Some of God’s children are blessed with good speaking skills. Some of them are blessed with the ability to discern the truth from a lie. Some are blessed with gifts of mercy and hospitality.
We all have different gifts but the same Lord (1 Corinthians 12:4-6). There is danger in telling other believers they need to do what you do in order to be a true Christian. Dr. Larry Osborne, pastor of North Coast Church in California, calls this gift projection.
“Gift projection just tears the body of Christ apart, because we get an arrogance about our calling and our giftedness, and then we get a sense of anger and division or even separation from those who have a different calling and a different giftedness.”
In his book Accidental Pharisees, he challenges the idea of gift projection. Paul compares the body of Christ to an actual, physical body, each person filling a different role.
“The eye always thinks everybody ought to see well, and so it’s angry at the ear because it can’t see anything. Just in the body of Christ, gift projection is a horrific thing because it causes pastors to think everybody needs to be in vocational ministry. It causes evangelists to think everybody ought to think well on their feet. It causes people with gifts of mercy to think everybody ought to have a soup kitchen.”
Imitation and invitation are part of our human nature. We want to succeed as those around us are succeeding. Larry urges us instead to learn our gifting and train ourselves to use that gifting well.
“At the end of the day, we are the Body of Christ and God has put us together the way we are.”
It’s a mark of wisdom to recognize that each gift is valued equally in the eyes of God, and no gift in itself holds the totality of the Christian life. Larry urges each of us to stop comparing ourselves to others, stop running after other gifts, and accept what God has given us as a gift from a Father’s heart.
Larry Osborne is a teaching pastor at North Coast Church in California. Osborne is also a speaker on subjects such as leadership and spiritual formation.
Key Scriptures: Matthew 5:48
Featured Songs: You Are the One by Lincoln Brewster; Only You by Phillips, Craig & Dean; Wonderful by Christy Nockels
Are you an accidental pharisee?
