One-Anothering God's Family

(VIDEO CLIP--Apollo landing on the moon.)

How did you feel when you were watching the thirty-eight year old Neil Armstrong standing on surface of moon? How did you feel when you first heard those unforgettable words, "That’s one small step for man, but one giant leap for mankind?"

As a youngster I remember visiting the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C. and seeing the Apollo 11 command module on display. It was unbelievable. I also remember being at the world’s largest air show in Oshkosh, Wisconsin where Neil Armstrong spoke about landing on the moon to a standing room only crowd. You could have heard a pin drop. Even though these events took place before some of us were born, they capture our imaginations. They demonstrate what can be accomplished as people come together with a common goal. Together, all of us can accomplish infinitely more than any one us could do alone.

In that film clip Jim Lovell, who is played by Tom Hanks, talks about the space program. He says, "The astronaut is only the most visible member of a very large team. And all of us, right down to the guy sweeping the floor, are honored to be a part of it. What did the man say? Give me a lever long enough and I’ll move the world? Well, that is exactly what we are doing here. This is divine inspiration, folks. It is the best part of each one of us. The belief that anything is possible."

In God's family, anything is possible.

I wonder if you feel this same way about God’s family, the Church, the body of Christ? There are some people like the elders, myself, the ministry staff, or other leaders, who play a very visible role in the life of the church. But I hope that all of us, right down to the ones who sweep the floors, set up chairs, mow the lawn, or clean nursery toys, are honored to be a part of Christ’s Church. If ever there was a lever that God created to move the whole earth, it would be the Church. This whole family is divine inspiration. This whole thing called the Church is God’s idea and God’s creation. Not man's. Together, as God’s instruments, we would be used of God to change our world.

In God’s family anything is truly possible. In God’s family the best of us is released by the power of the Holy Spirit for the benefit of one another and God’s world. We're going to talk about how the Church is to influence the world next week. But this morning I want to talk about one another, about God’s family, the Church.

Let me ask, how do you see the Church? How do you understand your relationship to the Church? What is the lens through which you see everyone around you? In Ephesians 2:19 (NIV) the Christian is referred to as a member of God’s household. "Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household..."

According to scripture we are a family. We are all part of the same household. We are brothers and sisters in Christ. Christ is the head of the household and we are sons and daughters of the Father. In 1 Timothy 5:1 (NIV) Paul instructs Timothy to treat other believers as family. "Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father. Treat younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity." In a moment we will come back to the idea of the Church as being a family. But allow me to digress for a moment.

Church as Incorporated?

A good number of believers today do not see the church as their family. Instead, they see the church as a small business, or mini-corporation. You know how it goes! The elders are the board of directors. The minister is the CEO. The deacons play the role of the chief financial officer, the executive, the administrator, or the supervisor. The church holds meetings, has annual reports, develops policies and budgets, has bylaws, and designs a marketing strategy. It can all be quite overwhelming.

Some of these things are a necessary evil in today’s climate. But the real difficulty is that the church member becomes the consumer. And in order for the business to remain solvent, the consumer must be kept happy and have their felt needs met. So what is the danger of this? What is the danger of seeing the church as a business? What gets lost when a church starts behaving more like a corporation and less like a family? What happens when believers behave more like consumers and less like brothers and sisters?

Church as a Team?

For others, the church isn’t so much a business as it is a team. These days we no longer speak of elders, deacons, and pastors. Instead, we have coaches, player-coaches, team leaders, and team players. On the upside, the average church member is being encouraged to get off the bench and make a contribution to the team. Church leaders are being encouraged to work with groups of people instead of going it alone. And who can complain? There is genuine concern about moving the ball up the field. There is energy. Some great wins are being chalked up for God’s kingdom.

But on the downside, there is often an unhealthy orientation toward performance, toward getting results, and toward winning at every cost. We can get so competitive that we being valuing the contribution of strong and gifted players while pushing aside the weak and less gifted players. Instead of God’s strength being perfected in our weakness, we can get into this dangerous zone of trusting in ourselves. We attempt to put together the strongest team humanly possible and werely more on the flesh, on our skillsand strength, than we rely on God’s Spirit.

So what is the danger of this? What is the danger of seeing the Church as a team? What gets lost when a Church plays to its strengths instead of trusting in God’s Spirit? What happens when the contribution of some people is valued, while the contribution of others is diminished? What happens when the weak are divided against the strong? The old are divided against the young? The skilled against the unskilled?

Church as a family!

We could spend a good deal of time exploring some of these lenses. The church as a business, a team, a country club, a school, a classroom, a theatre, a concert hall, a place to network, a place to be noticed, or whatever. You name it. Churches have been viewed as all of these institutions. However, it is important that we see each other as God wants us to see each other. We're a family. The people around us are our brothers and sisters, our mothers and fathers. God is our Father. Jesus Christ is the head of the Church.

One thing that is true of a family that is not always true of businesses or teams is that a family has a deep sense of responsibility to one another. In a family every member is valued, regardless of his strengths or weaknesses, regardless of his age, or inexperience, or immaturity. In a family members come alongside one another. They hope for the best, pray for the best, wait on each other, and make sacrifices for one another. In a family members demonstrate love for one another. Churches should be all about family, but instead they're often about other things.

In John 13:34-35 (NIV) Jesus said, "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

Of course, this isn’t a time to be looking at others, but to be looking deep within ourselves. As a church, are we more like a business, more like a team, or more like a family who loves one another?

One of the phrases we have been talking about in our vision meetings is "one-anothering." The Bible is chalk full of one-anothering one-liners. For example, in the short version of John 13:34 (NIV) Jesus says, "Love one another." Now that is kind of a broad, all-encompassing statement, but it is something we are to do when we belong to a family. As a church, we are at our best when we are one-anothering each other. We are at our best when we take these one liners about one-anothering seriously and live them out in community as a family, alongside each other.

And this is where the divine inspiration part kicks in. God has designed the Church, in particular, to be a one-anothering community. When churches take one-anothering seriously, the unbelievable becomes reality. Lives are changed for God’s glory. Let me sketch out this Biblical injunction to "one-another" one another.

One-anothering as Attitude

There are over a dozen one-another passages relating directly toward our attitudes.

• Romans 15:7 (NIV), "Accept one another."
• Mark 9:50 (NIV), "Be at peace with one another."
• Romans 12:10 (NIV), "Be devoted to one another."
• Ephesians 4:32 (NIV), "Be kind to one another."
• Romans 12:5 (NIV), "Each member belongs to all the others."
• 1 Thessalonians 5:11 (NIV), "Encourage one another."
• 1 John 1:7 (NIV), "Fellowship with one another."
• 1 Corinthians 12:25 (NIV), "Have equal concern foreach other."
• Romans 12:10 (NIV),"Honor one another."
• Romans 12:16 (NIV), "Live in harmony with one another."

All of these phrases suggest a change in attitude toward one another. It is so easy to walk into this fellowship and be completely oblivious to other people. It is so easy to gravitate toward people we like, or who are like us in some way. It is so easy to be kind to people who are kind to us and who have something to offer us. But it is a sin to ignore other believers. It is a sin to be only with people we like. It is a sin to only do good to those who do good to us. For heaven’s sake, literally, we are to be a family! Every member of God’s family is to be valued and esteemed. Every member is worthy of our conversation, our encouragement, our interest, our time, our fellowship, and our acceptance.

The last thing we should be doing as we come into this fellowship is to be thinking about ourselves. This fellowship is not about you! It is not about me! It is about each other. It is about the family, the community of God which is gathered together in Jesus' name to love!

Look around the fellowship. Who don’t you accept? Who aren’t you at peace with? Who are you not devoted to? Who do have trouble showing kindness to? Who do you not want to belong with? Who haven’t you encouraged? Who is allowed to sit at the table in your kitchen? Who do you fail to show concern for? Who have you failed to honor? Who can’t you submit to? One-anothering involves a change in attitude toward one another

One-anothering as Commitment.

There are over a dozen one-another passages relating directly to our commitment.

• James 5:16 (NIV), "Confess your sins to each otherand pray foreach other."
• Ephesians 4:2 (NIV), "Bear with one another."
• Ephesians 4:32 (NIV), "Forgive each other."
• Romans 16:16 (NIV), "Greet one another."
• Romans 12:16 (NIV), "Live in harmony with one another."
• 1 Corinthians 11:33 (NIV), "Wait foreach other."
• John 13:14 (NIV), "Wash one another’s feet."

All of these verses involve making a deeper commitment to one another. Let’s be honest here. We are all sinners. Isin and you sin. Because we are sinners, there is a pretty good chance that we will sin against one another. It is really easy for us hold grudges, to avoid those who hurt us, to escalate tension, to triangulate, to gossip, to sow seeds of division, to cover up our sins, and to stop praying. The commitment we must make to one another involves coming around a common table. It involves confessing our sins, praying for each other, bearing other people’s immaturities, forgiving those who offend and hurt us, greeting those we have differences with, choosing harmony over discord, waiting for each other, and serving each other. The only way we can remain a community of grace is by sharing Christ’s love and forgiveness with one another. Christ did not withhold it from us, nor should we withhold it from others.

Take a hard look at these passages. Are you demonstrating a commitment to walk alongside others in the body of Christ? Or are you running from God’s grace? One-anothering involves making a deep commitment to one another.

One-anothering as Work.

There are over a dozen one-another passages relating directly to our work.

• Colossians 3:16 (NIV), "Admonish one another."
• Galatians 6:2 (NIV), "Carry each other's burdens."
• Romans 15:14 (NIV), "Instruct one another."
• 1 Peter 4:9 (NIV), "Offer hospitality to one another."
• Galatians 5:13 (NIV), "Serve one another in love."
• Ephesians 4:25 (NIV), "Speak truthfully to one another."
• Hebrews 10:24 (NIV), "Spur one another on toward love and good deeds."

All of these verses involve doing the hard work of sharing life together. I have had the privilege of doing three types of work in my life. I have worked physically with my body, doing just about anything you can imagine. I have worked mentally with my mind, solving problems and computing data. But the hardest work I have ever done, by far, is working relationally. It is taking the time to admonish, to share in people’s struggles, to instruct, to open my life up, to serve, to speak the truth in love, and to spur people on who have lost the hope.

Sometimes I have just collapsed in exhaustion! It is hard work being the body of Christ. It is hard work being a family and loving every member of the body. But at the end of the day I hope that you look back and see that it was worth every ounce of energy. I hope you feel honored to have a part in what God is doing in each other’s lives!

One-anothering as Accountability

There are a handful of verses relating directly to warning one another.

• Romans 14:13 (NIV), "Stop passing judgment on one another."
• John 6:43 (NIV), "Stop grumbling among yourselves." (with one another)

The bottom line is that as a family, we are here to look out for one another. We are not here to be critical and judgmental of each other. We are not here to go on a witch hunt for the sin in people’s lives. We are not here to find fault, to belly-ache, to grumble, to assign motive, to pass off our perceptions as facts, to demonize, or to stereotype.

We are a family. We are to steer clear of those destructive patterns of behavior that destroy the very fabric of our relationships. We are to look upon each other with the same grace that God demonstrated to us in Christ Jesus. We are here to restore and reconcile. Ours is not a ministry of condemnation. We are members of God’s household. We are brothers and sisters in Christ. We are family.

Of the four words on the panels behind me, the people in our vision meetings most identified "one-anothering" as a primary area of concern for our church. I think one-anothering is the greatest evidence of God’s work in the life of our church. But it is going to take every single one of us, right down to the guy sweeping the floors, to make this a one-anothering community.

We are the lever that God wants to use to move this world. This is divine inspiration. It all starts right here among us in this fellowship. I hope you feel honored to be a part of what God is doing, but I pray the best will be unleashed in all of us and that Christ may be glorified in his Church.

I pray that by the power of God’s Holy Spirit, Christ's attitude might be formed in us. I pray that we might make the same commitment to one another that Christ made to us. I pray that we might carry on the good work that Christ began among us and that we might more fully become the redemptive community of grace that God intended us to be.