And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all.
There are many different workings given to different members, with different gifts, talents and lines of service assigned as will best advance God's glory, yet it is the same God who is actively at work behind them all. He is the source who gives to each person as He pleases, and He works with and through every worker so that each gift becomes a power to convict and convert souls. His plan is unity in diversity, with all the varied members joined as one body under one Head and each supplying what another lacks, so difference is never an excuse for disunity. Because He orders the diversity, no gift is to be despised as lesser and no worker is to judge another, rule another's conscience, or draw apart over different methods. Every person is therefore to find his appointed post, faithfully improve what he has received whether great or small, and unite with others in love as these workings of the Spirit edify the church to the end of time and meet the perils of the last days.
Words and Body Figure
Diversities of operations means different gifts, talents, opportunities, lines of work and ways of serving assigned to different members of Christ's body as will best promote His glory and the advancement of His kingdom. God gives different lines of work and different operations to those who minister before Him, while the same God works in and through them all, and the same Spirit works in different ways to produce harmonious action. Unity in diversity is like branches of one vine that are different yet do not quarrel and draw nourishment from one source under one Head. No one truly united with Christ acts as a complete whole in himself, but faithfully discharges his own duties as part of the great whole, united with brethren by sympathy for one another and fidelity to Christ, and God uses each person when willing to be used in His appointed way, while working contrary one to the other brings shame to God.
The workings include wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discerning of spirits, tongues and interpretation, divided to each as the same Spirit wills for the profit of all. In practical form they include speaking, writing, sincere earnest fervent prayer, singing, and clear explanation of the Word with special power and clearness, with wisdom given to one and knowledge and faith to another. They also include the talent of speech, intellectual ability, good taste, skill, refinement and true elevation, which are used in the work only when first placed under His jurisdiction with His presence as the controlling power, so that he whose heart blends with the heart of Christ is conformed to the will of Christ in desires and practices. Coveting earnestly the best gifts does not mean seeking to be first but striving earnestly for power to follow Christ's example and be heralds of His gospel, which is true religion kept amid temptation, suspicion and evil surmising by walking straight forward in His blessed, holy light.
The church is figured by the members which compose the human body from head to feet, where there are different members with different offices yet all of the body, so the many different gifts and workings are to be actively exercised together in one body whose head is Jesus Christ. Because two members do not act the same part, no member is to entertain self-sufficiency or say to another member that he has no need of him, and among the members there is to be no crowding, no judging, and no measuring of one gift by another, for many gifts are called for yet all are members of one body. The members of Christ's body all center in the Head but have different gifts, and this is in the economy of God to meet the varied organization and minds in the world, where the strength of one servant of God may not be the strength of another.
The twelfth and thirteenth chapters of First Corinthians should be committed to memory, written in the mind and heart, studied and digested rather than ignored, so that those brought together in church capacity will be united, understandingly and intelligently. That teaching should have more weight in times of trial and testing, when there is need to be shut in with the Lord of heaven so the wicked one has no power. The gifts bestowed on the church are to be received with faith and intelligence and put into sanctified action.
Genuine gifts and operations of God's Spirit in the church are worked by God Himself and are not to be denied. Meaningless speech, noisy excitement, and other manufactured displays are rejected as gifts God has placed in the church, and their bad fruit shows they are not genuine gifts from Him. False visions and deceptive spiritual displays can lead people to doubt these genuine operations. Satan's work is to drive people first into gross fanaticism where he controls mind and body, and then, after that course is run, to push them to the opposite extreme of rejecting God's gifts and operations altogether, and a heart that rises up against the gifts of the church, with a spirit of independence and lack of union with the body, opens the way for that deception.
Same God at Work
The same God stands as source and active power behind all the different gifts and workings, and though abilities for service vary, He works with and through every worker under the same Head. The variety includes ready speaking, ready writing, sincere earnest fervent prayer, singing, and special power to explain the Word with clearness, with wisdom given to one and knowledge and faith to another. Each gift becomes a power for convicting and converting souls because He works with the laborer, serving the advancement of His kingdom and the good of the church. When active in the church these workings encourage the fainthearted and correct and reprove those who err, and they are meant to act in harmony together to make a perfect whole. In city work there are many workers to use and many kinds of work to be done, some great and some small, and no one is to despise supposed lesser gifts or fold the hands in unbelief for lack of mighty ability.
Success, effectiveness and efficiency do not come from human ability, appearance, or the preacher himself, but from God, the Unseen Worker standing behind the minister who brings conviction and conversion to souls. Without the Spirit's presence natural or acquired abilities cannot touch hearts or win sinners to Christ, however conspicuous the gift may seem. When possessors cooperate with Him even the seemingly small gift can become a power for God, and disciples connected with Christ, even the poorest and least educated, can become channels of His powerful influence. No worker is superior to another because of gifts, and all need the daily converting power of the Holy Spirit in order to bear much fruit, with consecration and devotion providing the discipline needed to bear responsibility. Through the Holy Spirit they serve as His instruments in winning souls, and their success comes from God and not from themselves.
God Himself dispenses the gifts as He pleases and as the Spirit wills to impart them, giving one gift to one person and another to another, and bestowing different measures of grace and means of influence. By this He makes real in heart and life what Christ made possible by His death, giving grace and the gifts of the Holy Spirit to His followers. It is His order that some serve in one line of work and others in other lines, including the work of teaching others to fit them for service in His cause, all for the good of the whole body and all working under the same Spirit. For the wisest of reasons every man is to fill his own place, and blessing comes in doing the appointed work without taking up heavy responsibilities that belong to others. The gifts are to be received and faithfully used by abiding in Christ as the branch abides in the vine and continuing in His love, and those faithful to the grace given experience Christ's bequeathed peace, His joy remaining in them with full joy, and become laborers together with Him in perfecting Christian character.
One Spirit is the mover in all the varied work, and all are to serve under the same Head in unity and brotherly sympathy with interests bound together in love as one body and one Spirit of one mind. Though all do not have the same traits of character, they may all be worked by the same Spirit, even the Spirit of Christ who is Head of the church. Christ in heaven as Head teaches even the angels how to minister to the members of His church on earth, and through Christ God works in all and through many different agencies and operations to reveal His character to the world. When the Holy Spirit guides the understanding, the affections act in harmony with God's will and people freely give God what is already His. Such Christian unity is a mighty agency that causes barriers of selfishness and territorial lines of distinction and barriers of color and caste to disappear and leads to the conversion of many more souls, so that none should rule over others as though they were their conscience.
Diverse Gifts and Tasks
God has set every member in the body as He pleased, placing each person at a post of duty with an assigned personal work to be found by praying for guidance. The same God works in all these different operations to bring them into perfect harmony, giving different offices, talents and abilities to be exercised in different lines of work under His supervision and direction with an eye single to His glory. Believers are to be guided and controlled by the same Spirit without all having the same gifts, drawing together in God's service to accomplish the same result, some strong to carry on one line and others especially fitted to carry on another line or to labor in a different way. They accomplish much when they labor together in harmony, each serving in the work for which God has qualified them and relying on Him for strength and guidance. All have not the same gift but there is a variety of gifts, and all are needed to do the appointed work, so knowledge of present truth lays responsibility on each one to awaken and be diligent laborers together with God, with not one excused and not one to be an idler in the vineyard. Responsibility does not rest on one or two men, and no one man, not even a conference president, is the voice for the whole ministry, but his is only a voice among voices of capability, for the same God works through many different workers moved by the Holy Spirit, including self-sustaining men called to go forth, hold meetings and do evangelistic work without waiting for a treasury or for regular marked-out lines. Every man has his own post of duty in the great whole and his own appointed work, sacred and secular, some in business lines, some in the ministry of the Word and some in various trades, and every man is to find out what the Master would have him do and then do that work in connection with other laborers. That consecration, surrendering mind, heart and soul to Christ and loving God with the whole being in recognition of God's ownership, invests the whole life with a sacredness that makes a man gentle, kind and courteous, makes every act a consecrated act with Holiness unto the Lord as motto, and trains him under Christ for the higher grade above.
This economy of varied organization exists to meet the varied organization and minds in the world. As the human body from head to feet has different members with different offices yet all of the body, so the members of Christ's body all center in the Head but have different gifts, and the strength of one servant of God is not the strength of another. Each is to cultivate the gifts given him, acting out the powers and developing the qualities God gave as endowment, with will and identity preserved, obtaining an experience founded in God as God moves upon the mind and operates upon the heart to call forth its powers and develop individual strength for a special work. That distinct development is to be left free for God to convict and accomplish rather than destroyed by overgoverning, making other minds bend to one man's ideas and molding judgment and character to his own, for that confuses minds and destroys independent natural traits that would give access to a class others could not touch and spoils a person for the work God would have him do. God brings men of different character and mind together to be laborers together with Him in unity under the control of the same Spirit, and each worker's gifts are needed to accomplish what God desires and to make the other's work more complete through counsel and influence. The contrast between gifts is not to prevent harmonious action, because many different minds must be met and different gifts are needed for that work, so by different gifts the truth is to be proclaimed to bring a decided influence for good to bear on the inhabitants of the world. God can use each person to reach people another cannot, so varied gifts should be encouraged and put to use in the work appointed to them, with those controlled by the Holy Spirit given power to arouse the slumbering senses of worldlings while all follow their own line looking to Jesus as Author and Finisher of faith with the Lord as Helper.
No one person has all the wisdom and knowledge needed to manage the work alone or should claim an exclusive field of labor, and these gifts are valuable in their proper places when people of humble, teachable spirit work together despite differences in views or plans. No one minister with his own method and ideas is sufficient alone to mold souls or to feed the flock fully, and it hinders and leaves a church deficient to think varied gifts are not needed. Each laborer can only trade according to entrusted responsibility, being strong on some essential point of truth where another is weak and revealing truth his fellow laborer did not regard as essential. In His providence God sends various workmen under the control of the Holy Spirit to supplement one another with suitable food, so that together they carry the work forward to fullness and perfection, and several workers with varied gifts and distinct roles are needed to carry out the work effectively in harmony with God working through them all. To despise or mistreat a fellow laborer for humble position or different way of working endangers the despiser as refusing Jesus in the messenger God sends, and believers depend on one another and must work in harmony as members of one body, each developing God-given gifts without despising or envying the gifts or work of others.
Workers differ in ability, temperament, stamp of character, disposition, strength and depth of knowledge, and unity does not mean sameness of ideas, views or methods of work. Different people may be suited to different kinds of work, God gives varied trusts and no one is suited to every task, and differences in ability and temperament do not make anyone faithless, without value or unwilling. God does not expect each person to be prepared for every role or require people with different temperaments to be prepared for every role, and a person's lack of fitness for one task does not make that person faithless. It is well that all are not alike, and because human nature is frail, ignorant and liable to misconception, each one should be careful of the estimate placed upon another, for his ways may not be the ways of his fellow man. Each is inclined to mold the work to his own pattern and introduce his own methods, so workers must obtain the grace of Christ to sink self out of sight, subdue peculiarities and soften temperament, and then there will be unity even among a diversity of dispositions. Difference of stamp of character is no reason to draw apart or stand in one another's way, but God's servants are to work in perfect harmony, not all exactly the same yet all having the same spirit that dwelt in Christ, helping one another through belief in and sanctification of the truth, as with the difference between John and Peter. Each person should be free to seek God's direction about the work fitted to him.
God uses willing, humble workers whether training seems limited and abilities seem small, and blesses humble labor to save souls. He uses both men and women who are willing to serve, and no one is too small for God to use and none should think it impossible. The church's different members are like plants of different kinds and sizes, each with a place and useful work suited to ability, and each person should do the work suited to them rather than try to match another person's gifts or stature, serving humbly and trusting in God. Even those with limited religious or intellectual training can do God's work when they labor humbly and trust in Him. In spiritual things every man and woman has a peculiar sphere and vocation, just as everything in nature has its appointed work without murmuring at its position, and a little work may be done in a manner to glorify God, with the interest God requires proportionate to entrusted capital according to the measure of the gift of Christ. God in infinite wisdom employs many different human agencies with different gifts to cooperate with Him in salvation, each to fill a God-given sphere and cooperate harmoniously without judging others but by showing what the Lord has done in transformed character, with faith, sympathy, forbearance, love, gentleness and temperance shining as light in a dark place. He can use the spotless example of a poor and illiterate, humble and devoted worker who lives his religion as successfully to promote the gospel as the labors of a minister lauded for talents and eloquence, and His wisdom and power are revealed more in the humble worker who relies fully on His help than in the educated man who does not.
Different laborers are fitted to do different parts of the same work, and no one worker is qualified to do school work successfully alone but needs the aid of others who have ability to plan, devise and advance in God's appointed way. Those who begin a work in a new field are to prepare the way for other workers possessing varied talents to come in and carry forward what was begun and to relieve heavy burdens when the time comes, for bringing in laborers with other talents is God's mercy and provision and criticizing them blocks the work. Workers with different talents must learn to harmonize well and advance steadily, pondering carefully at every step, or there will be marked failure. God does not give all workers the same gifts but gives different talents for different parts of the work, including talents specially needed for labor in the cities, which should be recognized and encouraged. Some talents are shared by many, while others give particular servants special strength to present and make effective the truths of God's Word, and no one should underrate a God-given talent or think that one person's talent is all the work requires.
Unity in One Body
God's plan is unity in diversity, bringing different operations into perfect harmony under one Head. Diversity means different gifts, talents, opportunities and lines of work assigned to different members of Christ's body as will best promote His glory and the advancement of His kingdom, with the same Spirit working in different ways to produce harmonious action, like branches of one vine that are different yet do not quarrel and draw nourishment from one source. No one truly united with Christ acts as a complete whole in himself or works contrary to another, but faithfully discharges his own duties as part of the great whole, united with brethren by sympathy and fidelity, guided and controlled by the same Spirit, set in the body as God pleased at a post of duty found by prayer; differences do not excuse disunity, and following this plan brings less friction while working contrary brings shame to God.
Varied gifts are meant to blend together so each supplies another's deficiency and makes the other's work more complete through counsel and influence. No one with his gift alone can carry through a series of meetings to perfection or mold the work after his special ideas, but a variety of gifts and agencies is needed to build it up strong and proportional under the Lord's direction, with careful thought checking exaggerated action and avoiding slowness and over-moderation that loses time. God ordained that people be joined together so the varied talents of many minds blend, contact of mind with mind quickens thought and enlarges ability, and the lack in one worker is supplied by the special gift of another. When physicians and teachers thus unite to share knowledge, youth under their training gain a symmetrical, well-balanced education for service, and this requires courteous association, overlooking small differences, denying self, yielding opinions on minor matters, laying aside pride and self-confidence, humbly listening to counsel even when it conflicts with wishes, frankly stating plans to see them from another standpoint, and laboring unselfishly to build up one another's work in kindness and love to proclaim truth with decided influence for good and arouse slumbering senses while looking to Jesus.
No laborer is complete alone or can successfully carry out the work alone, so workers with varied gifts must be linked together, each taking a different task rather than all doing the same work. Each does a part alongside others, filling his place in God's building and in the structure God designs him to occupy, and when members faithfully do their distinct part they strengthen the work of others and advance the cause. Together they form God's building in answer to Christ's prayer for unity, with growth in grace fitting them for a place in the eternal world, and no one is to claim the prerogative to do all the important work.
Christians need not labor in the same way or say the same things, for their different words, minds and methods can balance one another and form a beautiful harmony. Workers do not all think alike or present the same truths in the same way, and no one person's method should control the work, but different minds and abilities are meant to cooperate to reach different people. So it was with John and Peter, and in Wesley's time Whitefield and the Wesleys differed in some teachings yet were moved toward the shared work of winning souls to Christ through humility, patience and love.
Such unity requires the same Spirit and Christlike love that loves not as neighbor is loved but as Christ loved, with sympathy, fidelity, kindness and unceasing tenderness that speaks good words to help and strengthen brethren instead of standing afar off to criticize and condemn. Genuine Christians true to faith and duty do not stand apart in self-confidence but unite in service and jealously guard one another's interests even when mistakes are made, living by Christ's principles in shared faith and purpose unto holiness, which brings harmony and peace rather than rivalry or desire for supremacy. Without that perfection of Christian character, perfection before God is impossible, and union of all gifts in a complete whole requires blending capabilities with those chosen to lead.
When members so unite varied gifts in love, pray and pledge equal interest by prayer and promise without letting selfishness rule, diversity does not become confusion and division. That pledged union in action, carrying camp meetings and all essential meetings with the glory of God in view and every soul aiming at the perfection of Christ's character, withstands strange fanaticism and forced-in heresies and opposition and keeps one man from launching out against another. Such Christian unity, with interests bound together in love as one body and one Spirit of one mind with a place allotted to every soul, causes barriers of selfishness and territorial lines and barriers of color and caste to disappear, leads to the conversion of many more souls and brings truth to all nations and peoples, fulfilling oneness with fellow man and with Christ and in Christ with God.
The same God ordained simple organization and church order for the unity and perfection of the church, with the Lord over His heritage leading His people. Every department is closely united with every other and all advance in perfect harmony because the same God works in all, so that united workers proclaiming truth in the power of the Spirit reach hearts, especially when the very best and varied talent is brought together and labor is shared. Different classes, energies, talents, mind, intellect and experience — not money alone — are to be combined, and when sanctified intellect prepared to use money wisely as God's talent is united with money wisely used, the work reveals a symmetry and efficiency that cannot otherwise be secured, enlarging and broadening it to strengthen, edify and bless workers bound together.
God's ordered plan reaches from the highest angel down to mortals, joining each person closely to all others and all together to God, so none can become detached and independent. Each must fill his proper place according to ability in the great web of humanity under Christ the Head, the center and source of all life and power, to uplift others, release and break every yoke, promote the happiness of all, and find his own happiness in making others happy. By this order He trains people in humble dependence on Him and imitation of His goodness, making the hand and heart of every faithful worker a consecrated channel through which His love flows, and whoever comes nearest to Christ's character advances toward perfection.
Prophecy for Last Days
The diversities of operations are the ordinary and extraordinary workings of the Holy Spirit as teacher and guide into all truth, fulfilling Christ's promise to send the Comforter. God placed these gifts of the Spirit in the church for its edification and instruction to the end of time, as evidence of His care and love for His people. They have different workings, but God is the source working through them all, which is the biblical ground for their continuance. They are needed most by the church as it enters the perils of the last days, when there is a special outpouring of the Spirit and the closing church has the testimony of Jesus.
In the last days of the work of the third angel's message there will be diversities of operations in the outpouring of the Spirit, which is the time of the latter rain. At that same time Satan works with increasing power because he knows his time is short. In those closing days of earth's history the same God works in varied ways through the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
The gift of prophecy continues from the beginning as a living voice to counsel, admonish, instruct and guide God's people. Visions are one of the gifts God has placed in the church so that the church may be benefited by them. When professed believers oppose these gifts and fight against the visions, souls are endangered through their influence and the weak may be led astray.
The gifts include vision and healing by prayer with anointing with oil. They are given to overcome prejudice and division, to expose wrong influence, and to restore unity and the power of the third angel's message.
Respect Without Contempt
Diversities of operations means many different gifts and workings are to be actively exercised together in one body whose head is Jesus Christ, and because two members do not act the same part no member is to entertain self-sufficiency or say to another that he has no need of him. Because work differs under the same God working through all, differences in service give no ground for judging or condemning others or dismissing another's work, since the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each for the common good. Variety of gifts is essential in dealing with people, and no one is to use differences to pull another down or to judge another's experience, for each one's experience is to come from God and not from finite human authority. It is well that all are not alike, and because human nature is frail, ignorant and liable to misconception, each should be careful of the estimate placed upon another whose ways may not be his own ways. The same God works through diversities of operations by giving individual workers different methods led by the Lord to do a special work that but few are fitted to do.
Leaders must therefore guard against condemning methods not in perfect harmony with their own, be slow to criticize such movements, never suppose every plan should reflect their own personality, and not fear to trust another's methods, for withholding confidence from a humble consecrated laborer doing a special work in God's appointed way retards the cause. God works in different ways in different people, so no one is to measure another's religious experience by his own, and it would be deplorable for all to be of the same mind, for sameness of experience would leave great lack of fullness in carrying forward the work. The remedy is more of Jesus and less of self, thinking no evil and speaking no evil of anyone, keeping the lips as with a bridle. Recognizing that God assigns different roles as He chooses, all empowered by the same Spirit for the good of the whole body, guards against rivalry, pride, envy and contempt and strengthens unity and mutual love. It is God's order that some serve in one line and others in other lines under the same Spirit, and recognizing this plan guards against carnal emulation, pride, envy and contempt and strengthens unity and mutual love.
God Himself dispenses gifts as He pleases, bestowing one gift on one and another on another, including the work of teaching others to fit them for service, and those called to that teaching work are to go cheerfully to their field following His leading. The diversity of gifts produces different kinds of work under the same Head — to one speaking, to another writing, to another sincere earnest prayer, to another singing, to another clear explanation of the Word, to another wisdom, knowledge and faith — and He makes each gift a power for convicting and converting souls. Therefore no gift is to be despised as lesser, and everyone is to stop looking at self and human weakness and go to work doing what he can in sincerity, meekness and love, trusting the Lord to go with him. No one person has every qualification needed, so believers depend on one another and must work in harmony as members of one body, each developing God-given gifts without despising or envying the gifts or work of others. No minister with his own method and ideas alone is sufficient to mold souls or feed the flock fully, and it hinders and leaves the church deficient to think varied gifts are not needed.
Each laborer can trade only according to entrusted responsibility, being strong on some essential point of truth where another is weak and revealing truth his fellow did not regard as essential, while in providence God sends various workmen under the Holy Spirit to supplement one another with suitable food so together they carry the work to fullness and perfection. To despise or mistreat a fellow laborer for humble position or different way of working risks refusing Jesus in the messenger God sends. Every member has a special gift, wisdom and tact suited to a particular work, no one is meant to be exactly like another, God entrusts different goods to different people with a place and duty for each, and belittling another's work or talents dishonors God who alone rightly judges gifts and their use. Christ appoints positions and offices and gives each worker talents, position and capabilities as His gifts, so because the same God works through different operations every worker should recognize another's God-given position and capabilities, without envy or suspicion when a brother uses his gifts to honor God and without belittling the gift and work God gave him. Some talents are shared by many while others give particular servants special strength to present and make effective the truths of the Word, and no one should underrate a God-given talent or think one person's talent is all the work requires.
Gifts are never to be used to separate believers from one another, and where they are used to divide the work needs reformation. No one is to be conscience for others or gain an experience for them, and truth is not to be preached so that those who accept it form separate parties under different heads. When contention and party spirit appear, investigation must be made and things called by their right names, for all dissension is born of the narrow conceptions of unsanctified minds. God appoints workers their different lines and gives to every man his work, and the same God who works all in all leads each in his own way, so no worker is called to administer sharp rebukes to a fellow worker for not tracking in his very footprints. What is required instead is true Christlike love, cordial respect and permanent friendship rather than wounding and bruising souls, with no lurching and crowding against one another, since want of love is grievous sin in God's sight. God reads the heart and never errs in judgment or misjudges, and the talents and operations He gives are mysterious and freighted with the highest consequences, working as unseen influence like air made of units, over which each must keep faithful watch.
Order for Leaders and Workers
No single mind is sufficient to be a master spirit over God's work, for diverse elements meet in unity only in the One who is infinite in wisdom. No man is therefore to govern too much, destroy will and identity, mold others to his ideas, rule mind and conscience, or purchase another's talent to be absolutely under his control. God does not make one man a center and pattern, and when one thinks his mind must outline the large moves and his abilities accomplish the greatest work he limits God's power to fulfill His purposes. Talents of influence belong to God alone, and to weigh another's talents in human balances, make them as little as possible, merge individuality, urge a man to make another his steward, or take his work out of God's hands separates the agent from God and brings confusion, distrust, jealousy and evil surmising. Different workers are suited to different parts of the work and one may accomplish what another cannot, so no one's judgment can comprehend every part and each one's work in his assigned place matters.
Each person must stand in God-given identity and accountability rather than submerge his mind in another's mind or merely voice another's words, manners and thoughts. Every member has a special gift, wisdom and tact suited to a particular work, with his own train of thought and ability that another does not possess, and no one is meant to be exactly like another. Each is to form and express his own opinions and use his own mind and conscience, relying on God to work through him by the Spirit rather than merely echoing another's judgment. To work another man's mind as a machine does not help him nor raise him, even if all his plans are sustained as infallible, while leaving every man free for God to convict and operate upon his heart calls forth his powers and develops individual strength for a special work. Belittling another's work dishonors God who alone rightly judges gifts, and no worker is to take too much responsibility or load himself beyond endurance but in school work is to unite with other minds to carry the work forward symmetrically.
No one handling sacred responsibilities is to order and command the Lord's laborers, assume kingly authority or powers God has not given, for position gives no such authority and all are brethren. Leaders are to stand as advisers, counselors and helpers in carrying burdens and in offering thanksgiving, treating fellow laborers with the same consideration they would wish to receive and learning the meekness of Christ. No one is arbitrarily to say to a fellow worker what he shall or shall not do, interpose human mind to forbid work God has bidden, or narrow the work to his own particular ideas. God entrusts varied gifts to different workmen and sends them to particular places for His purpose, so His work must not be narrowed to one person's ideas. Safety is found only when each commits fully to works of righteousness so that words and spirit testify to God's glory.
No one is to leave his own given work to interfere with, take in hand, or spoil a fellow laborer's different work, for the differences are of God's appointment. Each laborer has his own appointed place, and when he has found it he is not to step out of it to take up other duties that interfere with it, nor take responsibilities that crowd out the work he is fitted to do and strain him beyond endurance. No man has been made a master to rule mind and conscience, but all are of God's appointment with the same errors, ambitions and infirmities, and His blood-bought heritage must be dealt with carefully. Each has liberty of expression within his own lot and place, and is to carry out his appointed work so the truth can be shared.
God teaches one person then another and shows everything to no one person, so workers are to share plans and thoughts, listen freely and receive kind counsel from one another. No worker is a complete whole in himself and cannot successfully complete a series of meetings alone, but can do his part together with other efficient laborers when efforts are blended rather than judged only from his own discernment. This requires laying aside pride and self-confidence, frankly stating plans so they can be seen from another standpoint, and humbly listening to counsel of brethren even when it conflicts with personal wishes. Workers are to use their own God-given talents in union with one another, giving one another room as members of God's family instead of carrying the work in a stereotyped precise way where little details must be done as approved by one or two or three men. Students especially are to have room to work with Christ as the greatest Teacher and true educator.
God by His Spirit impresses hearts where to go and sends certain men to certain places for His purpose, providing means and specially gifted men for camp meetings and for arousing wicked cities that can be stirred by no ordinary methods. Wherever an interest is started He in providence brings different gifts together in connection with the one or two bringing truth before the people. Help is to go to many other needy places rather than investing too largely in one place, and man is to keep hands off his fellow man and let the Lord teach His workers how to labor in right lines. Workers together in a place must each act their several part, uniting every effort and talking faith and presenting truth so it impresses people, and must not feel another worker sent to the same place will counterwork him.
Medical missionary workers and gospel ministers each have a God-given lot and place where they are to stand true, and every one called as a gospel missionary is to be respected in it. No one physician is given spiritual grace to be lord or chief over all physicians and medical missionaries to control their efforts by authority, carry things his own way, or set aside ministers who disapprove of some ideas. Perfect complete unity with mutual confidence is required between medical workers and the ministry, with joint labor in soul-saving as Christ works through them, for working as Christ worked leaves no division. Speakers and physicians can each help at camp meetings to teach health principles and train others, and physicians, teachers, speakers, canvassers and ministers each supply what the other lacks. Those fitted for colporteur work should use their abilities there rather than be turned toward preaching, for different kinds of work are enabled by the same God.
School work cannot be done successfully alone but needs varied talents to plan, devise, begin new fields, relieve heavy burdens and carry forward symmetrically in God's appointed way. Those who begin in a new field are to prepare the way for other workers of varied talents to come in and carry forward what was begun. Bringing in laborers with other talents is God's mercy and provision, and criticizing them blocks the work. Workers with different talents must learn to harmonize and advance steadily, pondering carefully at every step, or there will be marked failure.
Responsibility does not rest on one or two men, and no one man, not even a conference president, is the voice for the whole ministry or conference but only a voice among voices of capability with power to sway an influence. The same God works through many different workers moved by the Holy Spirit, including self-sustaining men called to go forth, hold meetings and do evangelistic work without waiting for a treasury or for regular marked-out lines. God gives each person talents and judgment to use and develop, and using these gifts increases ability to serve. Each individual and church is therefore to exercise its own gifts and judgment rather than let one leader control the work.
Faithful Service by All
To every person his own work is given, sacred and secular, in business lines, in ministry of the Word, and in various trades, and in the vineyard there are no drones, no idlers, no slothful servants, and none excused. Each has his own post of duty in the great whole and his appointed place under divine supervision, some used in one way and some in another, and each is to find out what the Master would have him do and then do that work in connection with other laborers. All are needed to do the appointed work, each prepared for the kind of service suited to him and serving faithfully in some capacity, with everything bearing the stamp of strict justice, mercy, and love.
God does not require the same amount from all and does not expect small vessels to hold what large vessels hold, for the church is made up of people of different capacities and the interest required is proportionate to entrusted capital according to the measure of the gift of Christ. He requires each one to do his best with opportunities and privileges granted, to take up duties lying next to him and do his little, and He accepts that humble service according to what a man has. No one is accountable for talents never had and none should complain of smallness, but every person should appreciate moral and spiritual capital entrusted to him, trade on it where he can, and do the best possible service to the glory of God. One talent well used will gain other talents, and the man with a few pence serving faithfully is judged as faithful as the one who improved pounds.
No one should fold the hands in unbelief for lack of mighty ability, depend on men of large abilities, or look to appearances for success, but everyone is to stop looking at self and human weakness and go to work doing what he can in sincerity, meekness, and love, trusting the Lord to go with him. The verse calls for continuous humbling of individual self and critical taking of self in hand, beginning with self-examination in which each denies himself and bears his own cross of self-denial, self-humiliation, and self-sacrifice rather than laying it on another to carry. Gifts lay receivers under obligation to be meek and lowly in heart, patient under trial, willing to forgive injuries, and determined to preserve unity and harmony for preparing a people to stand in the day of the Lord. It requires more of Jesus and less of self, thinking no evil and talking no evil, keeping the lips as with a bridle, since varied workings mean no one should measure another's religious experience by his own, and sameness of mind and experience would leave great lack of fullness in church labor.
Gifts must be improved faithfully and not trusted to human ability or wisdom, but received and used by abiding in Christ as branch in vine and continuing in His love, with communion with God, the sanctifying power of grace on the heart, submissiveness to His will, faithful prayer, belief, and obedience. Those faithful to grace given experience Christ's bequeathed peace and His joy remaining with full joy and the joys of salvation, and become laborers together with Christ in perfecting Christian character and winning souls. Every professed son or daughter is to give evidence that the Holy Spirit is impressing the heart, for this decides success in labor and in acting his part in the grand finishing work of earth's history. God has grace for every worker for active service in winning souls, and when lives are yielded He works for His people and faithful labor receives eternal reward.
Every gift is needed to convict and convert sinners and gather them in, so each is to use time, money, influence, and talents entrusted to him rather than opposing fellow workers whose work differs. Different classes, energies, talents, mind, intellect, and experience — not money alone — are to be combined, and by that combination association prospers and the work is enlarged and broadened to strengthen, edify, and bless workers bound together. Money wisely used is a blessing, and when sanctified intellect prepared to use money wisely as God's talent is united with money, the work reveals a symmetry and efficiency otherwise unsecured, which cooperation is of God's devising. Talents of influence belong to God alone, and no man or council is to purchase another's God-given talent to be absolutely under his control, weigh talents in balances of human judgment, make them as little as possible, merge individuality, urge a man to make another his steward, or interpose to take another's work out of God's hands, for that separates the agent from God and brings confusion, distrust, jealousy, and evil surmising.
Each is to value gifts without boasting since talents are not created by possessors, and gifts of mind and body are to be guarded from misuse and self-indulgence because weakening even one part lessens usefulness of the whole. Growth in grace is made manifest by efficiency in God's service, earnest labor, practicing self-denial, exercising responsibility, and learning in Christ's school how to work most efficiently, how to give testimony, how to pray, and how to be a living witness, becoming more and more efficient. When there is wise division of labor and each is honored as one of God's workmen, the Lord prospers them to render highest service, binding heart to heart in perfect harmony, and grave and weighty responsibility includes duty to one's own people with Christlike interest identified with theirs.
Human agencies in infinite wisdom are employed to cooperate with God for salvation, each filling his own special God-given sphere and cooperating harmoniously, working not by judging but by showing what the Lord has done in transformation of character. Faith, sympathy, forbearance, love, gentleness, and temperance in all things are to shine as light in a dark place, and the spotless example of a poor illiterate humble devoted worker living his religion can promote the gospel as successfully as labors lauded for talents and eloquence. Consecration recognizing God's ownership of powers and self invests the whole life with sacredness, surrendering mind, heart, and soul with wholehearted devotion, making the worker gentle, kind, and courteous, making every act consecrated with Holiness unto the Lord as motto while trained under Christ for the higher grade above.
Selfishness disrupts unity and can become a root of bitterness harming others, while courteous refined association overlooks small differences, denies self, yields personal opinions on minor matters, and labors unselfishly to build up one another's work. God gives power for appointed work and directs some to a special work few are fitted to do, and every wholehearted sincere humble worker doing what he can, even hunting souls on foot with rugged solid words from the heart, is backed, blessed, and used by Him to impress hearts, since success depends not on appearances but on the One who gave the commission. Different gifts are given so workers feel need of one another, connect with one another, and become mutual help with no thread of selfishness and no tearing down another's work to please self, consulting God for wisdom and by faith taking hold of the unseen to prepare a people to cooperate with God in representing His power.
There are many different workings given to different members, with different gifts, talents and lines of service assigned as will best advance God's glory, yet it is the same God who is actively at work behind them all. He is the source who gives to each person as He pleases, and He works with and through every worker so that each gift becomes a power to convict and convert souls. His plan is unity in diversity, with all the varied members joined as one body under one Head and each supplying what another lacks, so difference is never an excuse for disunity. Because He orders the diversity, no gift is to be despised as lesser and no worker is to judge another, rule another's conscience, or draw apart over different methods. Every person is therefore to find his appointed post, faithfully improve what he has received whether great or small, and unite with others in love as these workings of the Spirit edify the church to the end of time and meet the perils of the last days.
Words and Body Figure
Diversities of operations means different gifts, talents, opportunities, lines of work and ways of serving assigned to different members of Christ's body as will best promote His glory and the advancement of His kingdom. God gives different lines of work and different operations to those who minister before Him, while the same God works in and through them all, and the same Spirit works in different ways to produce harmonious action. Unity in diversity is like branches of one vine that are different yet do not quarrel and draw nourishment from one source under one Head. No one truly united with Christ acts as a complete whole in himself, but faithfully discharges his own duties as part of the great whole, united with brethren by sympathy for one another and fidelity to Christ, and God uses each person when willing to be used in His appointed way, while working contrary one to the other brings shame to God.
The workings include wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discerning of spirits, tongues and interpretation, divided to each as the same Spirit wills for the profit of all. In practical form they include speaking, writing, sincere earnest fervent prayer, singing, and clear explanation of the Word with special power and clearness, with wisdom given to one and knowledge and faith to another. They also include the talent of speech, intellectual ability, good taste, skill, refinement and true elevation, which are used in the work only when first placed under His jurisdiction with His presence as the controlling power, so that he whose heart blends with the heart of Christ is conformed to the will of Christ in desires and practices. Coveting earnestly the best gifts does not mean seeking to be first but striving earnestly for power to follow Christ's example and be heralds of His gospel, which is true religion kept amid temptation, suspicion and evil surmising by walking straight forward in His blessed, holy light.
The church is figured by the members which compose the human body from head to feet, where there are different members with different offices yet all of the body, so the many different gifts and workings are to be actively exercised together in one body whose head is Jesus Christ. Because two members do not act the same part, no member is to entertain self-sufficiency or say to another member that he has no need of him, and among the members there is to be no crowding, no judging, and no measuring of one gift by another, for many gifts are called for yet all are members of one body. The members of Christ's body all center in the Head but have different gifts, and this is in the economy of God to meet the varied organization and minds in the world, where the strength of one servant of God may not be the strength of another.
The twelfth and thirteenth chapters of First Corinthians should be committed to memory, written in the mind and heart, studied and digested rather than ignored, so that those brought together in church capacity will be united, understandingly and intelligently. That teaching should have more weight in times of trial and testing, when there is need to be shut in with the Lord of heaven so the wicked one has no power. The gifts bestowed on the church are to be received with faith and intelligence and put into sanctified action.
Genuine gifts and operations of God's Spirit in the church are worked by God Himself and are not to be denied. Meaningless speech, noisy excitement, and other manufactured displays are rejected as gifts God has placed in the church, and their bad fruit shows they are not genuine gifts from Him. False visions and deceptive spiritual displays can lead people to doubt these genuine operations. Satan's work is to drive people first into gross fanaticism where he controls mind and body, and then, after that course is run, to push them to the opposite extreme of rejecting God's gifts and operations altogether, and a heart that rises up against the gifts of the church, with a spirit of independence and lack of union with the body, opens the way for that deception.
Same God at Work
The same God stands as source and active power behind all the different gifts and workings, and though abilities for service vary, He works with and through every worker under the same Head. The variety includes ready speaking, ready writing, sincere earnest fervent prayer, singing, and special power to explain the Word with clearness, with wisdom given to one and knowledge and faith to another. Each gift becomes a power for convicting and converting souls because He works with the laborer, serving the advancement of His kingdom and the good of the church. When active in the church these workings encourage the fainthearted and correct and reprove those who err, and they are meant to act in harmony together to make a perfect whole. In city work there are many workers to use and many kinds of work to be done, some great and some small, and no one is to despise supposed lesser gifts or fold the hands in unbelief for lack of mighty ability.
Success, effectiveness and efficiency do not come from human ability, appearance, or the preacher himself, but from God, the Unseen Worker standing behind the minister who brings conviction and conversion to souls. Without the Spirit's presence natural or acquired abilities cannot touch hearts or win sinners to Christ, however conspicuous the gift may seem. When possessors cooperate with Him even the seemingly small gift can become a power for God, and disciples connected with Christ, even the poorest and least educated, can become channels of His powerful influence. No worker is superior to another because of gifts, and all need the daily converting power of the Holy Spirit in order to bear much fruit, with consecration and devotion providing the discipline needed to bear responsibility. Through the Holy Spirit they serve as His instruments in winning souls, and their success comes from God and not from themselves.
God Himself dispenses the gifts as He pleases and as the Spirit wills to impart them, giving one gift to one person and another to another, and bestowing different measures of grace and means of influence. By this He makes real in heart and life what Christ made possible by His death, giving grace and the gifts of the Holy Spirit to His followers. It is His order that some serve in one line of work and others in other lines, including the work of teaching others to fit them for service in His cause, all for the good of the whole body and all working under the same Spirit. For the wisest of reasons every man is to fill his own place, and blessing comes in doing the appointed work without taking up heavy responsibilities that belong to others. The gifts are to be received and faithfully used by abiding in Christ as the branch abides in the vine and continuing in His love, and those faithful to the grace given experience Christ's bequeathed peace, His joy remaining in them with full joy, and become laborers together with Him in perfecting Christian character.
One Spirit is the mover in all the varied work, and all are to serve under the same Head in unity and brotherly sympathy with interests bound together in love as one body and one Spirit of one mind. Though all do not have the same traits of character, they may all be worked by the same Spirit, even the Spirit of Christ who is Head of the church. Christ in heaven as Head teaches even the angels how to minister to the members of His church on earth, and through Christ God works in all and through many different agencies and operations to reveal His character to the world. When the Holy Spirit guides the understanding, the affections act in harmony with God's will and people freely give God what is already His. Such Christian unity is a mighty agency that causes barriers of selfishness and territorial lines of distinction and barriers of color and caste to disappear and leads to the conversion of many more souls, so that none should rule over others as though they were their conscience.
Diverse Gifts and Tasks
God has set every member in the body as He pleased, placing each person at a post of duty with an assigned personal work to be found by praying for guidance. The same God works in all these different operations to bring them into perfect harmony, giving different offices, talents and abilities to be exercised in different lines of work under His supervision and direction with an eye single to His glory. Believers are to be guided and controlled by the same Spirit without all having the same gifts, drawing together in God's service to accomplish the same result, some strong to carry on one line and others especially fitted to carry on another line or to labor in a different way. They accomplish much when they labor together in harmony, each serving in the work for which God has qualified them and relying on Him for strength and guidance. All have not the same gift but there is a variety of gifts, and all are needed to do the appointed work, so knowledge of present truth lays responsibility on each one to awaken and be diligent laborers together with God, with not one excused and not one to be an idler in the vineyard. Responsibility does not rest on one or two men, and no one man, not even a conference president, is the voice for the whole ministry, but his is only a voice among voices of capability, for the same God works through many different workers moved by the Holy Spirit, including self-sustaining men called to go forth, hold meetings and do evangelistic work without waiting for a treasury or for regular marked-out lines. Every man has his own post of duty in the great whole and his own appointed work, sacred and secular, some in business lines, some in the ministry of the Word and some in various trades, and every man is to find out what the Master would have him do and then do that work in connection with other laborers. That consecration, surrendering mind, heart and soul to Christ and loving God with the whole being in recognition of God's ownership, invests the whole life with a sacredness that makes a man gentle, kind and courteous, makes every act a consecrated act with Holiness unto the Lord as motto, and trains him under Christ for the higher grade above.
This economy of varied organization exists to meet the varied organization and minds in the world. As the human body from head to feet has different members with different offices yet all of the body, so the members of Christ's body all center in the Head but have different gifts, and the strength of one servant of God is not the strength of another. Each is to cultivate the gifts given him, acting out the powers and developing the qualities God gave as endowment, with will and identity preserved, obtaining an experience founded in God as God moves upon the mind and operates upon the heart to call forth its powers and develop individual strength for a special work. That distinct development is to be left free for God to convict and accomplish rather than destroyed by overgoverning, making other minds bend to one man's ideas and molding judgment and character to his own, for that confuses minds and destroys independent natural traits that would give access to a class others could not touch and spoils a person for the work God would have him do. God brings men of different character and mind together to be laborers together with Him in unity under the control of the same Spirit, and each worker's gifts are needed to accomplish what God desires and to make the other's work more complete through counsel and influence. The contrast between gifts is not to prevent harmonious action, because many different minds must be met and different gifts are needed for that work, so by different gifts the truth is to be proclaimed to bring a decided influence for good to bear on the inhabitants of the world. God can use each person to reach people another cannot, so varied gifts should be encouraged and put to use in the work appointed to them, with those controlled by the Holy Spirit given power to arouse the slumbering senses of worldlings while all follow their own line looking to Jesus as Author and Finisher of faith with the Lord as Helper.
No one person has all the wisdom and knowledge needed to manage the work alone or should claim an exclusive field of labor, and these gifts are valuable in their proper places when people of humble, teachable spirit work together despite differences in views or plans. No one minister with his own method and ideas is sufficient alone to mold souls or to feed the flock fully, and it hinders and leaves a church deficient to think varied gifts are not needed. Each laborer can only trade according to entrusted responsibility, being strong on some essential point of truth where another is weak and revealing truth his fellow laborer did not regard as essential. In His providence God sends various workmen under the control of the Holy Spirit to supplement one another with suitable food, so that together they carry the work forward to fullness and perfection, and several workers with varied gifts and distinct roles are needed to carry out the work effectively in harmony with God working through them all. To despise or mistreat a fellow laborer for humble position or different way of working endangers the despiser as refusing Jesus in the messenger God sends, and believers depend on one another and must work in harmony as members of one body, each developing God-given gifts without despising or envying the gifts or work of others.
Workers differ in ability, temperament, stamp of character, disposition, strength and depth of knowledge, and unity does not mean sameness of ideas, views or methods of work. Different people may be suited to different kinds of work, God gives varied trusts and no one is suited to every task, and differences in ability and temperament do not make anyone faithless, without value or unwilling. God does not expect each person to be prepared for every role or require people with different temperaments to be prepared for every role, and a person's lack of fitness for one task does not make that person faithless. It is well that all are not alike, and because human nature is frail, ignorant and liable to misconception, each one should be careful of the estimate placed upon another, for his ways may not be the ways of his fellow man. Each is inclined to mold the work to his own pattern and introduce his own methods, so workers must obtain the grace of Christ to sink self out of sight, subdue peculiarities and soften temperament, and then there will be unity even among a diversity of dispositions. Difference of stamp of character is no reason to draw apart or stand in one another's way, but God's servants are to work in perfect harmony, not all exactly the same yet all having the same spirit that dwelt in Christ, helping one another through belief in and sanctification of the truth, as with the difference between John and Peter. Each person should be free to seek God's direction about the work fitted to him.
God uses willing, humble workers whether training seems limited and abilities seem small, and blesses humble labor to save souls. He uses both men and women who are willing to serve, and no one is too small for God to use and none should think it impossible. The church's different members are like plants of different kinds and sizes, each with a place and useful work suited to ability, and each person should do the work suited to them rather than try to match another person's gifts or stature, serving humbly and trusting in God. Even those with limited religious or intellectual training can do God's work when they labor humbly and trust in Him. In spiritual things every man and woman has a peculiar sphere and vocation, just as everything in nature has its appointed work without murmuring at its position, and a little work may be done in a manner to glorify God, with the interest God requires proportionate to entrusted capital according to the measure of the gift of Christ. God in infinite wisdom employs many different human agencies with different gifts to cooperate with Him in salvation, each to fill a God-given sphere and cooperate harmoniously without judging others but by showing what the Lord has done in transformed character, with faith, sympathy, forbearance, love, gentleness and temperance shining as light in a dark place. He can use the spotless example of a poor and illiterate, humble and devoted worker who lives his religion as successfully to promote the gospel as the labors of a minister lauded for talents and eloquence, and His wisdom and power are revealed more in the humble worker who relies fully on His help than in the educated man who does not.
Different laborers are fitted to do different parts of the same work, and no one worker is qualified to do school work successfully alone but needs the aid of others who have ability to plan, devise and advance in God's appointed way. Those who begin a work in a new field are to prepare the way for other workers possessing varied talents to come in and carry forward what was begun and to relieve heavy burdens when the time comes, for bringing in laborers with other talents is God's mercy and provision and criticizing them blocks the work. Workers with different talents must learn to harmonize well and advance steadily, pondering carefully at every step, or there will be marked failure. God does not give all workers the same gifts but gives different talents for different parts of the work, including talents specially needed for labor in the cities, which should be recognized and encouraged. Some talents are shared by many, while others give particular servants special strength to present and make effective the truths of God's Word, and no one should underrate a God-given talent or think that one person's talent is all the work requires.
Unity in One Body
God's plan is unity in diversity, bringing different operations into perfect harmony under one Head. Diversity means different gifts, talents, opportunities and lines of work assigned to different members of Christ's body as will best promote His glory and the advancement of His kingdom, with the same Spirit working in different ways to produce harmonious action, like branches of one vine that are different yet do not quarrel and draw nourishment from one source. No one truly united with Christ acts as a complete whole in himself or works contrary to another, but faithfully discharges his own duties as part of the great whole, united with brethren by sympathy and fidelity, guided and controlled by the same Spirit, set in the body as God pleased at a post of duty found by prayer; differences do not excuse disunity, and following this plan brings less friction while working contrary brings shame to God.
Varied gifts are meant to blend together so each supplies another's deficiency and makes the other's work more complete through counsel and influence. No one with his gift alone can carry through a series of meetings to perfection or mold the work after his special ideas, but a variety of gifts and agencies is needed to build it up strong and proportional under the Lord's direction, with careful thought checking exaggerated action and avoiding slowness and over-moderation that loses time. God ordained that people be joined together so the varied talents of many minds blend, contact of mind with mind quickens thought and enlarges ability, and the lack in one worker is supplied by the special gift of another. When physicians and teachers thus unite to share knowledge, youth under their training gain a symmetrical, well-balanced education for service, and this requires courteous association, overlooking small differences, denying self, yielding opinions on minor matters, laying aside pride and self-confidence, humbly listening to counsel even when it conflicts with wishes, frankly stating plans to see them from another standpoint, and laboring unselfishly to build up one another's work in kindness and love to proclaim truth with decided influence for good and arouse slumbering senses while looking to Jesus.
No laborer is complete alone or can successfully carry out the work alone, so workers with varied gifts must be linked together, each taking a different task rather than all doing the same work. Each does a part alongside others, filling his place in God's building and in the structure God designs him to occupy, and when members faithfully do their distinct part they strengthen the work of others and advance the cause. Together they form God's building in answer to Christ's prayer for unity, with growth in grace fitting them for a place in the eternal world, and no one is to claim the prerogative to do all the important work.
Christians need not labor in the same way or say the same things, for their different words, minds and methods can balance one another and form a beautiful harmony. Workers do not all think alike or present the same truths in the same way, and no one person's method should control the work, but different minds and abilities are meant to cooperate to reach different people. So it was with John and Peter, and in Wesley's time Whitefield and the Wesleys differed in some teachings yet were moved toward the shared work of winning souls to Christ through humility, patience and love.
Such unity requires the same Spirit and Christlike love that loves not as neighbor is loved but as Christ loved, with sympathy, fidelity, kindness and unceasing tenderness that speaks good words to help and strengthen brethren instead of standing afar off to criticize and condemn. Genuine Christians true to faith and duty do not stand apart in self-confidence but unite in service and jealously guard one another's interests even when mistakes are made, living by Christ's principles in shared faith and purpose unto holiness, which brings harmony and peace rather than rivalry or desire for supremacy. Without that perfection of Christian character, perfection before God is impossible, and union of all gifts in a complete whole requires blending capabilities with those chosen to lead.
When members so unite varied gifts in love, pray and pledge equal interest by prayer and promise without letting selfishness rule, diversity does not become confusion and division. That pledged union in action, carrying camp meetings and all essential meetings with the glory of God in view and every soul aiming at the perfection of Christ's character, withstands strange fanaticism and forced-in heresies and opposition and keeps one man from launching out against another. Such Christian unity, with interests bound together in love as one body and one Spirit of one mind with a place allotted to every soul, causes barriers of selfishness and territorial lines and barriers of color and caste to disappear, leads to the conversion of many more souls and brings truth to all nations and peoples, fulfilling oneness with fellow man and with Christ and in Christ with God.
The same God ordained simple organization and church order for the unity and perfection of the church, with the Lord over His heritage leading His people. Every department is closely united with every other and all advance in perfect harmony because the same God works in all, so that united workers proclaiming truth in the power of the Spirit reach hearts, especially when the very best and varied talent is brought together and labor is shared. Different classes, energies, talents, mind, intellect and experience — not money alone — are to be combined, and when sanctified intellect prepared to use money wisely as God's talent is united with money wisely used, the work reveals a symmetry and efficiency that cannot otherwise be secured, enlarging and broadening it to strengthen, edify and bless workers bound together.
God's ordered plan reaches from the highest angel down to mortals, joining each person closely to all others and all together to God, so none can become detached and independent. Each must fill his proper place according to ability in the great web of humanity under Christ the Head, the center and source of all life and power, to uplift others, release and break every yoke, promote the happiness of all, and find his own happiness in making others happy. By this order He trains people in humble dependence on Him and imitation of His goodness, making the hand and heart of every faithful worker a consecrated channel through which His love flows, and whoever comes nearest to Christ's character advances toward perfection.
Prophecy for Last Days
The diversities of operations are the ordinary and extraordinary workings of the Holy Spirit as teacher and guide into all truth, fulfilling Christ's promise to send the Comforter. God placed these gifts of the Spirit in the church for its edification and instruction to the end of time, as evidence of His care and love for His people. They have different workings, but God is the source working through them all, which is the biblical ground for their continuance. They are needed most by the church as it enters the perils of the last days, when there is a special outpouring of the Spirit and the closing church has the testimony of Jesus.
In the last days of the work of the third angel's message there will be diversities of operations in the outpouring of the Spirit, which is the time of the latter rain. At that same time Satan works with increasing power because he knows his time is short. In those closing days of earth's history the same God works in varied ways through the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
The gift of prophecy continues from the beginning as a living voice to counsel, admonish, instruct and guide God's people. Visions are one of the gifts God has placed in the church so that the church may be benefited by them. When professed believers oppose these gifts and fight against the visions, souls are endangered through their influence and the weak may be led astray.
The gifts include vision and healing by prayer with anointing with oil. They are given to overcome prejudice and division, to expose wrong influence, and to restore unity and the power of the third angel's message.
Respect Without Contempt
Diversities of operations means many different gifts and workings are to be actively exercised together in one body whose head is Jesus Christ, and because two members do not act the same part no member is to entertain self-sufficiency or say to another that he has no need of him. Because work differs under the same God working through all, differences in service give no ground for judging or condemning others or dismissing another's work, since the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each for the common good. Variety of gifts is essential in dealing with people, and no one is to use differences to pull another down or to judge another's experience, for each one's experience is to come from God and not from finite human authority. It is well that all are not alike, and because human nature is frail, ignorant and liable to misconception, each should be careful of the estimate placed upon another whose ways may not be his own ways. The same God works through diversities of operations by giving individual workers different methods led by the Lord to do a special work that but few are fitted to do.
Leaders must therefore guard against condemning methods not in perfect harmony with their own, be slow to criticize such movements, never suppose every plan should reflect their own personality, and not fear to trust another's methods, for withholding confidence from a humble consecrated laborer doing a special work in God's appointed way retards the cause. God works in different ways in different people, so no one is to measure another's religious experience by his own, and it would be deplorable for all to be of the same mind, for sameness of experience would leave great lack of fullness in carrying forward the work. The remedy is more of Jesus and less of self, thinking no evil and speaking no evil of anyone, keeping the lips as with a bridle. Recognizing that God assigns different roles as He chooses, all empowered by the same Spirit for the good of the whole body, guards against rivalry, pride, envy and contempt and strengthens unity and mutual love. It is God's order that some serve in one line and others in other lines under the same Spirit, and recognizing this plan guards against carnal emulation, pride, envy and contempt and strengthens unity and mutual love.
God Himself dispenses gifts as He pleases, bestowing one gift on one and another on another, including the work of teaching others to fit them for service, and those called to that teaching work are to go cheerfully to their field following His leading. The diversity of gifts produces different kinds of work under the same Head — to one speaking, to another writing, to another sincere earnest prayer, to another singing, to another clear explanation of the Word, to another wisdom, knowledge and faith — and He makes each gift a power for convicting and converting souls. Therefore no gift is to be despised as lesser, and everyone is to stop looking at self and human weakness and go to work doing what he can in sincerity, meekness and love, trusting the Lord to go with him. No one person has every qualification needed, so believers depend on one another and must work in harmony as members of one body, each developing God-given gifts without despising or envying the gifts or work of others. No minister with his own method and ideas alone is sufficient to mold souls or feed the flock fully, and it hinders and leaves the church deficient to think varied gifts are not needed.
Each laborer can trade only according to entrusted responsibility, being strong on some essential point of truth where another is weak and revealing truth his fellow did not regard as essential, while in providence God sends various workmen under the Holy Spirit to supplement one another with suitable food so together they carry the work to fullness and perfection. To despise or mistreat a fellow laborer for humble position or different way of working risks refusing Jesus in the messenger God sends. Every member has a special gift, wisdom and tact suited to a particular work, no one is meant to be exactly like another, God entrusts different goods to different people with a place and duty for each, and belittling another's work or talents dishonors God who alone rightly judges gifts and their use. Christ appoints positions and offices and gives each worker talents, position and capabilities as His gifts, so because the same God works through different operations every worker should recognize another's God-given position and capabilities, without envy or suspicion when a brother uses his gifts to honor God and without belittling the gift and work God gave him. Some talents are shared by many while others give particular servants special strength to present and make effective the truths of the Word, and no one should underrate a God-given talent or think one person's talent is all the work requires.
Gifts are never to be used to separate believers from one another, and where they are used to divide the work needs reformation. No one is to be conscience for others or gain an experience for them, and truth is not to be preached so that those who accept it form separate parties under different heads. When contention and party spirit appear, investigation must be made and things called by their right names, for all dissension is born of the narrow conceptions of unsanctified minds. God appoints workers their different lines and gives to every man his work, and the same God who works all in all leads each in his own way, so no worker is called to administer sharp rebukes to a fellow worker for not tracking in his very footprints. What is required instead is true Christlike love, cordial respect and permanent friendship rather than wounding and bruising souls, with no lurching and crowding against one another, since want of love is grievous sin in God's sight. God reads the heart and never errs in judgment or misjudges, and the talents and operations He gives are mysterious and freighted with the highest consequences, working as unseen influence like air made of units, over which each must keep faithful watch.
Order for Leaders and Workers
No single mind is sufficient to be a master spirit over God's work, for diverse elements meet in unity only in the One who is infinite in wisdom. No man is therefore to govern too much, destroy will and identity, mold others to his ideas, rule mind and conscience, or purchase another's talent to be absolutely under his control. God does not make one man a center and pattern, and when one thinks his mind must outline the large moves and his abilities accomplish the greatest work he limits God's power to fulfill His purposes. Talents of influence belong to God alone, and to weigh another's talents in human balances, make them as little as possible, merge individuality, urge a man to make another his steward, or take his work out of God's hands separates the agent from God and brings confusion, distrust, jealousy and evil surmising. Different workers are suited to different parts of the work and one may accomplish what another cannot, so no one's judgment can comprehend every part and each one's work in his assigned place matters.
Each person must stand in God-given identity and accountability rather than submerge his mind in another's mind or merely voice another's words, manners and thoughts. Every member has a special gift, wisdom and tact suited to a particular work, with his own train of thought and ability that another does not possess, and no one is meant to be exactly like another. Each is to form and express his own opinions and use his own mind and conscience, relying on God to work through him by the Spirit rather than merely echoing another's judgment. To work another man's mind as a machine does not help him nor raise him, even if all his plans are sustained as infallible, while leaving every man free for God to convict and operate upon his heart calls forth his powers and develops individual strength for a special work. Belittling another's work dishonors God who alone rightly judges gifts, and no worker is to take too much responsibility or load himself beyond endurance but in school work is to unite with other minds to carry the work forward symmetrically.
No one handling sacred responsibilities is to order and command the Lord's laborers, assume kingly authority or powers God has not given, for position gives no such authority and all are brethren. Leaders are to stand as advisers, counselors and helpers in carrying burdens and in offering thanksgiving, treating fellow laborers with the same consideration they would wish to receive and learning the meekness of Christ. No one is arbitrarily to say to a fellow worker what he shall or shall not do, interpose human mind to forbid work God has bidden, or narrow the work to his own particular ideas. God entrusts varied gifts to different workmen and sends them to particular places for His purpose, so His work must not be narrowed to one person's ideas. Safety is found only when each commits fully to works of righteousness so that words and spirit testify to God's glory.
No one is to leave his own given work to interfere with, take in hand, or spoil a fellow laborer's different work, for the differences are of God's appointment. Each laborer has his own appointed place, and when he has found it he is not to step out of it to take up other duties that interfere with it, nor take responsibilities that crowd out the work he is fitted to do and strain him beyond endurance. No man has been made a master to rule mind and conscience, but all are of God's appointment with the same errors, ambitions and infirmities, and His blood-bought heritage must be dealt with carefully. Each has liberty of expression within his own lot and place, and is to carry out his appointed work so the truth can be shared.
God teaches one person then another and shows everything to no one person, so workers are to share plans and thoughts, listen freely and receive kind counsel from one another. No worker is a complete whole in himself and cannot successfully complete a series of meetings alone, but can do his part together with other efficient laborers when efforts are blended rather than judged only from his own discernment. This requires laying aside pride and self-confidence, frankly stating plans so they can be seen from another standpoint, and humbly listening to counsel of brethren even when it conflicts with personal wishes. Workers are to use their own God-given talents in union with one another, giving one another room as members of God's family instead of carrying the work in a stereotyped precise way where little details must be done as approved by one or two or three men. Students especially are to have room to work with Christ as the greatest Teacher and true educator.
God by His Spirit impresses hearts where to go and sends certain men to certain places for His purpose, providing means and specially gifted men for camp meetings and for arousing wicked cities that can be stirred by no ordinary methods. Wherever an interest is started He in providence brings different gifts together in connection with the one or two bringing truth before the people. Help is to go to many other needy places rather than investing too largely in one place, and man is to keep hands off his fellow man and let the Lord teach His workers how to labor in right lines. Workers together in a place must each act their several part, uniting every effort and talking faith and presenting truth so it impresses people, and must not feel another worker sent to the same place will counterwork him.
Medical missionary workers and gospel ministers each have a God-given lot and place where they are to stand true, and every one called as a gospel missionary is to be respected in it. No one physician is given spiritual grace to be lord or chief over all physicians and medical missionaries to control their efforts by authority, carry things his own way, or set aside ministers who disapprove of some ideas. Perfect complete unity with mutual confidence is required between medical workers and the ministry, with joint labor in soul-saving as Christ works through them, for working as Christ worked leaves no division. Speakers and physicians can each help at camp meetings to teach health principles and train others, and physicians, teachers, speakers, canvassers and ministers each supply what the other lacks. Those fitted for colporteur work should use their abilities there rather than be turned toward preaching, for different kinds of work are enabled by the same God.
School work cannot be done successfully alone but needs varied talents to plan, devise, begin new fields, relieve heavy burdens and carry forward symmetrically in God's appointed way. Those who begin in a new field are to prepare the way for other workers of varied talents to come in and carry forward what was begun. Bringing in laborers with other talents is God's mercy and provision, and criticizing them blocks the work. Workers with different talents must learn to harmonize and advance steadily, pondering carefully at every step, or there will be marked failure.
Responsibility does not rest on one or two men, and no one man, not even a conference president, is the voice for the whole ministry or conference but only a voice among voices of capability with power to sway an influence. The same God works through many different workers moved by the Holy Spirit, including self-sustaining men called to go forth, hold meetings and do evangelistic work without waiting for a treasury or for regular marked-out lines. God gives each person talents and judgment to use and develop, and using these gifts increases ability to serve. Each individual and church is therefore to exercise its own gifts and judgment rather than let one leader control the work.
Faithful Service by All
To every person his own work is given, sacred and secular, in business lines, in ministry of the Word, and in various trades, and in the vineyard there are no drones, no idlers, no slothful servants, and none excused. Each has his own post of duty in the great whole and his appointed place under divine supervision, some used in one way and some in another, and each is to find out what the Master would have him do and then do that work in connection with other laborers. All are needed to do the appointed work, each prepared for the kind of service suited to him and serving faithfully in some capacity, with everything bearing the stamp of strict justice, mercy, and love.
God does not require the same amount from all and does not expect small vessels to hold what large vessels hold, for the church is made up of people of different capacities and the interest required is proportionate to entrusted capital according to the measure of the gift of Christ. He requires each one to do his best with opportunities and privileges granted, to take up duties lying next to him and do his little, and He accepts that humble service according to what a man has. No one is accountable for talents never had and none should complain of smallness, but every person should appreciate moral and spiritual capital entrusted to him, trade on it where he can, and do the best possible service to the glory of God. One talent well used will gain other talents, and the man with a few pence serving faithfully is judged as faithful as the one who improved pounds.
No one should fold the hands in unbelief for lack of mighty ability, depend on men of large abilities, or look to appearances for success, but everyone is to stop looking at self and human weakness and go to work doing what he can in sincerity, meekness, and love, trusting the Lord to go with him. The verse calls for continuous humbling of individual self and critical taking of self in hand, beginning with self-examination in which each denies himself and bears his own cross of self-denial, self-humiliation, and self-sacrifice rather than laying it on another to carry. Gifts lay receivers under obligation to be meek and lowly in heart, patient under trial, willing to forgive injuries, and determined to preserve unity and harmony for preparing a people to stand in the day of the Lord. It requires more of Jesus and less of self, thinking no evil and talking no evil, keeping the lips as with a bridle, since varied workings mean no one should measure another's religious experience by his own, and sameness of mind and experience would leave great lack of fullness in church labor.
Gifts must be improved faithfully and not trusted to human ability or wisdom, but received and used by abiding in Christ as branch in vine and continuing in His love, with communion with God, the sanctifying power of grace on the heart, submissiveness to His will, faithful prayer, belief, and obedience. Those faithful to grace given experience Christ's bequeathed peace and His joy remaining with full joy and the joys of salvation, and become laborers together with Christ in perfecting Christian character and winning souls. Every professed son or daughter is to give evidence that the Holy Spirit is impressing the heart, for this decides success in labor and in acting his part in the grand finishing work of earth's history. God has grace for every worker for active service in winning souls, and when lives are yielded He works for His people and faithful labor receives eternal reward.
Every gift is needed to convict and convert sinners and gather them in, so each is to use time, money, influence, and talents entrusted to him rather than opposing fellow workers whose work differs. Different classes, energies, talents, mind, intellect, and experience — not money alone — are to be combined, and by that combination association prospers and the work is enlarged and broadened to strengthen, edify, and bless workers bound together. Money wisely used is a blessing, and when sanctified intellect prepared to use money wisely as God's talent is united with money, the work reveals a symmetry and efficiency otherwise unsecured, which cooperation is of God's devising. Talents of influence belong to God alone, and no man or council is to purchase another's God-given talent to be absolutely under his control, weigh talents in balances of human judgment, make them as little as possible, merge individuality, urge a man to make another his steward, or interpose to take another's work out of God's hands, for that separates the agent from God and brings confusion, distrust, jealousy, and evil surmising.
Each is to value gifts without boasting since talents are not created by possessors, and gifts of mind and body are to be guarded from misuse and self-indulgence because weakening even one part lessens usefulness of the whole. Growth in grace is made manifest by efficiency in God's service, earnest labor, practicing self-denial, exercising responsibility, and learning in Christ's school how to work most efficiently, how to give testimony, how to pray, and how to be a living witness, becoming more and more efficient. When there is wise division of labor and each is honored as one of God's workmen, the Lord prospers them to render highest service, binding heart to heart in perfect harmony, and grave and weighty responsibility includes duty to one's own people with Christlike interest identified with theirs.
Human agencies in infinite wisdom are employed to cooperate with God for salvation, each filling his own special God-given sphere and cooperating harmoniously, working not by judging but by showing what the Lord has done in transformation of character. Faith, sympathy, forbearance, love, gentleness, and temperance in all things are to shine as light in a dark place, and the spotless example of a poor illiterate humble devoted worker living his religion can promote the gospel as successfully as labors lauded for talents and eloquence. Consecration recognizing God's ownership of powers and self invests the whole life with sacredness, surrendering mind, heart, and soul with wholehearted devotion, making the worker gentle, kind, and courteous, making every act consecrated with Holiness unto the Lord as motto while trained under Christ for the higher grade above.
Selfishness disrupts unity and can become a root of bitterness harming others, while courteous refined association overlooks small differences, denies self, yields personal opinions on minor matters, and labors unselfishly to build up one another's work. God gives power for appointed work and directs some to a special work few are fitted to do, and every wholehearted sincere humble worker doing what he can, even hunting souls on foot with rugged solid words from the heart, is backed, blessed, and used by Him to impress hearts, since success depends not on appearances but on the One who gave the commission. Different gifts are given so workers feel need of one another, connect with one another, and become mutual help with no thread of selfishness and no tearing down another's work to please self, consulting God for wisdom and by faith taking hold of the unseen to prepare a people to cooperate with God in representing His power.