Romans 6:19 English Standard Version (ESV) I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.

Speaking in human terms because of our natural limitations is a tricky thing to do. It admits that humans do not always get it right, even if they are comfortable in their understanding. This issue is a comparative of the past and the present. How we reconcile these issues is going to be different for some of us and it is not always easy to understand why.

When listening to a pastor on YouTube preach on Saving Faith he did a good job describing the things that Christ does in us if we place our faith in Christ. The important part was Christ does things for us that we cannot do for ourselves. It was a good talk until he came to the issue of sanctification and that is where there was some doubt to his meaning.

Perhaps that is because of my human limitations or his. Knowing what is right when it comes to some of these issues requires a self-check of our understanding. So I studied the issue this morning to see what God had to say.

Paul tells us that we are to present ourselves as slaves to righteousness. Presenting ourselves invokes the issue of effort on our part. Then the issue comes to the forefront in the declaration that it leads us to sanctification, as if it is a state to be found by human effort. That is not something that happens to us but is a result of our efforts.

Perhaps the message would have been better if he had not included sanctification, but he did.

Now we are left with this self-check effort to clarify our beliefs.

1 Timothy 4:14-16 English Standard Version

¹⁴ Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. ¹⁵ Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. ¹⁶ Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.

While meditating on the issues of progress I was led to these passages. Progress is an observation state. It is not one in which we see things as we pass them, it is where those who are stationary get to see us pass them on our journey.

Keeping a close watch on ourselves is not a matter of measuring our progress as much as in checking our behaviors and making sure our actions match our theology, our teachings. What this means is the forward progress has to be in line with the Word of God. Forward progress away from God’s Word is heading in the wrong direction.

The bottom line here is “save both yourself and your hearers.” If our gifts lead us into shepherding others, then we best be leading them in the right direction. If our gifts lead us to teaching then we must teach them truth and not some vain notion. If our gift is prophetic then we must not abuse the gift by installing our own judgements.

What should be noted is the order Paul sets before Timothy, the elders recognize our gifts and see to their identification, training, and use within the administration of our churches. We do not get to practice them in another’s pasture.

The second point is vital to our progress, the eldership must be involved in seeing to the identification of our gifts for the health of the church.