Thanks for the excellent website. I hope and pray that it will continue for many years to come.<\/p>\n
My question is regarding: “For by the grace given to me I bid every one among of not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith which God has assigned<\/em>” (Romans 12:3).<\/p>\n I know that Paul was addressing the new church and that the passage applies to us today. Does this passage mean that today, God does not give us all equal amounts of faith? I don’t think that is correct, but I don’t understand what this passage means.<\/p>\n Thank you.<\/p>\n\t Faith is not an independent item. It is generated by our understanding of God’s teachings and understanding requires that we actually listen to what God has taught. “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ<\/em>” (Romans 10:17).<\/p>\n Paul urges us not to get overinflated egos about our abilities. What we are able to do is based on the gifts that God has given us, and each person is not gifted in the same way or to the same extent.<\/p>\n “For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us<\/strong>, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith; if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching; or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness<\/em>” (Romans 12:3-8).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Paul points out that our abilities, miraculous or not, are gifts from God. We can’t claim those abilities as proving that we are someone special. Since they are gifts, we should best use what God has given us. We are not given the same set of gifts (I Corinthians 7:7;\u00a012:4). What we do have is according to God’s kindness to us.<\/p>\n Each of us does not have the same capacity to understand. Some grasp concepts quickly, while others have to work through ideas over a period of time. The result is that some are strongly confident about their beliefs, while others are not as sure. “Now accept the one who is weak in faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions<\/em>” (Romans 14:1). If all were given the same amount of faith, there would not be different strengths of faith. “Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those without strength and not just please ourselves. Each of us is to please his neighbor for his good, to his edification<\/em>” (Romans 15:1-2).<\/p>\n Every Christian is expected to grow, and that would include growing in faith.<\/p>\n Therefore, at any given moment in time, Christians have different amounts of faith.<\/p>\n\t Thank you very much for the explanation. I understand.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: Thanks for the excellent website. I hope and pray that it will continue for many years to come. My question is regarding: “For by the grace given to me I bid every one among of not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[49,120],"class_list":["post-68065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-faith","tag-romans"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":70862,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-god-make-some-lose-faith\/","url_meta":{"origin":68065,"position":0},"title":"Does God make some lose faith?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 4, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello there! How are you? Does Romans 11:19 mean that God makes some lose faith or be blinded so that others gain faith? Doesn't that contradict His desire to save all? Why cannot both believe? Thanks. Answer: \"But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27880,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-faith-a-work-that-god-does-to-a-person\/","url_meta":{"origin":68065,"position":1},"title":"Is faith a work that God does to a person?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 30, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Recently someone told me that they believed that the work of God in John 6:29 means that God makes a person believe. I assume they think the Holy Spirit works in a person making them believe. I know that faith comes from hearing the Word of God but would\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27950,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-righteousness-mean-giving\/","url_meta":{"origin":68065,"position":2},"title":"Does righteousness mean giving?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 26, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Brother Jeffrey, I hope you have time to answer. I was speaking with a Pentecostal fellow who tried to redefine righteousness as sadaca (giving) from the Old Testament. I knew this was wrong but didn't have a great answer. I thought about Romans 1:16-17,\u00a0 the passage he was trying\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":87454,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-does-counted-mean-in-romans-45\/","url_meta":{"origin":68065,"position":3},"title":"What does “counted” mean in Romans 4:5?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 6, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: \"But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness\" (Romans 4:5 KJV). I'm trying to figure out what the word \"counted\" means. Does the word \"counted\" mean \"considered?\" When it says \"his faith is counted for righteousness,\" does\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":56622,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-greatest-question\/","url_meta":{"origin":68065,"position":4},"title":"The Greatest Question","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 3, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"by Foy E. Wallace, Jr. The question of all questions is \"What think ye of the Christ?\" What one thinks of Christ determines his thoughts and actions on every question. The correctness of faith depends on the correct answer to the superlative question \"What think ye of Christ?\" The question\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17595,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/your-article-sounds-as-if-being-a-vegetarian-is-a-sign-of-not-being-a-true-believer\/","url_meta":{"origin":68065,"position":5},"title":"Your article sounds as if being a vegetarian is a sign of not being a true believer","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 26, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Although I agree with much of what was written in \"Was Jesus a Vegetarian?,\" I have a problem with the last statement:\u00a0\"...the forbidding of eating certain foods is an indication of people departing from the Christian faith.\" Although this indeed could be true, you make it sound as if\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68065\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Answer:<\/h2>\n
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Response:<\/h2>\n