Verse 10
God has given every Christian at least one gift (ability) that he or she can and should share with other believers and in so doing serve them. The gift in view is evidently one of the so-called spiritual gifts (cf. 1 Corinthians 12-14; Romans 12; Ephesians 4). "Manifold" means many faceted or variegated. God bestows His grace on different people in different ways. The gifts (Gr. charisma) are aspects of God’s grace (Gr. charis). No Christian can claim that he or she has nothing to offer the church. [Note: For defense of the view that spiritual gifts are ministries rather than abilities, see Kenneth Berding, "Confusing Word and Concept in ’Spiritual Gifts’: Have We Forgotten James Barr’s Exhortations?" Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 43:1 (March 2000):37-51.]
"The Lord of the church has distributed His bounty with masterly variety to enable His people successfully to encounter the ’manifold trials’ (1 Peter 1:6) to which they are subjected." [Note: Hiebert, "Living in . . .," p. 250.]
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