When the apostle talks of a gift, it is not only a man being able to preach or teach. He says, “As every man hath received the gift.” Then you see that you have a gift, and you are responsible to use it, and the sphere in which you are to use this gift is the church first of all. Whatever you have, it is not yours; you are only a steward. It all belongs to Christ; and you must be a good steward, because you will have to give an account of your stewardship by-and-by.
“If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion forever and ever. Amen” (verse 11).
If you speak, that is a gift for edification. If you minister—that is, carrying perhaps a little soup to some sick saint, or a little money to one who is in need of it—according to the measure of your ability, do it. It is a question of using the temporal things of this life for the glory of God.
How beautiful it makes the acts of everyday life! God is as well pleased with the right use of everyday things, the goods of this life, as with the exercise of spiritual gifts, either preaching, for the conversion of the world; or ministry, to the building up of the body of Christ.
I deny that either you, I, or any man has a right of ministry. No! We have no liberty to speak in the assembly, unless we speak “as oracles of God”; and that is not liberty merely, but bounden responsibility. If you possess a gift, you are bound to use it. Not that a man who has a gift need always be using it; he has always plenty to learn, and can hold his peace, if he be wise, on many an occasion, and profit by listening to his brethren.
If I rise to speak in God’s assembly, I must speak, not only according to the oracles of God as revealed in Scripture, but as being the direct mouthpiece of God to His saints at that very moment, giving forth to them exactly what God would have them hear at that moment.
We have in the 11Th verse, God communicating something to those who speak, which they are bound to give forth—something of His mind; just as in the 10th verse, you are to do it simply, if you have anything to give away, and all is to be done for God’s glory.