The response of the woman who was “forgiven much” (Luke 7:36-50) is humbling. Her outpouring of gratitude upon Jesus places before us unabashed, unfiltered adoration -- and it is humbling. Have you ever been as free in expressing your loving service to the Savior (read the account again, just to be sure)? I don’t know that I have. But if I’m honest, I have just as much cause for untempered worship as she. This is why I need to heed the call to be “transformed by the renewal of [my] mind” (Romans 12:1-2). I need to not think of myself more highly than I ought to think, for Jesus came to save sinners, those who need to be forgiven much and those who need to be forgiven not as much (I’ll let you decide which category I fall into).
This relationship is important to establish before Paul goes on to speak of God’s intention to use every member of the church in his service. The exercise of the gifts he gives should be undertaken with gratitude and faith. And if we are clear about our lack of standing before God and the eternal peril we faced apart from his grace, whole-life service of him should not be hard to muster.
After we’ve contemplated deeply the sacrifice that was offered on our behalf and had our hearts stirred to respond with grateful service, the next step is to utilize the gifts he assigns within the context of the local church. Though this is obvious from all that the New Testament has to say about ministering in the name of Jesus, it is too often missed by Christians. One only needs to look at the brief list in Romans 12:3-8 to understand how God intends for us to serve him by serving one another, with one another. As someone had said, “one Christian is no Christian.” Each of us is only a part of the whole and we need one another to be all that God has designed for us to be.
Together we must prayerfully proceed in fulfilling our assignments. As we do this worshipfully and lovingly we might just “discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” That is, God will show us how we can best serve his purposes in this place, at this time.
