“If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.”
Verse 11 presents two types of gifts:
speech gifts and
action gifts.
This verse shows us how to glorify God with our gifts.
If anyone speaks
“Speaks” here refers to the act of speaking rather than the content of what is said (Jn 12:49, 50; Ro 3:19; 1 Co 14:34,35). Sometimes “speaks” refers to utterance as opposed to silence. It is a spiritual gift of communication.
PRINCIPLE:
God gives us the gift of dispensing his revelation.
APPLICATION:
God expects us to dispense truth like a mother who coaxes and make palatable food for her child.
God has a generous pantry of truth. We do not stock our own message. We proclaim a message out of the goods of God. The message is not our own. We are just messenger boys who deliver the telegraph of good news. We do not tell the delivery boy that you are the greatest messenger boy I have ever seen because of the nice package he delivered. The glory is in the content of the package.
Men are simply mouthpieces for communicating God’s truth. We do not trust in our powers but live under a regime, not our own.
