What’s Your Aim?
Written by Terry Tamashiro Harris
What’s your aim in life? I have many. I have always been a goal-setter. I love making lists and checking them off, with small and sometimes mundane tasks that take me closer to my goal, whether it’s for a clean house, a finished work project, or personal growth. However, a certain scripture arrested my attention today, reminding me that I have not focused lately on the most important goals–the ones the Lord has for me.
Ephesians 4:1-16 is the arresting scripture, in particular verses 11 and 12:
Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ.
It’s easy to read this and think that it’s talking about someone else. “They” have been given the to-do list, and my part is just to soak it in, be equipped and built up. However, the earlier verses speak of Christ giving gifts to each of us! (v.7) And the famous “gift” chapter in 1 Corinthians 12 makes it abundantly clear that all Christians have gifts. These gifts are given for a specific purpose. (Read on through verse 16!) As we are all equipped and built up, we continue in this “equipping and building up” until we are fully mature, measuring up to the full standard of Christ! (What??? We have so much work to do!!!!)
Recognizing it is through us that others see who Christ is, this to-do list of equipping and building up the Church should be highest on our priority list. It is the list Jesus gave us in Matthew 28, known as the Great Commission. Therefore, it should rank much higher than my own kingdom-building lists.
One of my favorite authors, Paul Clayton Gibbs, uses the phrase that God didn’t come just to rescue us, but to recruit us. God has given us the goal along with the to-do list. Therefore, we the Church, as individual parts of His body, must recognize and steward well the gifts we have been given. In doing so, our gifts can be used to strengthen His body so that the whole world may see His power and love displayed.
As Christians, we tend to waffle back and forth in talking about “works” and “grace” as if it’s an either-or, but this reminder today is that God has given us grace (gifts) to do the work. The work is not for our salvation, but for the salvation of a lost and lonely world that needs to experience the love of Jesus through His tangible hands and feet right here on earth, His body, the Church–that’s you and me. So, together, let’s use our gifts and aim for His goals.
