In the book of Romans, Paul
presents in extended fashion his understanding of the Gospel of Jesus Christ
(Romans 1-11). The book moves explicitly
to exhortation in Romans 12. Paul calls
the Christians in Rome to present their bodies corporately as a living
sacrifice (Romans 12:1-2).
Transformation begins with the individual but always involves the
community as a whole. God created us to
live in authentic community with one another (Genesis 1:26-31). When we experience the salvation that God has
offered to us in Jesus Christ, God calls us to be part of the body formed by
followers of Jesus Christ. Corporately,
we become a "living sacrifice" to God. We are called to no longer be conformed to
the patterns of the world, but rather be transformed. The life transformation occurs in community.
It is striking therefore that the
first specific direction about the community is a warning:
NIV Romans 12:3 For by the grace
given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than
you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with
the measure of faith God has given you. 4 Just as each of us has one body with
many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in
Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the
others.
1) Paul
writes not as a person with positional authority. He writes as a person who has experienced the
grace of God. Paul could have written: I
am an Apostle and this is what I say, or I
saw Jesus Christ personally on the road to Damascus or I have been a student of Scripture for all of my life. But he doesn’t. He writes as one who has received grace. Isn’t this the position of us all? None of us can stand on our own merits. As we begin to think about community, this is
the starting point. The community of
followers of Jesus Christ is a community who owes its existence to the grace
and mercy of God.
Paul reminds us of this
elsewhere in 1 Corinthians 1:26-31
1:26 Brothers, think of what you
were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not
many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose the
foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the
world to shame the strong. 28 He chose the lowly things of this world and the
despised things-- and the things that are not-- to nullify the things that are,
29 so that no one may boast before him. 30 It is because of him that you are in
Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God-- that is, our
righteousness, holiness and redemption. 31 Therefore, as it is written:
"Let him who boasts boast in the Lord."
2) Don’t be self-centered. Paul’s admonition is so basic, but so
profound. Too many of us are infected with
the disease of conceit. Conceit robs us
of our ability to function as healthy members of the body of Christ. If we are puffed up, we will limit our
ability to serve. If we happen to be
leaders, we will model conceit to our communities and create (unintentionally)
centers of narcissism rather than the centers of outreach and evangelism. We need constantly to remember the words of
Jesus, “For the son of man did not come to be served but to serve and to give
his life a ransom for many.”
3) Conceit is a community killer. Our world is plagued by division: racial,
economic, geographic, sex, age, and so on.
From early childhood, human beings form insular groups and cliques. The new community created in Jesus Christ,
however, is called to be radically different.
There is a profound unity in Jesus:
Gal 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for
you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Nothing
kills the community that God created us to embody more than conceit. The Church that God dreams about is an oasis
in which everyone is welcome to receive God’s grace and find his or her place
in the only institution that exists for something greater than itself.
4) Conceit throttles mission. If we don’t value others and privilege our own
self-interests, we will never be able to reach out beyond ourselves. All our talk about missional church,
missional reading, and radical outreach will prove to be vacuous if our
communities are filled with conceit.
How do
we move forward as a community?
Value the diverse gifts of the
community. Although this is obvious, it is not so easy
to practice. It is not merely a matter
of mouthing the acceptance of various gifts and talents which persons possess;
we must actually invite and unleash each member to deploy his or her gifts
fully. We must therefore put away
“cookie cutter” and/or “fill in the blank” ways of filling out ministry
teams. Instead, we need to ask ourselves
constantly, “How does our community need to change in order to utilize fully
each member’s gifts?” Leaders need to
focus on mobilizing and training.
Recognize that we need one
another. In healthy communities of faith, the whole is
always greater than the sum of its parts.
Too many communities of faith never experience this reality. Too many pastors function as the paid servants
of the whole. Yet pastors need every
single member more than any single member needs the pastor. We need one another.
Consider the words of Bonhoeffer:
Let him who is not in community
beware of being alone. Into the
community you were called, the call was not meant for you alone; in the
community of the called you bear your cross, you struggle, you pray. You are not alone, even in death, and on the
Last Day you will be only one member of the great congregation of Jesus
Christ. If you scorn the fellowship of
the brethren, you reject the call of Jesus Christ and thus your solitude can
only be hurtful to you. (Life Together, 77)
Recognize and show gratitude for
the contributions of each member. As leaders we
need to model gratitude and show value to each person. The cure for conceit is the creation of a
culture of gratitude. Saying “Thank you”
acknowledges the presence, value, and contribution of another member and pushes
the one who shows gratitude further and further away from a self-centered life
governed by conceit.
Practice a gift-based ministry.
We must learn to encourage, equip, and empower each individual in our
communities to unleash his or her gifts.
This is a more difficult leadership challenge than merely trying to
fill-in the blanks on some pre-packaged leadership structure, but in the long
run, it will yield much more fruit. You
will gain a maximum benefit from each member.
This is the heart of Paul’s exhortation in Romans 12:6-8 –
We have different gifts,
according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it
in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching,
let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing
to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him
govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.
What do
you think?
© 2006
Brian D. Russell (Revised 10/2010 and 5/2015)
