of Scripture itself, and of the articles of faith, which form the creed. But every man does not know all things; and, of what he does know, he does not know all with equal certainty; and yet he holds the things, which he certainly knows, by that very faith, by which the creed is formed; wherefore both he himself, in prophesying, should determine all things according to the analogy of the faith, by which he believes, and others, in hearing [also ought to determine all points] according to the analogy of the faith, whereby they believe [and form their creed]. 1Co 14:29; 1Co 14:37; Heb 13:8-9; 1Jn 2:20, and the following verses.

[130] The construction is, whether it be prophecy, we are [i.e. we ought to be as Christians] persons who have it according to the proportion of faith.-ED.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

Rom 12:6

Rom 12:6

And having gifts differing according to the grace that was given to us,-Natural abilities and opportunities are gifts from God bestowed upon and possessed by each person. Naturally, men differ in their capacities and opportunities. One by capacity and taste is fitted for one kind of work, another for a different kind. When God bestowed a spiritual gift, it was never to implant a new faculty or taste, but to guide and enlighten and use those he already had. So the same natural tastes and abilities are found in inspired men that they possessed by nature, guided and enlightened by the Holy Spirit. God bestowed these gifts according to his grace. They were distributed by the same Spirit-working gifts in each, dividing to each one severally even as he will. (1Co 12:11). But each gift was given to each person for the good of all. According to the strength of his faith he was to work, using his gift as his faith furnished him ability.

whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of our faith;-The gift of prophecy is usually understood to be a miraculous ability to foretell the future. As these were teachers of the word, it came to apply in the New Testament to the teachers. Even among the inspired the knowledge given by the Spirit was in proportion to the faith. So also among the uninspired the strength of the faith is the measure of the ability to teach and to serve. Paul admonishes them not to go beyond the gift bestowed upon them-not to seek to tell more than was revealed. This applies equally to uninspired teachers, and warns them not to go beyond what is taught in the Scriptures and teach what their own wisdom may suggest as true. In teaching they must confine themselves to what is revealed in the word of God. Of this, Macknight says: “The apostles meaning, therefore, is that such as enjoyed the prophetic inspiration were not to imagine that because some things were revealed to them they might speak of everything, but that, in prophesying, they were to confine themselves to what was revealed to them. The same rule we have laid down in Eph 4:7. To this agree the instructions and admonitions here given by the apostle. Each was to confine himself to the line of work which the gifts enabled him to do.

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

then: Rom 1:11, 1Co 1:5-7, 1Co 4:6, 1Co 4:7, 1Co 12:4-11, 1Co 12:28-31, 1Co 13:2, 1Pe 4:10, 1Pe 4:11

differing according: Rom 12:3

whether: Mat 23:34, Luk 11:49, Act 2:17, Act 11:27, Act 11:28, Act 13:1, Act 15:32, Act 21:9, 1Co 12:10, 1Co 12:28, 1Co 13:2, 1Co 14:1, 1Co 14:3-5, 1Co 14:24, 1Co 14:29, 1Co 14:31, 1Co 14:32, Eph 3:5, Eph 4:11, 1Th 5:20

according to the proportion: Rom 12:3, Act 18:24-28, 2Co 8:12, Phi 3:15

Reciprocal: Gen 49:29 – gathered Lev 1:2 – If any Num 3:25 – the charge Num 4:47 – every one Jdg 8:3 – God Mat 25:14 – and delivered Mat 25:22 – I have Luk 19:13 – delivered Joh 3:27 – A man Act 6:4 – give Rom 15:15 – because 1Co 12:5 – administrations 1Co 12:7 – General 1Co 12:11 – all 2Co 10:13 – according Gal 2:9 – the grace Eph 4:7 – unto 1Ti 4:14 – Neglect 2Ti 1:6 – that Jam 1:17 – good 2Pe 1:20 – that

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

2:6

Rom 12:6. Gifts is from the same Greek word as “gift” in 1Co 7:7, where the context shows it means a gift of nature and not a miraculous one. According to the grace is explained at verse 3. According to Thay-er’s lexicon, to prophesy means, “To break forth under sudden impulse in lofty discourse or in praise of the divine counsels.” In 1Co 14:3-4, Paul shows that one form of prophesying is to speak “to edification, and exhortation, and comfort.” Prophesying, then, does not necessarily mean to speak with a spiritual gift.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Rom 12:6. But having gifts, or, having, however, etc. Some would connect this verse grammatically with we are (Rom 12:5), but it seems better to begin a new sentence here, and to supply the proper imperatives, as is done in the E. V. The construction of the Greek is irregular, whatever explanation be given. But makes an advance in thought: and not only so, but (Alford). Then is misleading.

Gifts differing, etc. The charisms are different, but all having one origin, according to the grace that was given to us. This is the same thought as that of Rom 12:3 : according as God hath dealt, etc. Seven of these differing gifts are named, and made the basis of a corresponding exhortation. Four of these seem to be official gifts (though not pointing to four distinct and permanent orders in the ministry), the last three probably being charisms, with which no special official position was connected. The reasons for making this distinction are: omission of or with the fifth clause; the difficulty of referring the remaining gifts to official persons; the change in the admonitions, which do not define the sphere, as before, but the mode. Furthermore, we might expect exhortations to private Christians after the reference to all the members in Rom 12:4-5. (See below, on the several clauses).

Whether prophecy. This is the first gift named. In the Bible prophecy on the one hand, includes more than the prediction of future events, it is a speaking for God not merely beforehand; on the other hand, it is not identical with preaching. In the New Testament the reference is to the gift of immediate inspiration, for the occasion, leading the recipient to deliver, as the mouth of God, the particular communication which he had received (Hodge). It would appear from the statements in the Book of Acts and in 1 Corinthians (see marginal references), that the gift was not unusual, and that the possessor of it had an official position. The office of the Old Testament prophet became more prominent in the later period of the Old Dispensation, but in the New, which presents a gospel of fact, the gift was not permanent, though needful in the Apostolic times and held in the highest esteem (comp. 1Co 14:1 ). It differed from the ecstatic speaking with tongues. This view of the gift opposes any attempt to introduce it into modern discussions about church offices.

According to the proportion of faith, lit., the faith, But the term is not equivalent to a body of doctrine; comp. chap. Rom 1:5. There is not an instance in the New Testament usage up to the time when the Apostle wrote which requires such a sense. Faith here means the subjective believing, and our faith would be as appropriate as our ministry in Rom 12:7. The entire phrase, with which let us prophesy is properly supplied, is equivalent to the measure of faith. This view is favored by the context, which aims at showing that the measure of faith, itself the gift of God, is the receptive faculty for all spiritual gifts, which are therefore not to be boasted of, nor pushed beyond their provinces, but humbly exercised within their own limits (Alford). The technical theological sense, the analogy of faith, seems quite inappropriate here, where an extraordinary gift of prophecy is referred to, and has been abandoned on lexical grounds by the vast majority of more recent commentators (except Philippi, Hodge, and Shedd). That this sense has been used against grammatical exegesis is a matter of history. The simple meaning is: even when a man is thus occasionally inspired, let him use his gift, as he has faith; the gift of faith limits the gift of prophecy.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

As if our apostle had said, “Seeing it has pleased God to appoint distinct officers in his church, and to furnish those officers with various degrees of gifts, and not to make all equal either in gifts or office, let every one in general faithfully execute his office, and keep within the limits of his calling, neither neglecting his own duty, nor invading another’s; in particular let him that prophesieth, that is, expoundeth the scriptures in the church, do it according to the proportion of faith, or according to what is taught plainly and uniformly in the whole scriptures of the Old and New Testament, as the rule of our faith.”

We must not rack nor wrest the scriptures, to make them speak what we please, but what the prophets and the apostles taught, whom we interpret; otherwise we do not expound according to the analogy and proportion of faith.

“Let him that ministereth, teacheth, or exhorteth, and attend upon that work with all diligence; and he that performs the office of a deacon, (who are called helps, 1Co 12:28) and is employed to relieve the poor out of the church’s stock, and to care of strangers, orphans, aged, sick, and impotent persons; let him so it with simplicity, that is, without partiality and respect of persons; and with cheerfulness, that is, with alacrity of heart, with gentleness in words, with pleasantness of countenance, bearing with the infirmities of the aged, with the loathsomeness of the sick and diseased, and administering with delight to the necessities of all that want.”

Now from the whole note, 1. That God of his free bounty has beautified his church with divers officers and gifts.

Note, 2. That those whom God has bestowed ministerial gifts upon, ought humbly and faithfully to improve them to the church’s benefit and edification.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

Vv. 6-8. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us [let us exercise them], whether prophecy, according to the proportion of faith; or ministry, in ministering; or he that teacheth, in teaching; or he that exhorteth, in exhortation; he that giveth, with simplicity; he that ruleth, with zeal; he that doeth works of mercy, with cheerfulness.

There is no occasion for making the participle , having, as De Wette and Lachmann do, the continuation of the preceding proposition: We are one body, but that while having different gifts. This idea of the diversity of gifts has been sufficiently explained in the previous verses. And if this participle still belonged to the previous proposition we should require to take all the subordinate clauses which immediately follow: according to the proportion…in ministering…in teaching…etc., as simple descriptive appendices, which would be tautological and superfluous. The words having then are therefore certainly the beginning of a new proposition. Paul takes up the last thought of the previous verse, to make it the point of departure for all the particular precepts which are to follow: As, then, we have different gifts, let us exercise them every one as I proceed to tell you: confining our activity modestly within the limits of the gift itself. As to the meaning, it is always the , self-rule, which remains the fundamental idea. Grammatically, the principal verb should be taken from the participle having: Having then different gifts, let us have (exercise) them by abiding simply in them, by not seeking to go out of them.

The term , gift, denotes in the language of Paul a spiritual aptitude communicated to the believer with faith, and by which he can aid in the development of spiritual life in the church. Most frequently it is a natural talent which God’s Spirit appropriates, increasing its power and sanctifying its exercise.

The gift which holds the first place in the enumerations of 1 Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 4 is apostleship. Paul does not mention it here; he pointed to it in Rom 12:3 fulfilling its task.

After the apostolate there comes prophecy in all these lists. The prophet is, as it were, the eye of the church to receive new revelations. In the passages, Eph 2:20; Eph 3:5, it is closely connected with the apostolate, which without this gift would be incomplete. But it may also be separate from it; and hence prophets are often spoken of as persons distinct from apostles in the primitive church, for example, Act 13:1, and 1 Corinthians 14. Prophets differed from teachers, in that the latter gathered up into a consecutive body of doctrine the new truths revealed to the church by the prophets.

Wherein, then, will the voluntary limitation consist which the prophet should impose on himself in the exercise of his gift (his )? He should prophesy according to the analogy of faith. The word is a mathematical term; it signifies proportion. The prophet is not absolutely free; he ought to proportion his prophecy to faith. What faith? Many (Hofmann, for example) answer: his own. He should take care in speaking not to exceed the limit of confidence, of real hope communicated to him by the Spirit, not to let himself be carried away by self-love to mingle some human alloy with the holy emotion with which he is filled from above. But, in that case, would not the apostle have required to add the pronoun : his faith? And would not the term revelation have been more suitable than that of faith? Others think it possible to give the term faith the objective meaning which it took later in ecclesiastical language, as when we speak of the evangelical faith or the Christian faith; so Philippi. The prophet in his addresses should respect the foundations of the faith already laid, the Christian facts and the truths which flow from them. But the word faith never in the N. T. denotes doctrine itself; it has always a reference to the subjective feeling of self-surrender, confidence in God, or in Christ as the revealer of God. And may not we here preserve this subjective meaning, while applying it also to the faith of the whole church? The prophet should develop the divine work of faith in the heart of believers, by starting from the point it has already reached, and humbly attaching himself to the work of his predecessors; he should not, by giving scope to his individual speculations, imprudently disturb the course of the work begun within souls already gained. In a word, the revelations which he sets forth should not tend to make himself shine, but solely to edify the church, whose present state is a sort of standard for new instructions. It is obvious how, in the exercise of this gift, it would be easy for one to let himself go beyond the measure of his revelations, and thus add heterogeneous elements to the faith and hope of the church itself. No more in the New Testament than in the Old does it belong to every prophet to recommence the whole work. Hence no doubt the judgment to be pronounced on prophesyings, mentioned 1Co 14:29.

Vv. 7. The term , which we translate by ministry, denotes generally in the N. T. a charge, an office confided to some one by the church. Such an office undoubtedly supposes a spiritual aptitude; but the holder is responsible for its discharge, not only in relation to God from whom the gift comes, but also to the church which has confided to him the office. Such is the difference between the functions denoted by this name and the ministry of the prophet, or of him who speaks with tongues. These are pure gifts, which man cannot transform into a charge. In our passage this term ministry, placed as it is between prophecy and the function of teaching, can only designate an activity of a practical nature, exerted in action, not in word. It is almost in the same sense that in 1Pe 4:11 the term , serving, is opposed to , speaking. We think it probable, therefore, that this term here denotes the two ecclesiastical offices of the pastorate (bishop or presbyter) and of the diaconate properly so called. Bishops or presbyters were established in the church of Jerusalem from the first times of the church, Act 11:30. Paul instituted this office in the churches which he had just founded, Act 14:23; comp. Php 1:1; 1Ti 3:1 et seq.; Tit 1:5 et seq. They presided over the assemblies of the church, and directed its course and that of its members in respect of spiritual matters; comp. 1Th 5:12-13. Hence their title , pastors, Eph 4:11.

Deacons appear even before elders in the church of Jerusalem (Act 6:1 et seq.). They were occupied especially with the care of the poor. This office, which emanates so directly from Christian charity, never ceased in the church; we find it again mentioned Php 1:1; 1Ti 3:12.

Each of these functionaries, says the apostle, should keep to his part, confine himself within the administration committed to him. The elder should not desire to mount the tripod of prophet, nor the deacon aspire to play the part of bishop or teacher. It is ever that voluntary limitation which the apostle had recommended, Rom 12:3-5.

In the passage from the first to the second part of this verse, we observe a slight change of construction. Instead of mentioning the gift or the office, as in the two preceding terms, Paul addresses himself directly to the man who is invested with it. This is not a real grammatical incorrectness; for, as the preceding accusatives: (prophecy), (ministry), were placed in apposition to the object , gifts (Rom 12:6), so the nominatives: , he that teacheth, , he that exhorteth, are in apposition to the participle , having (same verse).

As to the following clauses: in teaching, in exhortation, they continue to depend on the understood verb , let us have, exercise, abide in.

He that teacheth (the teacher, ), like the prophet, exercises his gift by speech; but while the latter receives by revelations granted to him new views which enrich the faith of the church, the teacher confines himself to an orderly and clear exposition of the truths already brought to light, and to bringing out their connection with one another. He it is who, by the word of knowledge or of wisdom (1Co 12:8), shows the harmony of all the parts of the divine plan. In the enumeration, Eph 4:11, the teacher is at once associated with and distinguished from the pastor. In fact, the gift of teaching was not yet essentially connected with the pastorate. But more and more it appeared desirable that the pastor should be endowed with it, 1Ti 5:17; Tit 1:9.

Vv. 8. In 1Co 14:3, the function of exhorting is ascribed to the prophet, and the surname Barnabas, son of prophecy, Act 4:36, is translated into Greek by , son of exhortation. The prophet therefore had certainly the gift of exhorting, stimulating, consoling. But it does not follow from the fact that the prophet exhorts and consoles, that, as some have sought to persuade themselves in our day, any one, man or woman, who has the gift of exhorting or consoling, is a prophet, and may claim the advantage of all that is said of the prophets in other apostolical declarations. Our passage proves clearly that the gift of exhorting may be absolutely distinct from that of prophecy. So it is also from that of teaching. The teacher acts especially on the understanding; he would be in our modern language the catechist or dogmatic theologian. He that exhorts acts on the heart, and thereby on the will; he would rather be the Christian poet. Also in 1Co 14:26, Paul, bringing these two ministries together as he does here, says: Hath any one a doctrine, hath any one a psalm?

The three last functions mentioned in this verse are no longer exercised in the assemblies of the church; they come, to a certain point, under the exercise of private virtues. It is wrong, indeed, to regard the , he that distributeth, as has been done, to indicate the official deacon, and the , he that ruleth, the elder or bishop. The verb does not signify to make a distribution on behalf of the church (this would require , Act 4:35); but: to communicate to others of one’s own wealth; comp. Luk 3:11; Eph 4:28. And as to the bishop, the position here assigned to this ministry would not be in keeping with his elevated rank in the church; and the matter in question is especially works of beneficence. The first term: he that giveth (communicateth), therefore denotes the believer, who by his fortune and a natural aptitude sanctified by faith, feels himself particularly called to succor the indigent around him. Paul recommends him to do so with simplicity. The Greek term might be translated: with generosity, with large-heartedness; such is the meaning which the word (2Co 8:2; 2Co 9:13) often has. According to its etymological meaning, the word signifies: the disposition not to turn back on oneself; and it is obvious that from this first meaning there may follow either that of generosity, when a man gives without letting himself be arrested by any selfish calculation, or that of simplicity, when he gives without his left hand knowing what his right doesthat is to say, without any vain going back on himself, and without any air of haughtiness. This second meaning seems to us preferable here, because the prevailing idea throughout the entire passage is that of , self-limiting, self-regulating.

The second term: he that ruleth, should be explained by the sense which the verb frequently has in Greek: to be at the head of; hence: to direct a business. So, in profane Greek, the term is applied to the physician who directs the treatment of a disease, to the magistrate who watches over the execution of the laws. In the Epistle to Titus, Tit 3:8, there occurs the expression: , to be occupied with good works;whence the term , patroness, protectress, benefactress, used in our Epistle, Rom 16:2, to express what Phoebe had been to many believers and to Paul himself. Think of the numerous works of private charity which believers then had to found and maintain! Pagan society had neither hospitals nor orphanages, free schools or refuges, like those of our day. The church, impelled by the instinct of Christian charity, had to introduce all these institutions into the world; hence no doubt, in every community, spontaneous gatherings of devout men and women who, like our present Christian committees, took up one or other of these needful objects, and had of course at their head directors charged with the responsibility of the work. Such are the persons certainly whom the apostle has in view in our passage. Thus is explained the position of this term between the preceding: he that giveth, and the following: he that showeth mercy. The same explanation applies to the following clause , with zeal. This recommendation would hardly be suitable for one presiding over an assembly. How many presidents, on the contrary, would require to have the call addressed to them: Only no zeal! But the recommendation is perfectly suitable to one who is directing a Christian work, and who ought to engage in it with a sort of exclusiveness, to personify it after a manner in himself.

The last term: , he that showeth mercy, denotes the believer who feels called to devote himself to the visiting of the sick and afflicted. There is a gift of sympathy which particularly fits for this sort of work, and which is, as it were, the key to open the heart of the sufferer. The phrase , literally, with hilarity, denotes the joyful eagerness, the amiable grace, the affability going the length of gayety, which make the visitor, whether man or woman, a sunbeam penetrating into the sick-chamber and to the heart of the afflicted.

In the preceding enumeration, the recommendation of the apostle had in view especially humility in those who have to exercise a gift. But in the last terms we feel that his thought is already bordering on the virtue of love. It is the spectacle of this Christian virtue in full activity in the church and in the world which now fills his mind, and which he presents in the following description, Rom 12:9-21 : First, self-limiting, self-possessing: this is what he has just been recommending; then self-giving: this is what he proceeds to expound.

Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)

And having gifts differing according to the grace that was given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of our faith [It would be as unreasonable and unwise to give all Christians the same gift as it would be to give all the members of the body the same function. Since, then, the gifts had to differ, and since God dealt them out, each member was to exercise humbly and contentedly that gift which God had portioned out to him, whether, compared with others, proportionately large or small, important or unimportant, for should the ear stubbornly refuse to hear, and set up a determined effort to smell or to see, it would produce anarchy in the body. Let each Christian, therefore, retain the place and station and discharge the work which God has designated as his by the proportion of faith, a miracle-working power, assigned to him. The power of Christ, operating through the Holy Spirit, awoke in Christians talents and endowments unexampled in the world’s history. The greatest of these were bestowed upon the apostles. The next in order of importance were the gifts bestowed upon the prophet (1Co 12:28; 1Co 14:29-32; 1Co 14:39). His gift was that inspiration of the Holy Spirit which enabled him to proclaim the divine truth, and make known the will and purpose of God, etc., whether as to past, present or future events. His work was supplementary to that of the apostles, and was greatly needed in the days when the New Testament was but partly written, and when even what was written was not yet diffused among the churches. Eventually the prophet ceased (1Co 13:8-9) and the Scripture took his place. In his day he was as the mouth of God (Exo 7:1; Exo 4:16; Jer 15:19; Deu 18:18); he delivered a divine message at first-hand (Eze 2:7-10; Eze 3:4-11; Luk 7:26-29) and was inspired of God– 1Pe 1:10-12; Act 2:2-4; 2Pe 1:19-21];

Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)

6. And having gifts differing according to the grace given to us: whether prophecy, according to the proportion of faith. Precisely as the corporeal members, actuated by five hundred muscles and a thousand nerves, all have a diversity of office and work, equally dependent upon one another, and all equally important and honorable in the human organism, so every member of Gods kingdom in all the earth has a grand, glorious and important office to fill in the gracious economy, all equally honorable and remunerative in the sight of God. You can not fill my place, and it is equally true that I can not fill yours. There is no room for us to envy another, as we all have enough to do in our appointed sphere, while the angels look down with sympathy and admiration, and God is ready to say, Well done, and place upon our brow a never fading crown if we will only be true. We see here that our availability as a soldier of Christ is in direct proportion to our faith. As doubt vitiates faith, we should constantly hold up the glittering two- edged sword, ready to slay every one that comes skulking around in order that our faith may be made perfect, i. e., free from doubt. Then we should constantly pray, Lord, increase our faith. When your garden is perfectly clean, it is in good fix to grow with paradoxical rapidity.

Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament

Verse 6

The word prophecy, in the New Testament, generally refers to the public preaching of the gospel, in the exercise of the higher spiritual gifts. The specifications which follow, Romans 12:6-8, are to be understood as referring not to distinct and separate offices, as has been sometimes supposed, but to the different classes of duties which devolved upon the various individuals of the church, arising either from offices which they held, or from their peculiar characteristics or positions. The general meaning is, that, whatever may be the peculiar duties which the individual is called upon to perform, according to his talents or position or circumstances he should give himself cheerfully to the work, feeling that he is thus coperating with all his brethren, and that his brethren are coperating with him.

Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament

12:6 {5} Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, [let us prophesy] according to the {l} proportion of faith;

(5) That which he spoke before in general, he applies particularly to the holy functions, in which men are in greater danger if they sin. And he divides them into two types: that is, into prophets and deacons: and again he divides the prophets into teachers and pastors. And of deacons he makes three types: that is, those who are to be

(as it were) treasurers of the Church, whom he calls deacons in the most proper sense: the others to be the governors of discipline, who are called seniors or elders: the third, those who properly serve in the help of the poor, such as the widows.

(l) That every man observe the measure of that which is revealed to him.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

The gifts that we have are abilities that God gives us by His grace (cf. 1Co 12:6; Eph 4:7; 1Pe 4:10). They are capacities for His service. [Note: For defense of the view that spiritual gifts are ministries rather than abilities, see Kenneth Berding, "Confusing Word and Concept in ’Spiritual Gifts’: Have We Forgotten James Barr’s Exhortations?" Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 43:1 (March 200):37-51.]

"Spiritual gifts are tools to build with, not toys to play with or weapons to fight with." [Note: Wiersbe, 1:555.]

The list of seven gifts that follows is not exhaustive but only illustrative (cf. 1Co 12:27-28). Paul’s point here was that it is important that we use our gifts and that we use them in the proper way. All the gifts need using according to the proportion (Gr. analogia) of the faith that God has given us. The faith in view, as in Rom 12:3, is probably the amount of faith God has given us, not what we believe, namely, Christian teaching.

Probably Paul meant prophecy in the sense of communicating revealed truth to exhort, encourage, and comfort (cf. 1Co 14:3; 1Co 14:31) and, perhaps, praising God (1Ch 25:1) rather than as predicting or proclaiming new revelation. All the other gifts listed here serve the whole church throughout its history, so probably Paul viewed prophecy this way too. If so, none of the seven gifts listed here are "sign gifts."

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)