Once upon a time, arrogant persons were oft met with the insult, “Who do you think you are, God’s gift to [fill the blank]?” It was an odd thing to say.  The words not only cast into question the character of the person being chided, but also the God who would give such an unwanted gift.

Since our culture no longer really believes in God, I no longer hear the phrase.  We have moved on to the newer insult, “He thinks he’s all that and a bag of chips” which I also think odd, but I will leave further comment to someone else.  Even though the “God’s gift” insult is arcane, its impact reverberates still.  If I were to poll people who do believe in God and ask them the question, “Do you believe you are a gift from God to the world?” the response would not be in the affirmative.

Unless they were arrogant.

Or Biblically literate.

It is a great tragedy that the Church stopped teaching that every person bought and paid for by the blood of Jesus and adopted into God’s family is a gift from God to the world.  It is even a greater tragedy that Christians stopped believing this simple truth.

God did not rescue us from slavery to sin and the eternal penalty of death just so we could hang around for a few years, accumulate heavenly treasure by being “nice” and then abandon this orb for “a better place.”  God did not graft us into his redemptive story so we could plant our backsides at “Church” once a week, give some money, and volunteer some time to keep His organization going for another generation.

No, God had far better things in mind when he took residence as Sovereign in the hearts of those who receive by grace through faith.  God makes each of us a gift to those we call neighbors and God also places us where he would have us participate in His continued work as His priests.

Modern Christians don’t like this.  If each individual is a gift from God to the world (specifically to the Church) then no individual would have excuse to excuse themselves from being a fully functioning part of the body.  Christians would be forced to discover what God intended when He spoke through Paul,

“And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.” (Philippians 1:6, NLT)

Such behavior would simply be uncomfortable.  Christians believe it is far more prudent to claim ignorance or inability or whatever pretense at hand to leave the work of the Church to the obviously “gifted”: the singers, the preachers, the teachers and so on…so long as it is someone else who bears the responsibility.

Paul believed each individual belonging to Jesus is a gift from God to humans, even as he singled out those whose responsibility it is to repeat this truth to those willing to listen.

“That is why the Scriptures say, “When he ascended to the heights, he led a crowd of captives and gave gifts to his people.” Notice that it says “he ascended.” This clearly means that Christ also descended to our lowly world.And the same one who descended is the one who ascended higher than all the heavens, so that he might fill the entire universe with himself. Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers.Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ.This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.” (Ephesians 4:8–13, NLT)

If you belong to God, be His gift to the world, you may be surprised how valuable a treasure He gave.