Romans 12:3-5 Members of One Body

Romans 12:3-5: Members of One Body

Please turn with me in your Bible to Romans 12. If you’re using one of the Story Bibles we provide, that’s on page 785. We’ve been working our way passage by passage through Paul’s letter to the Romans, and today we find ourselves in Romans 12:3-5. Romans 12:3-5:

3 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. 4 For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, 5 so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. 

This passage is primarily about unity in the church. And by God’s grace, our church has enjoyed a remarkable degree of unity throughout its two and a half year history. However, it would be quite foolish for us to think that just because we’ve enjoyed such unity for the past two and a half years that we’re somehow immune to division or discord. I remember when I was in college, I went on a trip with some friends down to Florida for spring break. And on this trip, I didn’t bring any sunscreen. So once we were down there, one of my friends noticed that I didn’t bring any sunscreen and offered to let me use some of his. But instead of taking him up on his offer, I informed my friend that I had been out in the sun without any sunscreen all summer long the previous summer and never got burned. So I was pretty confident that I’d be just fine for a single week during the spring. I thought I was immune. However, I failed to take into account that I had spent the previous summer up in the mountains of North Carolina rather than on a beach in Florida. I also failed to take into account that my skin had become quite white during the winter and had lost the tan it had gradually taken on the previous year. So you can probably guess what happened on that trip. After my very first day on the beach, I was as red as a lobster. I thought I was immune until I experienced that Florida sun. Then I discovered that I was, in fact, very much not immune. So if you want to learn from my painful experience, there are two things you might want to consider. Number one, wear sunscreen. And number two, don’t assume that our church is somehow immune to conflict just because we’ve been getting along okay so far. We’re no more immune to conflict than I was immune to sunburn. The fact is that Satan would love to stir things up and bring drama into our church. That’s why we need to pay close attention to what Paul says here in this passage. 

Here’s the main idea we see in these verses: Christians should diligently guard their unity as members of one body. Christians should diligently guard their unity as members of one body. And as we examine this passage, I believe we can observe four principles that promote the unity of the church. 

Unity Requires That We Regularly Repent of Our Pride

First of all, unity requires that we regularly repent of our pride. Unity requires that we regularly repent of our pride. Notice how Paul starts things off in verse 3: “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.” So everything Paul says about unity in the subsequent verses grows out of his concern—expressed here in verse 3—that people in the church might be thinking a little too highly of themselves. And more specifically, they might be thinking too highly of the value their spiritual giftedness brings to the church—because notice that in the rest of the paragraph, Paul focuses his attention on spiritual gifts and the ministry of church members to one another. So Paul seems to be very concerned that some people in the church are thinking so highly of themselves and their own spiritual giftedness that it’s threatening the church’s unity.  That’s why he tells them in here in verse 3 not to think more highly of themselves than they ought to think but “to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith God has assigned.” In other words, have an accurate view of yourself. Assess yourself accurately. And the assumption here is that if you do assess yourself accurately in light of biblical revelation and in light of the gospel, you’ll see that you’re actually not as amazing as you might be tempted to think you are and that you’re desperately in need of God’s grace every day and will in that way be led toward humility. So if you have an accurate estimation of yourself, you’ll be a humble person. On the other hand, the degree of your pride is actually the degree of your ignorance about reality. 

And the reason Paul’s going after pride so directly here is that pride is perhaps the main thing that fuels quarrels in a church. Proud people are easily offended. It really doesn’t take much to rub them the wrong way. They’re kind of like gas or something that’s highly flammable. Just a tiny spark is enough to get them going. I mean, how many quarrels that you’ve observed basically boil down to people whose pride has caused them to take offense at something and who are then being controlled to one degree or another by their pride? You see, the book of Proverbs tells us numerous times that we should overlook the offenses committed against us. For example, Proverbs 19:11 states, “Good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense.” So in the vast majority of cases, the appropriate way to respond to an offense is simply to overlook it. But pride renders a person unable to do that. Pride makes you unable to overlook an offense and instead drives you to get even with the person who committed the offense and make them pay for not treating you the way you think you deserve. So pride breeds quarrels. That’s why, if we want to guard the unity of our church, we have to regularly repent of our pride. 

Diversity in the Church Is a Blessing

Then the second principle in our main passage that promotes unity is that diversity in the church is a blessing. Diversity in the church is a blessing. And specifically, I’m talking about diversity in the sense of diverse personalities and diverse ways in which people are gifted in the church. In verse 4, Paul compares the church to a body and states that the members of a body “do not all have the same function.” So in case you haven’t noticed already, each church is kind of like a physical body in the sense that there are different kinds of people who are wired in different ways, see things from different perspectives, possess different spiritual gifts, and therefore may prefer to emphasize various aspects of the Christian life differently. And as long as everybody in the church is being informed by the Bible and led by the Holy Spirit, these differences are a very good thing. After all, where would a body be if each member of that body functioned in exactly the same way? As Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 12:17-19, 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? 18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19 If all were a single member, where would the body be? 

So just like in a physical body, God has put different kinds of people together in the church because the church needs different kinds of people that function in different ways. I can’t tell you how often Christians who are a lot different than me and who don’t always see everything exactly the way I do have ministered to me in such needful and helpful ways. And that’s how God’s designed the church to function. He’s designed it so that Christians see each other’s blind spots, strengthen each other’s weaknesses, and minister to each other in critical ways. So the next time you find yourself tempted to become frustrated by someone in the church who’s different than you or who doesn’t see things exactly the way you see them, keep in mind that that person may actually be exactly what you need. The way they tend to approach things may actually be balancing out the way you tend to approach things. So humble yourself enough to admit that others in church are often strong in areas where you’re weak and then make an effort to appreciate those people who see things differently than you. Recognize that diversity in the church is a blessing. 

The Gospel Is the Foundation of Our Unity

Then the third principle we can observe that promotes church unity is that the gospel is the foundation of our unity. The gospel is the foundation of our unity. Look again at verses 4-5 of Romans 12: 4 For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, 5 so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. So notice that Paul says Christians are one body in Christ. This idea of being “in Christ” is something we see in numerous places in the New Testament. Christians have been united with Christ in his death and resurrection so that we’re now said to be “in Christ.” And it’s also “in Christ” that we find our unity. The gospel message of Jesus and his death and his resurrection is what brings us together. It’s the foundation of our unity. 

You see, in order to be unified, there has to be something that we’re unified around—something that brings us together. Unity, after all, isn’t just the absence of external division. For example, think about a group of people standing together in an elevator. Are those people unified? Well, they may be occupying the same general space and not be fighting with each other or have any animosity toward each other, but I’m not sure we would call them unified. It’s probably only by coincidence that they’re even around each other. They just happen to be crossing paths. Some of them may even be thinking about how awkward it is to be in such close proximity with complete strangers. So people in an elevator aren’t really unified in any significant way because there’s not much at all that brings them together. Now if something crazy were to happen such as a fire in the building and the elevator suddenly stopped working so that those in the elevator were trapped, I expect that probably would create unity in the group. They now face a common danger and have a common mission of surviving that situation together. So in order to have unity, there has to be something you’re unified around. 

And according to Paul, the thing that Christians are unified around is the gospel—the message of Jesus. We believe that everyone in this world has sinned against God and therefore deserves God’s just condemnation. We’ve done wrong and deserve to be punished for our wrong in hell for all eternity—because when you sin against a God of infinite worth and infinite holiness, you deserve infinite punishment. Thankfully, though, that’s not the end of the story. You see, God saw our wretched condition and had compassion on us. He loved us so much that he sent his own Son Jesus to come to this earth in human form and die on the cross for our sins. Jesus took the punishment we deserved as he hung there and died on that cross. He was acting as our substitute. Then three days later he triumphantly rose from the dead and now stands ready to save all who will put their trust in him. That means we have to stop trusting in ourselves and in our own supposed goodness in order to be right with God and instead put our trust in Jesus. We have to be willing to receive salvation as the free gift that it is. And when we do that, God forgives our sins, makes us into a new person, and gives us a place in heaven. That’s the gospel. 

And that gospel is what brings us together. That’s why, here at Redeeming Grace, we aren’t very big fans of the ecumenical movement, where people of different religions attempt to come together as one religious body. Now we certainly want to love people who adhere to other religions and serve them in any way we can, but the simple fact is that we’re Christians who are unapologetically committed to the Christian gospel and find our unity in the Christian gospel. That gospel message of Jesus Christ is the source of our unity. And by the way, that’s why we also find it impossible to speak of unity with several groups that call themselves Christians but that deny one or more core components of the gospel. A number of groups today will say they’re Christians but then deny the Trinity or deny that Jesus resurrected from the dead in bodily form or teach that we’re saved through baptism or through other good works that we do. So whenever any group denies a core component of the gospel—even if that group claims to be a Christian group—it’s not really appropriate for us to speak of unity with that group. Whatever unity that would have otherwise existed is broken by that group’s denial of the gospel—because as we see here in Romans 12, our unity is “in Christ.”

However, on the flip side of that, the fact that the gospel is the foundation of our unity also means that we don’t divide over non-gospel issues. We don’t divide over different views about the chronology of the end times or about whether speaking in tongues is something that’s still for Christians today or about whether it’s permissible for Christians to consume alcohol or about the question of Calvinism vs. Arminianism. Even though you may regard some of these issues as more important and others as less important, the fact is that none of these kinds of issues are hills to die on. So it’s okay for us to hold different views on these issues and even to politely try to convince others in the church to adopt our views, but it’s not okay for us to imply that those who don’t end up adopting our views are somehow less Christian or less devoted as Christians. We always want to be careful not to let these kinds of things put a strain in the unity of our church. 

Now, not to make things more complicated, but I do want to point out that our church does hold certain viewpoints that may not be gospel issues but that are required for membership at our church. These are things like believers’ baptism and the role of women in ministry and fact that true Christians can’t lose their salvation—just to name a few examples. And there are two main reasons why our church takes a stance on these issues. First, we take a stance on some of these issues because we believe that an unbiblical view of them is so harmful to a person’s spiritual health that we just can’t let that view gain a foothold in our church. It would be irresponsible for the leaders of our church to let that happen. That’s why we take a stance on the fact that you can’t lose your salvation and on other issues of a similar nature—anything that we believe is truly critical for a Christian’s spiritual well-being. And then, secondly, there are a few other issues that are so practical in nature that we just can’t avoid taking a stance on them. For example, we either baptize infants or we don’t. It’s not like we can just baptize infants halfway. We have to take a stance on that issue. So we’re aware that there are churches that do sprinkle water on infants with the belief that that constitutes baptism, and we love those Christians as brothers and sisters in Christ and are able to have good fellowship with them in various settings, but it’s just not going to work out as members of the same church. So we take a stance on some issues because the practical nature of those issues forces us to do so.  

So to sum all of this up, we basically divide issues into three categories. The first is gospel issues. These are issues that are necessary for us to agree on in order to have spiritual unity and view each other as true brothers and sisters in the faith. They include things like the Trinity, the death and resurrection of Jesus, and being saved by faith alone. And if anybody has an unbiblical view on one of these gospel issues, we can’t really consider that person to be a Christian. Then, we might call the second category “membership issues.” These are issues that we require agreement on in order for someone to become a member of the church—things like baptism, the role of women in ministry, and not being able to lose salvation. Now, unlike the first category, we’re not saying that people who disagree with us about these things aren’t Christians. They may love the Lord every bit as much as we do. But we require that everyone in the church hold the same view on these issues so that our church can move forward in a healthy and productive manner and be protected from beliefs that we view as exceptionally harmful. Then finally, after gospel issues and membership issues, the third category is personal opinions. And those would be the kinds of things I mentioned that shouldn’t divide us or hinder our unity—issues like a chronology of the end times, speaking in tongues, and the consumption of alcohol. It’s not that these issues aren’t important—we just don’t want to let them divide us. So we have gospel issues, membership issues, and personal opinions, and these categories help us preserve the unity that we have in Christ. And going back to our main text in Romans 12, that’s where our unity is found. The gospel message of Jesus is the foundation of our unity. 

Christians in a Church Are Members One of Another

Then finally, a fourth principle we see in this passage that promotes unity is that Christians in a church are members one of another. In verse 5, Paul states that “we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.” Think about that phrase: “members one of another.” Notice that Paul doesn’t just say we’re members of one body—although that’s certainly true. He also says we’re “members one of another.” 

I believe that means two things. First, we need one another in order to flourish spiritually. You need others in the church, and they need you. Trying to go through the Christian life without being a part of a church is kind of like trying to drive somewhere at night without headlights. You might be able to get where you’re trying to go, but it’s definitely not advisable. And it’s the same way with being a part of a church. As Christians, we need each other in order to be protected from the deceitfulness of sin and in order to flourish spiritually. Also, another sense in which we’re “members one of another” is that we belong to one another. And by that I mean that it’s our responsibility to care for each other’s needs. We’re called and commanded to do that. So understand that there’s a sense in which other Christians in the church have a claim on you. You’re responsible to do your part to care for them. For those of you who are familiar with our church membership covenant, that’s what we covenant together to do. So to be “members one of another” means both that we need one another and that we belong to one another. That’s the way God’s designed the church to function. He’s designed it to be a highly interdependent group of Christians who are very involved in each other’s lives and very active in ministering to each other’s needs. By the way, that means you really can’t be what God calls you to be in life or do what God calls you to do in life apart from a local church—and I would even add being a member of a local church. 

And bringing things back around to Paul’s main concern in this passage of unity in the church, think about what all of this teaches us about how important unity is to God. According to this verse, God has designed the church to be “one body” and the individual Christians in a church to live as “members one of another.” That means unity in the church is really important to God—and I don’t believe he takes very kindly to those who would disrupt that unity. Of course, if certain people in a church are teaching or doing something that contradicts the Bible, that needs to be addressed in an appropriate way. But if nobody’s violating any clear biblical teaching, be very careful that you don’t harm the unity of God’s church through divisive behavior or gossip or anything like that. God’s very protective of the unity of his church. It’s a really big deal to him. And since it’s such a big deal to him, it should be a big deal to us as well. We should do whatever we can to protect and promote the unity of whatever church we’re a part of.  

Conclusion

So those are the four principles from this passage that promote church unity. First, unity requires that we regularly repent of our pride. Second, diversity in the church is a blessing. Third, the gospel is the foundation of our unity. And fourth, Christians in a church are members one of another.