The Gifts of Exhortation and Giving

. . . he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality.
—Romans 12:8

As we continue to look at the seven spiritual gifts, listed in Romans 12:6–8, we come to the gift of exhortation. Paul says in verse 8, “He who exhorts, in his exhortation.” Let’s say you have a serious problem in your life. To whom would you go? If you wanted a lecture, you would go to a person with the gift of prophecy. If you wanted somebody to sympathize with you, you would go to somebody with the gift of mercy. But if you wanted some practical help, you would go to somebody with the gift of exhortation. The word exhort means to come alongside. An exhorter is one who comes alongside another Christian and helps him solve problems by applying God’s Word to their situation. A person who has this gift usually is effective in one-on-one counseling. They want to help people work through their problems. They’re not interested in the finer points of Bible doctrine. They want to know, “How does God’s Word apply to my life now?”

Now, there are some dangers with the gift of exhortation. If they’re not careful, exhorters can waste time helping people who aren’t interested in lasting solutions. And they have to guard against becoming discouraged by a lack of progress with those to whom they’re ministering. If they are not careful, they can become discouraged.

Romans 12:8 also mentions the gift of giving: “he who gives, with liberality.” The gift of giving is the desire and the ability to use personal assets to further the cause of Christ. People with this gift may or may not be wealthy, but usually they have the ability to handle money well. God gives them the ability to manage finances well and the desire to increase their assets so they will have more to give. People with this gift prefer to give anonymously and do not respond well to pressure appeals. Instead they like for people to honestly present a need and then give them the freedom to say yes or no to that need. They also want to motivate other people to give. One of their motivations in giving is to see other people discover the joy of giving as well. And that’s why they will often enter into matching gift kind of programs in order to generate interest among other people.

Now, there can be some dangers to the gift of giving. And one of them is to become prideful of their giving. They can overemphasize material needs, equating spirituality with material success. Again, giving is a very important gift in the body of Christ. We are all to be givers. It’s not just the people with the gift of giving who are to carry the load, but this is their unique motivation to further the cause of Christ.

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Today’s devotion is excerpted from “Discovering and Using Your Spiritual Gift — Message 2” by Dr. Robert Jeffress, 2011.

Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960,1962,1963,1968,1971,1972,1973,1975,1977,1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.