Lessons from a Lawyer
During the height of the COVID society-wide shutdown, Dean and I decided we needed to have an estate trust formed. Not the best timing for that decision, but it had been nearly 20 years since our will had been updated, and estate laws had changed, necessitating a more comprehensive one. The attorney we had last used retired, so we took the advice of a friend and enlisted the services of someone we didn’t know. Our first meeting took place using Microsoft Teams, which is an awkward way to assess someone who would have all the important, sensitive information about us—the kind of information not typically shared with friends, much less a complete stranger. After some small talk and playing Dutch Bingo for about 15 minutes, we discovered many mutual acquaintances and, more importantly, our love of Jesus. Then, the attorney went on to discuss with us his fiduciary responsibility to our attorney-client relationship. That is, he was legally bound to act in all ways within the confines of this relationship in good faith for our benefit.
Even though he was a very nice person and we had established that we had much in common, it wasn’t until I understood what this attorney was bound to do for us that I felt the confidence to trust him. People can say anything, but unless there is evidence the walk matches the talk, it’s hard to know if they are telling the truth, and we had just met this man through a computer screen. I realized that in addition to his testimony of integrity, there was an external authority that would prevent him from doing anything on our behalf that would be detrimental.
This idea of fiduciary responsibility and how it relates to the Body of Christ has been rattling around in my mind for a couple of months. I think it speaks to being assembled into the Body, and it fit Pastor Jim’s message on the Spiritual Gifts beautifully. When God saves us and places us into the Body, He connects us with Himself as the head and others as body members. We are bound by Him to one another in His Agape love. John 13:34 reads, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I loved you, you also are to love one another”. And 1 John 3:16, “By this we know love, that He laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.” The Spiritual Gifts are all ruled by and under the umbrella of God’s Agape love, the love that can’t be earned and always seeks the benefit of the loved one.
God’s purpose in giving Gifts to his people is to accomplish His work in the Body and to sanctify us. He chooses what gift to give to any given person, and He wants to determine how and when it is used. The Gifts are for equipping believers and for building up the Body of Christ so we will have unity in Him. It’s also so we can know Jesus and mature us into Christ’s image. It’s for protecting the Body, nourishing it, teaching it how to function, and growing it up into readiness to be Christ’s Bride. This comes from Ephesians 4:1-16—take a moment to read it; it’s really good. All of this implies God’s authority over the Gifts themselves and their usage.
He is the source for empowering us in using them. It’s interesting to me that nowhere in the Ephesians passage does God ask for our opinion or preference. Dean pointed out to me in a recent conversation how the Apostle Paul, with his knowledge of the scriptures and credentials of being part of the Sanhedrin, would have seemed to be perfectly suited to minister to the Jewish people. But God sent him to the Gentiles. Also, Peter desired to minister to the Gentiles, and God sent him to the Jews. Both Paul and Peter were obedient, however, and I am so glad they were! Because of their ministry and contribution to Scripture, we could hear and be equipped with the good news of the Gospel.
Back to the thought of fiduciary responsibility—to act in ways that benefit the body, the only way our exercise of the Spiritual Gifts is beneficial is if they are done in obedience to God’s direction, motivated by His Agape, and accomplished by His empowerment. One of my Spiritual Gifts is Discernment, and each time I have given unsolicited advice or my opinion to our kids without God’s direction, it hasn’t gone over very well. In fact, I usually need to do some damage cleanup afterward. But the times I’ve been the recipient of a Spiritual Gift used as God intended, I am loved, blessed, challenged, and inspired to pursue Christlikeness. We need each other! God intended it to be this way.