MEMBERS OF ONE ANOTHER

This year's monthly blogs will concentrate on a frequently overlooked Greek word from the New Testament, which holds significant implications for fostering a healthy and vibrant local church. The word is translated "one another."

The New Testament outlines more than 30 distinct responsibilities that believers are expected to obey in their interactions with one another. Each of these responsibilities represents a unique approach to fulfilling the commandment to "love one another as Christ has loved us" (John 13:34).

Romans chapters twelve through fifteen include eight commands regarding mutual love (12:10, 16; 13:8; 14:13, 19; 15:5, 7). These passages provide guidelines for a local church on achieving unity and expressing love towards one another.

This article will not delve into the eight commands but rather address one fundamental statement that underpins their practice within a local church: "We who are many are...members of one another" (12:5).

The Lord Jesus Christ founded His church to be interconnected and interdependent, living in community for mutual benefit. Every believer should be fully invested in a local church through membership and contributing their time, talents, and abilities. Being passive or merely a consumer in church is disobedience to the Lord’s commands.

The Scriptural context for the believers being members of one another includes a worldly attitude which is unloving, divisive, and conducive for a sick, anemic, and weak church.  It is thinking arrogantly about oneself and contemptuously of brothers and sisters in Christ (12:3).

One hallmark of the culture’s mindset is every person thinking he or she is the most important person, better than others, and worthy of being served.  This culture is steeped in an entitlement mentality (12:2-5). 

You, a believer in Christ as Savior, can think arrogantly, wrongfully and sinfully about yourself just as the culture does.  How many times have you been quick to find faults in others without considering your own flaws and shortcomings?  When speaking about others, are the first words coming out of your mouth negative?  Do you do everything the right way and everyone else the wrong way?

Believers must guard their minds from being conformed to the arrogant thinking of the culture and by God’s grace embrace their brothers and sisters in Christ as valuable, capable servants of God.  It is very easy to pick out the chips and cracks in other believers and conclude they are worthless.  God however, sees believers having chips and cracks as valuable servants which He can enable to serve Himself and others for His glory.

This passage provides the solution for arrogant thinking: God’s mercy and grace (12:1, 3). These two attributes of God humble individuals and encourage them to value others rather than look down on them.

The core of every human being is rebellion towards God and as a result worthy of eternal condemnation (Romans 1:18-3:23; 6:23).  There is absolutely nothing meritorious about any human being by which God is obligated to save him or her.  God showed compassion to sinners who are under just condemnation, sending His only Son to die on the cross and shed His blood for their sins.

A believer is enabled to serve God and think rightly about life's matters by His grace. This grace is not based on merit but rests on God's infinite and free provision. The Apostle Paul acknowledges in Romans 12:3 that his salvation and ability to serve God are solely due to grace.

According to the teachings of Jesus Christ, the church is designed as an interconnected and interdependent community of believers. Adopting humility is essential for achieving vibrancy and health within this body.