There are some difficulties in reference to the grammatical
construction of the words of our text, into which it is not necessary
that we should enter here. We may substantially follow the Authorised
and Revised Versions in supplying verbs in the various clauses, so as
to make of the text a series of exhortations. The first of these is
to 'prophesy according to the proportion of faith'; a commandment
which is best explained by remembering that in the preceding verse
'the measure of faith' has been stated as being the measure of the
gifts. The prophet then is to exercise his gifts in proportion to his
faith. He is to speak his convictions fully and openly, and to let
his utterances be shaped by the indwelling life. This exhortation may
well sink into the heart of preachers in this day. It is but the echo
of Jeremiah's strong words: 'He that hath my word, let him speak my
word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the Lord. Is
not my word like as fire, saith the Lord, and like a hammer that
breaketh the rock in pieces?' The ancient prophet's woe falls with
double weight on those who use their words as a veil to obscure their
real beliefs, and who prophesy, not 'according to the proportion of
faith,' but according to the expectations of the hearers, whose faith
is as vague as theirs.
In the original, the next three exhortations are alike in grammatical
construction, which is represented in the Authorised Version by the
supplement 'let us wait on,' and in the Revised Version by 'let us
give ourselves to'; we might with advantage substitute for either the
still more simple form 'be in,' after the example of Paul's
exhortation to Timothy 'be in these things'; that is, as our Version
has it, 'give thyself wholly to them.' The various gifts are each
represented as a sphere within which its possessor is to move, for
the opportunities for the exercise of which he is carefully to watch,
and within the limits of which he is humbly to keep. That general law
applies equally to ministry, and teaching and exhorting. We are to
seek to discern our spheres; we are to be occupied with, if not
absorbed in, them. At the least we are diligently to use the gift
which we discover ourselves to possess, and thus filling our several
spheres, we are to keep within them, recognising that each is sacred
as the manifestation of God's will for each of us. The divergence of
forms is unimportant, and it matters nothing whether 'the Giver of
all' grants less or more. The main thing is that each be faithful in
the administration of what he has received, and not seek to imitate
his brother who is diversely endowed, or to monopolise for himself
another's gifts. To insist that our brethren's gifts should be like
ours, and to try to make ours like theirs, are equally sins against
the great truth, of which the Church as a whole is the example, that
there are 'diversities of operations but the same Spirit.'
The remaining three exhortations are in like manner thrown together
by a similarity of construction in which the personality of the doer
is put in the foreground, and the emphasis of the commandment is
rested on the manner in which the grace is exercised. The reason for
that may be that in these three especially the manner will show the
grace. 'Giving' is to be 'with simplicity.' There are to be no
sidelong looks to self-interest; no flinging of a gift from a height,
as a bone might be flung to a dog; no seeking for gratitude; no
ostentation in the gift. Any taint of such mixed motives as these
infuses poison into our gifts, and makes them taste bitter to the
receiver, and recoil in hurt upon ourselves. To 'give with
simplicity' is to give as God gives.
'Diligence' is the characteristic prescribed for the man that rules.
We have already pointed out that this exhortation includes a much
wider area than that of any ecclesiastical officials. It points to
another kind of rule, and the natural gifts needed for any kind of
rule are diligence and zeal. Slackly-held reins make stumbling
steeds; and any man on whose shoulders is laid the weight of
government is bound to feel it as a weight. The history of many a
nation, and of many a family, teaches that where the rule is slothful
all evils grow apace; and it is that natural energy and earnestness,
deepened and hallowed by the Christian life, which here is enjoined
as the true Christian way of discharging the function of ruling,
which, in some form or another, devolves on almost all of us.
'He that showeth mercy with cheerfulness.' The glow of natural human
sympathy is heightened so as to become a 'gift,' and the way in which
it is exercised is defined as being 'with cheerfulness.' That
injunction is but partially understood if it is taken to mean no more
than that sympathy is not to be rendered grudgingly, or as by
necessity. No sympathy is indeed possible on such terms; unless the
heart is in it, it is nought. And that it should thus flow forth
spontaneously wherever sorrow and desolation evoke it, there must be
a continual repression of self, and a heart disengaged from the
entanglements of its own circumstances, and at leisure to make a
brother's burden its very own. But the exhortation may, perhaps,
rather mean that the truest sympathy carries a bright face into
darkness, and comes like sunshine in a shady place.