Thursday, February 20, 2025
For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body, we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually 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; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness. Romans 12:3-8
Biblical Community in the Community
Our relationships with other Christians (Biblical community) run on grace and mercy – the same grace and mercy that God showed us, and that Paul talked about in the first 11 chapters of Romans. The love, grace and mercy of God is designed to flow straight from Him, through us, to others all around us. There are many ways this happens in biblical community. The culture and the community we live in will see the Biblical community in action. How we treat each other, how we treat the community, and how we serve them will tell them exactly who we are.
Pastor Keith did a sermon a few years back and gave us three points from Romans 12 of this flow in our relationships with our brothers and sisters in Christ. Paul’s practical application of the horizontal flow of grace now shifts to how we as believers’ function in community with one another – and how we will influence the community we live in.
Three dimensions of biblical community:
Humility – “not to think too highly of himself…” v.3
Verse 3 is about not elevating ourselves above others. The world is constantly telling us just the opposite. Humility has no place in this world of “self-love” and “self-care.” But as believers, we are not supposed to be conformed to this world, right? (v 1) When we have received the awesome mercy in Christ, the way we lead our lives should change and that means it is our responsibility to be in this world, but not of it. Social media will tell us the complete opposite – on all fronts. On social media we will find all the reasons we should practice self-care above everything, while excusing us of any responsibility for anything at all that we don’t want to deal with. But as Christians, the way we treat each other and the way we engage in the community is how the world will know if we are his disciples or not. They will make that judgement based on our actioins.
Interdependence – “so we, who are many, are one body in Christ…” v.5
Let us not lose sight of how much we actually need each other, especially within the church. We can easily gravitate to an “every man for himself” mentality. During the pandemic, we spent months without meeting together and we all realized just how vital the body of Christ is to us. We are one unified, whole body, while at the same time being distinct individual members. We are unified in Christ, one body in Him, working together for His glory.
Service – “let us exercise them [our gifts] accordingly…” v.6
We are one body in Christ, as the scripture says. The body of Christ only works when we all work together – and individually members one of another. The body doesn’t work well when it is missing a foot. It can still work – but there is a handicap, so it doesn’t work as well as it could. The same is true with the body of Christ. It will work when some of us don’t do our part, but we all have gifts and an important place in the body of Christ.
God made every one of us different and unique. We all have skills, passions, and gifts that make us who we are. Our personalities enhance these and make us unique. All our unique personalities and gifts set in motion make up the body of Christ, where we grow, bless one another, and reach a hurting and lost world for Him.
Our relationship with one another will influence the community around us. How we love and treat each other and how the community sees us working together to the glory of the Lord will be a testimony of the goodness of God. It will show the community that we are his disciples indeed.
We are at our best as a church when we strive for humility, recognize our interdependence, and exercise our unique gifts.
