One Body

ONE BODY

In Romans 12:2 God gives us a negative command – not to conform to the pattern of this world, and a positive command – to be continually being transformed by the renewing of our minds. Together, if both of these two things are happening, we will be able to discern what God’s good will is for us – to know the kinds of attitudes, words and actions that God considers good and pleasing.

Paul then, for the rest of his letter, gives us examples of what this should look like, and his first focus is on our attitude to ourselves.

The gospel that Paul has spent eleven chapters explaining how God sees us all as we actually are, without Christ:

We are all under the wrath of God (Romans 1:18 – 32).

We have all turned away, we are all worthless (Romans 3:10 - 18).

We are all guilty (Romans 3:19, 20).

We have all sinned and fallen short (Romans 3:23).

We are all ungodly, powerless, sinners and enemies of God (Romans 5:6, 8, 10).

We are all under the reign of death and condemnation (Romans 5:12, 16).

We are all under the law of sin and death (Romans 8:2).

The gospel reveals our common sin, guilt, disqualification and condemnation. It exposes our common spirituality inability and our common spiritual destitution.

But, as Paul has also explained, the gospel also reveals that for those who have acknowledged Jesus Christ as Lord, there is a second shared reality – that those who are united to Christ by faith:

Share a common righteousness/justification (Romans 3:22 – 24).

Share a common, guaranteed, grace-based salvation (Romans 4:16).

Share a common spiritual ancestor (Romans 4:16, 17).

Share a common peace with God (Romans 5:1).

Share a common reconciliation with God (Romans 5:10, 11).

Share a common union with Christ in his death and resurrection (Romans 6:3 – 5).

Share a common deliverance from condemnation (Romans 8:1, 2).

Share in common the power and presence of God’s love (Romans 8:31 – 39).

While everything in the first list is our own doing, nothing in the second list is the result of our personal identity, ability or achievement. It is all God’s gift to each one of us in Christ. It is all grace. It is all in Christ and dependent on Christ. It is ours only because we have Christ. And if we have Christ we have it all.

So Paul instructs us in Romans 12:3 ‘Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought ...’

Don’t think that anything about you makes you more acceptable to God than someone else.
Don’t think that anything about you makes you less acceptable to God than someone else.

Both of these diminish the Gospel, ignore Christ, and focus on self.

Don’t think that you are more important than anyone else.
Don’t think that you are less important than anyone else.

Both of these, likewise, erode the Gospel, and focus on self.

As Paul says in verse 5 ‘in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others’.

The obvious differences between believers do not indicate ‘better’ or ‘lesser’. And in terms of ‘gifts’ – whether they are natural talents, learned abilities or gifts from the Holy Spirit - they are all by God’s design and purpose, and each one has its God-given function and role within the one body (12:4 – 8).

If we conform to the way the world thinks, we will exalt certain ‘gifts’ and the people who have those ‘gifts’, but God commands us not to think that way: not to exalt some Christians above others, not to despise other Christians because we consider their ‘gift’ to be ordinary or even demeaning. That is not the way a mind that is being transformed and renewed thinks. That is the way of the world, not the way of Christ.

We all belong to each other. We are, as the church, an organic, living, reality – each one committed and contributing to the well-being of the other and the well-being of the whole body. Our various ‘gifts’ are not for our personal glory, but for the good of the whole faith community. With this renewed mindset we use the gift that we have faithfully, wholeheartedly, generously, cheerfully. For the body. For Christ, whose ‘body’ we, together, are.