Know Your Place!

The Greeks of antiquity admonished us to "know thyself," while Sun Tzu wrote in The Art of War, to know your enemy.  In the church, it's vital to know our spiritual gifts and we can only find them out by venturing out of our comfort zone and becoming a servant of the church body because the purpose of the gift is to sanctify and bless the body of Christ--we're saved to become blessings,  This even means doing things that we may even think are not our gift!  We may have to put up with subordination and following and submitting to authority, but this is not a form of inferiority but obedience which even Christ did to the Father and humbled Himself to become our servant. Note that Christ did the servile act of foot-washing to teach that we should deem no service for the Lord's sake as "beneath" us or not what we are gifted to do or not even spiritual enough to do as that it is something the deacons or elders should do.  

The Bible tells us to know God and the Lord, and even the Bible and by corollary, know sound teaching. This all shows that our faith is more about knowing than about doing. In other words, religion always says "Do!" while Christ says "Know!"He said, "This is eternal life, to know [God] and Jesus Christ whom [He] has sent."  In other words, we don't need another "to-do" list!  We also may know that we are saved and even the will of God!  But I want to write about knowing where we belong and our place, for it's offensive to be out of place or to usurp authority or assume power where one doesn't deserve it. There's nothing more annoying for a parent for a child to not know his place or to speak inappropriately when he should know better. I'm assuming that we know what we are doing, are spiritually inclined, have a measure of maturity, and can apply what we know to what we do, which is common wisdom; putting knowledge into action. 

In other words, we know and learn (and we are all on a learning curve) by doing and practicing what we know: translating our creeds into deeds (being a people of God zealous of good works).  But to do the right thing and this is an example of leadership, we must know sound doctrine and get our thinking straightened out, including having a Christian worldview unaffected by the Secular Humanism so prevalent and rampant in academia. Even believers can become brainwashed by the human viewpoint.  Knowing is the first step to feeling good about yourself: know right, think right, act right, and then feel right. As we know, the divine order is:  fact, faith, feeling! We must not get the cart before the horse or depend on our feelings for direction in life.   

We have an objective, absolute, and trustworthy source to rely on (the Bible as our plumb line) and put faith in as truth and knowing that God is the final Arbiter of Truth.  Remember, the better we know our gift and place in the church, the more opportunity we will have for good works and to be oriented to the vision and mission of the church and to navigate ourselves within the body and interact with others. Learn not to stand on the sidelines but stand up for what you believe and dare to be like Daniel who defied the king when he prayed. 

In conclusion, let me add that servants don't ever start out at the top but work their way up!  The best leaders have first been followers first and know the ropes of dedication and faithfulness.  Remember the words of Mother Teresa: "God doesn't call us to success, but to faithfulness." Leave the success to God!  But God but that doesn't mean we don't expect great things from God attempt great things from God?  This means our ministry our outreach isn't measured by the human standards of a numbers game.   Soli Deo Gloria!