Earlier in Ephesians Paul explains that the means of our salvation is from God’s grace, meaning his undeserved favour. Oh, how much we often want to deserve salvation because of the things we have done but sadly not one of us can honestly stand before the holy God and say I have lived up to your standard. We have nothing to brag to God about except what Jesus has done. We cannot even boast that at least we had enough faith to trust in him because even that faith is a gift of God. Grace then is Christ Jesus’ immeasurable riches expressed in kindness towards us who are saved through faith. Ephesians 2:7 Saving grace is a gift every believer in Jesus shares in common. But God’s grace does not stop there, it goes beyond that to enable each believer to bless the whole body of believers, uniting and building them up as the people of God. It is so easy to think of salvation egocentrically. Grace is about “my salvation”. Grace is also about how “I am a gift to others for their benefit”. Just as all believers share Christ’s saving grace so we also share his grace to bless others. God’s grace equips us differently, person by person, but it is all from Christ and no one is excluded from the calling to serve the body of Christ according to the grace we have received. How often do we either ignore or try to avoid the grace we have received? Received grace as with obedience to love God with all our heart is a whole life thing. Paul in Romans says, ‘we are members one of another, Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; 7 if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; 8 the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads,[a] with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.’ Romans 12:6-8 Paul in 1 Corinthians reinforces the message, we are all ‘empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.’ 1 Corinthians 12:11