“For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.”
Romans 12:3
“For through the grace given to me” - The grace given to Paul was a tremendous amount of grace. On the road to Damascus, the Lord could have, justly, struck Paul down for sins of rebellion and murder! But He didn’t The grace of the Lord let Paul live. But not only that, in Damascus the Lord saves Paul from sin when Paul obeyed the gospel. As if that were not enough, the Lord gave Paul an Apostleship. It is this grace given to Paul, this life, this salvation, this authority, by which He speaks now.
“I say to everyone among you” - Jew or Gentile, male or female, slave or free man, all in Christ Jesus is who Paul speaks to. When we come together as a church, it is to help one another in the faith as we worship the Lord. We cannot help those who will not come, those who will not be a part of the church, those outside the church. This message is for the church.
“not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think” - some gifts of grace are shared. We are all given life. We all have the gospel. We are all given abilities, talents, gits. Though those gifts of grace may differ, we all have something. But no gift is for our own glory and every gift is for us to use in service to God and His people. For this reason, let us not boast in our gift(s). To do so, would be to think more highly of ourselves than we ought. Rather, let the fact that the grace is a gift of God, and not of ourselves, lead us to wield it with humility. Always. The gift was given to us through grace not for our glory, but for our use unto the gift Giver and His will and purpose - that is service.
“but to think so as to have sound judgment” - This is the sound judgment. The proper understanding of whatever gifts of grace we have received, who the giver of those gifts of grace is, and what purpose we have this grace bestowed to us. Paul is the example here. His grace was not for his glory, but to serve us. That’s what he does in this message and what he did in his ministry. Likewise, let us do the same and demonstrate sound judgment in understanding the will of the Lord for our lives and gifts of grace He has bestowed on us.
“as God has allotted to each a measure of faith” - the text goes on to list some of these measures of faith. It tells us of various gifts of grace bestowed on those in the church. God has alloted it. Now it is our responsibility to utilize it in service to the church and to His glory (not our own).
Let us think and act as those who have sound judgment in understanding the grace of God and its work in our lives. With great grace comes great humility. With great grace should come great humility. If we have sound judgment.
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