Sproul on the Foolishness of Elevating a Spiritual Gift

In R. C. Sproul's St. Andrew's commentary on Romans, he warns readers not to be jealous of other people's spiritual gifts or elevate our gifts over the gifts of others. "During my forty-plus years of ministry, I have seen that happen repeatedly," Sproul explains. "People get passionate about the gift they have received and begin to think that others’ gifts do not matter."

I have heard some gifted with evangelism say they do not understand how anyone not doing evangelism can actually be a Christian. They question the resources invested in church education. What matters is winning souls, they say, not learning doctrine. In like manner I have seen those whom God has gifted with a heart of compassion for the poor move to the inner city and invest their lives there. If God gives somebody the gift of teaching and the zeal for learning and communicating truth and doctrine, they must fight the tendency to question why others do not seem to care as much about it.

What good is evangelism if we do not teach those who come to the faith? We fear they will remain spiritual infants. Teachers think that way from time to time; it is human nature. The eye wants to say to the ear, “I do not need you,” but ears do not help us see anything more clearly than we already see. The ear does not want to see; it wants to hear, so it says, “Who needs the eye?”

How foolish.

Excerpt from Romans, pp 419

R. C. Sproul (1939–2017) was founder of Ligonier Ministries, an international Christian discipleship organization located near Orlando, Florida. He was also first minister of preaching and teaching at Saint Andrew’s Chapel in Sanford, Florida, first president of Reformation Bible College, and executive editor of Tabletalk magazine. His radio program, Renewing Your Mind, is still broadcast daily on hundreds of radio stations around the world and can also be heard online. Sproul contributed dozens of articles to national evangelical publications, spoke at conferences, churches, colleges, and seminaries around the world, and wrote more than one hundred books, including The Holiness of God, Chosen by God, and Everyone’s a Theologian. He also served as general editor of the Reformation Study Bible.