“Love must be sincere…be devoted to one another in brotherly love.”Romans 12: 9,10

I don’t mean to brag - after all, in our scripture passage, Paul cautions “not to think more highly of yourself than you ought” (v.3) - but my small group at Chatham Community Church is supernaturally empowered. What do I mean?

I’ve seen every one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit Paul discusses in this passage displayed there. Weekly, we receive such extraordinary teaching that we routinely leave saying to each other, “I never saw that before.” That’s Holy Spirit power. “According to the grace [God has] given us,” we generously contribute to each other’s needs (v.6), often wondering, how did we come up with that much? We show mercy when those among us hurt, “cheerfully,” as Paul exhorts (v.7), which takes more energy than merely saying, hope your situation works out. We go out of our way to serve up kindness and encouragement (v.8) to each other over coffee and on long walks. Certainly, all Christians should be doing all these things, but I see how God has gifted an extra measure of these gifts within the context of community. 

But this didn’t happen overnight. It took time for the small group to become family, to be the body of Christ. Holy Spirit-empowered love grew among us over months of regular fellowship, leading us toward using our spiritual gifts (or maybe even recognizing our gifts for the first time) to serve not only each other but also to reach outward. 

God gives spiritual gifts; we know this from Scripture. But without love for Him and each other, we’ll lack motivation to use those gifts to honor Him. Paul highlights the role of love and tells us it “must be sincere” (v.9). We know how to fake love and concern, hypocrisy being the opposite of sincerity. We’re also very good at self-love. But sincere, Spirit-empowered love directs itself outward in active and practical ways. Because our small group has grown in “devot[ion] to one another in brotherly love” (v.10), our individual spiritual gifts of teaching, giving, encouraging, and serving have become more than the sum of their parts as we corporately use them in service to each other and to our community. 

Love isn’t all you need, but it sure goes a long way toward empowering spiritual gifts and unifying bodies of believers, however large or small.

Every Christian has a spiritual gift or gifts. You may not know what yours is, but you’ll have an easier time figuring it out if you’re part of a small group of Christians who will get to know you, realize what you’re good at, and point you in that direction. If you do know your gift, how are you honoring God in its use?