Teachers: Paul's primary point in his "body" illustration was to emphasize that all Christians in Rome needed each other. The tension and rivalry existing between Jewish Christians and Christians who were not Jews was destructive. That tension and rivalry attacked their Christian community. They needed to see their community as a whole. Attitudes and actions hurting the community hurt the individual. They needed each other. God designed the church to be a community because Christians need each other. Christians were not identical. They could not function in identical ways. They needed to understand their diversity as a blessing. Just as a body is blessed by its diversity, the Christian community is blessed by its diversity.
Just as tension and rivalry among Christians hurt the Christian community in Rome, tension and rivalry among Christians hurt congregations today. We must understand that we need each other. We must understand that we will be different. We must understand that we can be blessed through differences. We must use our differing abilities to the benefit of all.
If we grasp Paul's intended lesson, we must understand his point. Remember a key understanding. These verses were part of a letter that Paul wrote to Christians in Rome. Therefore, the point of the "body" illustration is connected to Paul's primary concerns in the letter. These verses must not be studied as if they were unrelated to the rest of the letter.
Help students understand the beginning point for understanding any biblical lesson is the context of the scripture considered. We must be serious in our attempts to understand the context. The proper meaning of the scripture depends on beginning with an honest acknowledgment of the situation that gave occasion for the statement(s).
Remember the likely reason for the letter. The Roman Emperor Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome (Acts 18:2). That expulsion made it necessary for Jewish Christians to leave Rome. Because their background was in Jewish scriptures and prophetic messages promising Christ, spiritually they were more knowledgeable than converts from idolatry. Prior to expulsion, they probably were leaders.
Have students share insights about the effect Claudius' expulsion might have on the Christian community in Rome. What if the leadership [of all types] in your congregation was forced to leave quickly? What voids would those departures immediately create?
Claudius' death ended the expulsion. Jews returned to Rome. When Jewish Christians returned, they likely expected to resume leadership roles. In their absence, new leadership developed. The result: Christians who were Jews and Christians who were not Jews were in conflict. Roman 2:17-3:1 and 11:11-24 give evidence of this problem's intensity. In Jewish thinking, salvation issues must recognize the spiritual superiority and the spiritual advantages of the Jew. Such attitudes always create problems among Christians!
Have students share their insights concerning the expectations of Jewish Christians who returned to Rome in a few years. Often when people return, they expect to find the situation unchanged. They expect to resume the functions of their roles and involvement they had before they left. Either (1) they cannot resume roles and functions as if time stood still or (2) they are resented for "taking over" when they return.
When you leave, time does not stand still for those who remain. The voids your departure created must be filled. If you return years later, the situation changed while you were gone.
Remember a primary objective in this letter: salvation in Christ is a result of God's mercy--regardless of who you are, what your background is, or who your ancestors were. Salvation in Jesus Christ depends on God's mercy. Every Christian, converted Jew or converted idol worshipper, was saved by God's mercy in Jesus Christ. No one was saved because "God needed me." Everyone was saved because he or she needed God. Significance was determined by service to all, not by role in the congregation.
The critical realization for Christians in Rome: everyone's salvation was 100% dependent on God's mercy. Surely Jewish Christians had opportunities for knowing God and scripture prior to Jesus' death. Those opportunities did not reduce their dependence on God's mercy. God's mercy sent Jesus. God's mercy allowed the crucifixion and resurrection. God's mercy makes forgiveness reality. The knowledge and understanding that God worked from Abraham through his descendants to bring Jesus in no way reduced their dependence on God's mercy.
Today, being a "third generation" Christian or a "fifth generation" Christian does not reduce that person's dependence on God's mercy. The blessing is in the opportunity for understanding, not in the historical experience of the family.
Carefully note Paul's emphasis in his illustration. (1) Watch your thinking. (2) Individual Christians have different functions. (3) You need each other. (4) God's grace gave you different abilities. Let faith guide the use of those gifts to everyone's benefit.
Focus students on Paul's emphasis. The meaning of the illustration supports his emphasis. The fact the illustration exists does not permit us to use it to make points other than Paul's points.
Consider each emphasis. Watch your thinking. "Do not exaggerate your importance." In every generation, from the first century until now, the church endured heartaches and problems because someone exaggerated his or her importance. Too many refuse to be servants! Too many refuse to believe the road to greatness is becoming servant to all! Too many refuse to understand the value God places on humility! Too many conclude, "If people do not notice me, God cannot see me." Jesus declared God sees and hears in secret (Matthew 6:6). The goal of service is divine approval, not human acceptance. Paul's point: "Forget your exaggerated opinion of your importance."
Have students share ways in which Christians exaggerate their importance. Note why people do that: feelings of insecurity; a desire for attention; a hunger for acceptance; fear; a need to control; failure to understand the need to be a servant; a desire to achieve prominence; etc.
The more you forget about yourself, the more Christians appreciate you. The more you promote yourself, the more Christians resent you.
"In your thinking exercise sound judgment." When you consider yourself, do so with soberness. Measure yourself by faith's standards, not by the standards of exaggerated personal opinion. As you measure yourself by faith, realize the quality of your faith depends on God's grace.
A difficult form of honesty is honesty about yourself. Being honest about self requires you to be vulnerable. We are powerfully tempted to hide our weakness and mistakes rather than acknowledge their existence. When we refuse to be honest about self, we waste our time and energy in self-justification rather than using our time and energy to mature in faith.
Each of you has a different function. Jewish Christians believed Christians who were not Jews "need us." Some Jewish Christians regarded their role as critical for the salvation of people who were not Jews. To suggest to Jewish Christians they needed Christians who were not Jews was [to Jewish Christians] unthinkable. "We have a history with the God who sent Jesus. The prophets came to us. We know how God thinks and acts. We understand worship and godliness. We are essential in their salvation process. They need us."
We all have different gifts and abilities. The Christian's gifts and abilities achieve their full potential through service to others. When the Christian understands that he or she exists to benefit God's overall purposes, he or she will grow into the maturity that allows God to make the fullest use of those gifts and abilities. The congregation that has the greatest potential is the congregation that makes full use of all the abilities and gifts existing in the diversity of its members. The tensions among Christians in Rome worked against fulfilling their potential. When Jewish Christians felt superior, they were more concerned about themselves than about God's purposes in the Christian community.
Paul said Christians function just as a body functions. Unnecessary parts do not exist. Unnecessary functions do not occur. A healthy body "fulfills its potential" when each part functions to the benefit of the whole. A healthy congregation "fulfills its potential" when each Christian functions to the benefit of the whole.
We as the church desperately need to retrain our thoughts. Jewish Christians in Rome could not consider Christians who were not Jews as "unnecessary parts" in the Christian community. Today, we need to understand mutual interdependence among Christians. In today's American society, this is a difficult lesson to understand. Relationships in every sector of our society suffer or die from neglect or abuse. Americans do not "need" spouses, children, friends, neighbors, etc. We live in the desert of "personal independence." We can throw any relationship away if we decide throwing that relationship away is in our personal best interest. Understanding all believers need each other requires realizations that distinguish our values from society's common perspectives.
Today the church pays horrible prices when we reduce Christian existence and "faithfulness" to attendance at weekly worship assemblies. Being "a spectator" at a weekly "worship event" is considered [by too many] as the essential expression of faith. Some even consider the congregation to be "a body" only in assemblies. Since only a few "perform the functions of worship," those few are the "needed ones." If someone does not perform an assembly function, he or she is not needed [so he or she thinks].
One common biblical concept of the church was a community of believers. While the existence of community was life's basic reality then, today most of us have lost the sense of community in any context. For decades in America the emphasis has been on individualism, personal rights, and personal independence. For decades Americans have not emphasized the mutual interdependence of community. For decades many Americans have functioned "for my good," not for the good of each other and the whole. Christian faithfulness should not be defined in terms of attendance, but in terms of existence. Should Christians worship collectively? Certainly! However, they attend because of their existence in Christ. Their existence in Christ motivates them to worship with their spiritual family. They do not worship merely to fulfill a religious obligation.
Each Christian has an ability, a gift from God. God is honored when he or she uses that ability daily in serving others. Through these functions, every Christian is blessed as godly service achieves God's purposes seven days a week.
In a loving, responsible community, everyone uses his or her ability or gift for the good of the community. In a loving, responsible congregation, everyone uses his or her ability or gift for the good of the congregation. Diversity is a blessing. Everyone is blessed by the abilities and gifts of others. Everyone's abilities or gifts blesses all who are in the community.
Each of you needs the other. In some Christians' thinking, the "membership" can be divided into necessary and unnecessary members. Some, they feel, the congregation could not do without. Others, they feel, are essential to survival. Still others, they feel, the church would be better off without. It seems some among the Christians in Rome had similar thinking.
It is so simple to be exclusive. Our tendency is to surround ourselves with people who are like us. For centuries, the Jews lived an exclusive existence as a closed community. Jewish Christians faced a major adjustment in learning to maintain an open existence in an open community. Converted idol worshippers were neither a threat nor a danger. They were family. God's same mercy that saved the converted idol worshipper saved the Jewish Christian.
Paul rejected such thinking. Realizing Christians need each other is essential to God's purposes. We understand the weak need the strong. We are slow to grasp that the strong need the weak. Each believer is a blessing to every other believer. Faith blesses faith. As faith expresses itself, all believers are blessed.
The second greatest commandment God ever gave (according to Jesus in Matthew 22:34-40) was to love your neighbor as yourself. That responsibility's importance is expanded through an understanding of Jesus Christ. Christ's community of believers reflects its importance (Romans 13:8-10).
God's grace gave you your gift. Use it well and often! God's grace gave you the gift. Use the gift to benefit everyone. Using the gift makes it grow. Service will not destroy gifts. Use it to the benefit of all. God intended it to benefit everyone. Do not use your gift selfishly to advance your ambitions. Use it to advance God's purposes.
When we use our gifts and abilities to fulfill a sense of obligation, we can suffer "burn out." When we use our gifts and abilities to achieve God's purposes through serving others, God renews us. We must grow in and develop Christ-like motivations for using our gifts and abilities. If we are to sustain a servant's attitude, motives matter.
The gifts cited emphasize acts of teaching, kindness, helpfulness, and mercy. The focus was on meeting others' needs. The more Christians focus on caring for each other, the more we realize we need each other. The more we meet each other's needs, the more we depend on each other.
Help students see Paul's focus was on meeting the needs of others. Mutual dependence is produced by mutual service. We must be willing to serve. We must also be willing to be served.
The difference between being a "user" and a "servant" is the difference between abuse and encouragement. If a body part abuses the body by using the functions of other parts to achieve selfish purposes, the body becomes sick and weak. When all body parts function for the good of the whole, the body is healthy and strong.
Individual Christians must grow and mature spiritually in Christ. That is essential! Abuses and injustices commonly occur because of the spiritual immaturity of individuals. Spiritual maturity is not determined chronologically. The key question is not how many years have you been a Christian. The key question is how well do you understand Jesus Christ and God's purposes.
Christians in Rome distorted the good of the whole. Paul's point was simple: the bond of mutual need motivates Christians to function for everyone's benefit. We are members of one another.
The need to be "members of one another" is an urgent need.
Discussion questions:
The basic function of prophecy revealed and made understandable God's will and purposes. Serving ministered to the needs of others. Teaching produced learning. Exhorting provided motivation through encouragement. Giving provided helpfulness. Leading [giving aid or assistance] came from determined commitment. ["Something" was not done simply because a need existed. He or she was committed to ministering to the need.] The one who showed mercy desired to be merciful. All Paul's cited functions could be regarded as expressing mercy. Christians reflect God's mercy because they benefit from God's mercy.
One expressed faith through the revelations and understandings of prophecy. The one who served wanted to help, and the one who taught wanted people to learn. The exhorter wanted to motivate, to encourage. The one who gave had the single minded motivation to meet an existing need. [His motivation was not to call attention to himself, but to meet a need.] The one who gave aid was diligent. The one who was merciful was glad to be merciful.
In Paul's list, each by faith, desire, and commitment was being beneficial. They were not fulfilling a required obligation. By desire they were blessing the community of believers.
Link to Student Guide
Quarter 3, Lesson 2