Study the Body!

"Let us consider how we might spur one another on toward love and good deeds." (Heb. 10:24)
Everyone who is a true believer in Jesus Christ has been given the Holy Spirit as a pledge (guarantee) of our inheritance (Eph. 1:14), and through the Spirit, a spiritual gift. "Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them in everyone. To each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good." (1 Cor. 12:4-7) Now if each believer has been given a spiritual gift for the common good of the body, then wouldn't considering how we might spur one another on toward love and good deeds be thinking about or studying each of our friends (body-members) to see what their giftings are and how they are most edified. Since the Spirit has gifted us in various ways to serve the body, wouldn't it follow that we would each find incredible joy in utilizing or ministering our gift to the body. Wouldn't it also follow that to not use our gift in this way is, in fact, a limiting of our own joy and the joy of the body, whom the Spirit desires to minister to through our gift, He giving us gifts for this very purpose? So how do we encourage one another to use our gifts to the glory of God and to the edification of the body of Christ? Perhaps by studying our friends. By study I mean consider, think about or meditate upon. The edification of the body is an active process to be pursued by every member of the body. No one is exempt! So in studying one of my brothers I might discover that he has been given the gift of teaching. Therefore, knowing that he will find great joy in teaching, the best way to edify him will be in allowing him to teach me and not to try and out-teach him. Or consider one with the gift of service. The way not to edify servers is to try and out-serve them, but rather to allow them to serve you. How many times we try and out-lead leaders, out-give givers, out-exhort exhorters, or out-mercy-give mercy-givers, instead of encouraging them to use their gifts by allowing them to minister them to us? Though it is more blessed to give than to receive, we have been called not only to give to the body, but also to receive from them. Lord help us to study our brothers and sisters in Christ, to learn how they are encouraged, so that we might know how to best spur (provoke) them on toward love and good deeds.