Ever do a little people watching in public? Not the average Joes, but the ones that really stand out. Mohawks, tattoos, piercings, message t-shirts,dyed hair whatever it might be. Go to your average high-school or ock concert and you probably think something like I do: everybody’s trying so hard to be individual that they’re all the same, even in their diversity.
What is the right way to be an individual?
As some of you know, I’ve been working my way through a Sunday School treatment of the spiritual gifts. It’s certainly rewarding and challenging so far. Some of the biggest challenges are coming. In light of those coming challenges I am thankful for small victories.
Being a teacher of God’s Word, one of the things I really relish is finding a way to get a large volume of truth into a short sentence. That requires me to wrap my mind around an idea such that I can boil it down and reduce it to its most basic elements without oversimplifying. This is to theology what a good outline is to exegesis; the outline of the passage should pop into place, fitting all of the data properly. And so it is with something I’ve been struggling to capture theologically.
I’ve been seeing how passages like 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12, and Ephesians 4 all feature arguments that link the single source of the gifts to their diverse expressions. They are all meant to stress the source, showing His character through the compilation of the many individual parts. With the spiritual gifts, the whole is truly greater than the sum of the parts.
As I was studying Ephesians 4 this evening, I was meditating on v7:
Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one (J)hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all (L)who is over all and through all and in all. But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.
At each turn in these book, Paul is careful to preserve the individuality of the believer. it is as though he is wary of painting with too broad a brush. That everything we do comes from God is important,says Paul, but not at the expense of individuality. And so we see that in Corinthians, Romans, and Ephesians a balance is struck between our unity of source and power and our diversity.
The vehicle for accomplishing this is the spiritual gifts. Through the gifts we have diversity, though the diversity itself speaks of the greater body, the body of Christ. So what value is individualism in Christianity. Honestly, not much. Christ did say in so many words that dying to self is the key to salvation (Matt 16:24, John 12:25). Yet Paul is careful not to destroy individuality completely.
In my mind in struggled to capture the resolution of this tension with simplicity. What I came up with is this:
With the gifts, individuality is checked by incompleteness. Like puzzle pieces, individuals are valuable only in their capacity to point to something greater. Diversity glorifies God only when the pieces are interlocking.
OK. Maybe I need to boil that down a bit. I think this is exciting, though. This helps me to explore and understand a Biblical model of my own individuality. We are all different from others, certainly, but our diversity must not serve to proclaim ourselves. Out individuality needs to point to our incompleteness. Our tastes and preferences should indicate the character of God. Our differences, especially through our spiritual gifts, should incline us to be together with other Christians. More than that, our unique qualities should empower us to edify them in love.
Praise God, the singular author of our salvation and the single reflection of our lives.
