Romans 12:6

Romans 12:6. But having gifts, or, ‘having, however,' etc. Some would connect this verse grammatically with ‘we are' (Romans 12:5), but it seems better to begin a new sentence here, and to supply the proper imperatives, as is done in the E. V. The construction of the Greek is irregular, whatever explanation be given. ‘But' makes an advance in thought: ‘and not only so, but' (Alford). ‘Then' is misleading.

Gifts differing, etc. The ‘charisms' are different, but all having one origin, according to the grace that was given to us. This is the same thought as that of Romans 12:3: ‘according as God hath dealt,' etc. Seven of these differing ‘gifts' are named, and made the basis of a corresponding exhortation. Four of these seem to be official gifts (though not pointing to four distinct and permanent orders in the ministry), the last three probably being ‘charisms,' with which no special official position was connected. The reasons for making this distinction are: omission of ‘or' with the fifth clause; the difficulty of referring the remaining gifts to official persons; the change in the admonitions, which do not define the sphere, as before, but the mode. Furthermore, we might expect exhortations to private Christians after the reference to ‘all the members' in Romans 12:4-5. (See below, on the several clauses).

Whether prophecy. This is the first ‘gift' named. In the Bible ‘prophecy' on the one hand, includes more than the prediction of future events, it is a speaking for God not merely beforehand; on the other hand, it is not identical with preaching. In the New Testament the reference is to the gift of immediate inspiration, for the occasion, ‘leading the recipient to deliver, as the mouth of God, the particular communication which he had received' (Hodge). It would appear from the statements in the Book of Acts and in 1 Corinthians (see marginal references), that the gift was not unusual, and that the possessor of it had an official position. The office of the Old Testament prophet became more prominent in the later period of the Old Dispensation, but in the New, which presents a gospel of fact, the gift was not permanent, though needful in the Apostolic times and held in the highest esteem (comp. 1 Corinthians 14:1). It differed from the ecstatic speaking with tongues. This view of the gift opposes any attempt to introduce it into modern discussions about church offices.

According to the proportion of faith, lit., ‘the faith,' But the term is not equivalent to a body of doctrine; comp. chap. Romans 1:5. There is not an instance in the New Testament usage up to the time when the Apostle wrote which requires such a sense. ‘Faith' here means the subjective ‘believing,' and ‘our faith' would be as appropriate as ‘our ministry' in Romans 12:7. The entire phrase, with which ‘let us prophesy' is properly supplied, is equivalent to ‘the measure of faith.' This view is favored by the context, ‘which aims at showing that the measure of faith, itself the gift of God, is the receptive faculty for all spiritual gifts, which are therefore not to be boasted of, nor pushed beyond their provinces, but humbly exercised within their own limits' (Alford). The technical theological sense, ‘the analogy of faith,' seems quite inappropriate here, where an extraordinary gift of prophecy is referred to, and has been abandoned on lexical grounds by the vast majority of more recent commentators (except Philippi, Hodge, and Shedd). That this sense has been used against grammatical exegesis is a matter of history. The simple meaning is: even when a man is thus occasionally inspired, let him use his gift, as he has faith; the gift of faith limits the gift of prophecy.