Romans 12:7
 Romans 12:7 
New International Version (©2011)
if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach;

New Living Translation (©2007)
If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well.

English Standard Version (©2001)
if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching;

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching;

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering: or he that teacheth, on teaching;

Holman Christian Standard Bible (©2009)
if service, in service; if teaching, in teaching;

International Standard Version (©2012)
If your gift is serving, devote yourself to serving others. If it is teaching, devote yourself to teaching others.

NET Bible (©2006)
If it is service, he must serve; if it is teaching, he must teach;

Aramaic Bible in Plain English (©2010)
And one has ministry in his service, and one has that of a teacher in his instruction.

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
If your gift is serving, then devote yourself to serving. If it is teaching, devote yourself to teaching.

King James 2000 Bible (©2003)
Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering: or he that teaches, on teaching;

American King James Version
Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering: or he that teaches, on teaching;

American Standard Version
or ministry, let us give ourselves to our ministry; or he that teacheth, to his teaching;

Douay-Rheims Bible
Or ministry, in ministering; or he that teacheth, in doctrine;

Darby Bible Translation
or service, let us occupy ourselves in service; or he that teaches, in teaching;

English Revised Version
or ministry, let us give ourselves to our ministry; or he that teacheth, to his teaching;

Webster's Bible Translation
Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering: or he that teacheth, on teaching:

Weymouth New Testament
if it is the gift of administration, let the administrator exercise a sound judgement in his duties.

World English Bible
or service, let us give ourselves to service; or he who teaches, to his teaching;

Young's Literal Translation
or ministration -- 'In the ministration!' or he who is teaching -- 'In the teaching!'

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

12:3-8 Pride is a sin in us by nature; we need to be cautioned and armed against it. All the saints make up one body in Christ, who is the Head of the body, and the common Centre of their unity. In the spiritual body, some are fitted for and called to one sort of work; others for another sort of work. We are to do all the good we can, one to another, and for the common benefit. If we duly thought about the powers we have, and how far we fail properly to improve them, it would humble us. But as we must not be proud of our talents, so we must take heed lest, under a pretence of humility and self-denial, we are slothful in laying out ourselves for the good of others. We must not say, I am nothing, therefore I will sit still, and do nothing; but, I am nothing in myself, and therefore I will lay out myself to the utmost, in the strength of the grace of Christ. Whatever our gifts or situations may be, let us try to employ ourselves humbly, diligently, cheerfully, and in simplicity; not seeking our own credit or profit, but the good of many, for this world and that which is to come.


Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Or ministry, let us wait on our ministry,.... The word sometimes signifies the whole ecclesiastical ministry, even the office of apostleship, as well as the ordinary ministration of the Gospel; see Acts 1:17; but here "deaconship", or the office of ministering to the poor saints, as in Acts 6:1, being a distinct office from prophesying: or preaching the word, and should be used, exercised, and attended to with diligence, care, and constancy; for such who are appointed to this office, are chosen not only to a place of honour, but of service and business, in which they should behave with prudence, sobriety, and humility:

or he that teacheth, on teaching. The gift of prophesying or preaching is subdivided into "teaching" and "exhorting"; the one belongs to "teachers" or doctors, the other to "pastors"; as the distinction is in Ephesians 4:11, not that different officers and offices are intended, but different branches of the same office; and one man's talent may lie more in the one, and another man's in the other; and accordingly each should in his preaching attend to the gift which is most peculiar to him: if his gift lies in teaching, let him constantly employ himself in that with all sobriety and "teaching" does not design an office in the school, but in the church; it is not teaching divinity as men teach logic, rhetoric, and other arts and sciences, in the schools; but an instructing of churches and the members thereof in the doctrines of the Gospel, in order to establish and build them up in their most holy faith; see 1 Corinthians 12:28; it chiefly lies in a doctrinal way of preaching, in opening, explaining, and defending the doctrines of Christ, as distinct from the practical part of the ministry of the word, and the administration of ordinances, in which the pastor is employed as well as in this.


Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

7. Or ministry, let us wait on—"be occupied with."

our ministering—The word here used imports any kind of service, from the dispensing of the word of life (Ac 6:4) to the administering of the temporal affairs of the Church (Ac 6:1-3). The latter seems intended here, being distinguished from "prophesying," "teaching," and "exhorting."

or he that teacheth—Teachers are expressly distinguished from prophets, and put after them, as exercising a lower function (Ac 13:1; 1Co 12:28, 29). Probably it consisted mainly in opening up the evangelical bearings of Old Testament Scripture; and it was in this department apparently that Apollos showed his power and eloquence (Ac 18:24).


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Living Sacrifices
6Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith; 7Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering: or he that teaches, on teaching; 8Or he that exhorts, on exhortation: he that gives, let him do it with simplicity; he that rules, with diligence; he that shows mercy, with cheerfulness.

Acts 6:1 In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Hellenistic Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.
Acts 13:1 Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul.
1 Corinthians 12:5 There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord.
1 Corinthians 12:28 And God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues.
1 Corinthians 14:26 What then shall we say, brothers and sisters? When you come together, each of you has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. Everything must be done so that the church may be built up.