“All One Body We…”  Romans 12:3-5

Sermon by Pastor Dennis R. Gleason -- August 28, 2005

At a meeting of the American Psychological Association, Jack Lipton, a psychologist at Union College, and R. Scott Builione, a graduate student at Columbia University, presented their findings on how members of the various sections of 11 major symphony orchestras perceived each other. The percussionists were viewed as insensitive, unintelligent, and hard-of-hearing, yet fun-loving. String players were seen as arrogant, stuffy, and unathletic. The orchestra members overwhelmingly chose "loud" as the primary adjective to describe the brass players. Woodwind players seemed to be held in the highest esteem, described as quiet and meticulous, though a bit egotistical. Interesting findings, to say the least! With such widely divergent personalities and perceptions, how could an orchestra ever come together to make such wonderful music? The answer is simple: regardless of how those musicians view each other, they subordinate their feelings and biases to the leadership of the conductor. Under his guidance, they play beautiful music.  Today in the Word, June 22, 1992.

Our text for today is found in Romans 12:3-5  “For through the grace given to me I say to every man among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.”

In a Peanuts cartoon Lucy demanded that Linus change TV channels, threatening him with her fist if he didn't. "What makes you think you can walk right in here and take over?" asks Linus. 

"These five fingers," says Lucy. "Individually they're nothing but when I curl them together like this into a single unit, they form a weapon that is terrible to behold."

 "Which channel do you want?" asks Linus. Turning away, he looks at his fingers and says, "Why can't you guys get organized like that?" Charles Schultz.

The Apostle Paul has an important lesson to teach us in these three verses from Romans 12: We must have a proper estimation of our selves.

There are twelve different Greek words that are used with various shades of meaning for the idea of thinking, reasoning, concluding, reckoning and so on. From these twelve words the Apostle Paul is led by the Holy Spirit to use the word: phroneo four times in our text. The word has a shade of meaning that was used in the ancient world to depict a man who was in his right mind. Many wills of that period contained the phrase “being sane and in my right mind” regarding the testator of the will.

The way Paul writes this for us it could be translated in this way:  “I say through the grace that is given to me, to everyone of you, that he should not estimate himself beyond what he should estimate, but that he should estimate himself in such a way that he would have a sensible estimation of himself.”

The world in which we live is full of people who have an inflated estimation of themselves, who they are and what they are capable of doing. If you do not have it, you can get training in assertiveness so that you can be seen as confident and your own person.

However, in the Church – the Body of Christ- things are supposed to be different. Jesus wants us to have the proper estimation of ourselves.

We might wonder why Paul is addressing this matter following those wonderful words about living sacrifices, and being transformed by the renewing of our minds. Well, I think he addresses this issue because it is a problem within the church. And the problem is twofold: First of all, there are those who think more highly of themselves than they ought to and secondly, there are those who do not have a high enough estimation of themselves.

What we need to have is the proper balance in the estimation of ourselves and each other in the Body of Christ.

If you want to know how Jesus sees us you can turn to John 15:5 and read: “Without me you can do nothing.”  In ourselves we are nothing!

The man or woman who accepts this verdict can become something for God. The man who rejects this verdict of nothingness is of all men the most nothing.

If we will believe what God has to say about us in His Word, we will admit what we really are and will by faith enter into what we should be in Christ.

The context to follow will focus on spiritual gifts and their exercise in the church. The focus is on exercising them in humility and modesty. Pride ought never to enter into the exercise of our gifts. They are grace gifts. The gifts do not say anything important about us beyond the fact that we are recipients of God’s grace and his intention to use us in a certain way in our ministry for Christ.

The gifts are from God. Every believer has at least one gift to be used for Christ and His kingdom. And we must acknowledge that they are from God.

Again it is important for us to have a proper opinion of ourselves. According to our text, it would be insane for us to have a higher opinion of ourselves than God does. We would not be in our right mind to do so.

Having said that, it is also wrong for us to have an opinion of ourselves that is less than what God has of us. We are not to falsely underestimate ourselves either. People who do that, tend to take their gift and hide it; never using it for Christ. Remember the man in the parable who took the talent given him and buried it. It produced nothing for his master. He was soundly reproved by the master and it was taken away and given to another.

It is all to the Glory of God and man can take no glory for himself. Remember, Jesus thought enough of us that he died for us to set us free from sin and death. We are of  great value to Him.

When we set ourselves along side God and recognize our own nothingness, we have come to understand the true spiritual quality of meekness.

Harry Ironsides once said the to appreciate the concept of meekness one had to go to the race track. The horse that wins the race is the horse that is the most under the control of the jockey. Meekness is strength under control. Meekness is not forcing oneself to take a subordinate position before other people. Meekness is a vertical virtue, measuring self against God. It has nothing to do with the horizontal virtue that measures one man against another.

Go back into your Old Testament and read about Moses. Numbers 12:3 tells us that Moses was meek, meeker than any other man. This meekness brought him low before God and very high before men.

Here was a man who thought so little of himself that he claimed that he was unable to do what God had just called him to do. But when his faith laid hold of the truth of God, and he exercised that faith to accept what God had given him, he was able to walk into Pharoah’s court and thunder forth the judgments of God. “Thus saith the Lord…” Moses grew in spiritual stature so that when he lifted his arm to strike for God, he knew that God would be behind the blow! This broke the arm or the power of Egypt.

John Knox exhibited the same kind of faith and spiritual power one day when he sought an audience with Mary, Queen of Scots, and was warned that she was in one of her angriest moods and it might not be a good time to see her. Knox replied, “Why should I be afraid of a queen when I have just spent four hours with God?” That is true meekness. Here was a man who had been so low before God that he was able to stand high before an earthly monarch.

Paul has very clearly set forth what we are and what we were before we were redeemed. He has settled the question of how we are justified…by faith. Because of this we can know our true relationship with God in Christ. This will lead us to a proper relationship with others who make up the body of Christ.

The early believers in the first century understood that the church was a fellowship of believers. When they met together they knew that they were one in Christ Jesus; there was no thought of division. There was only unity. They were one in Christ Jesus. They knew that they all had been touched by his divine power and had been brought from death to life. They all believed in the great historical facts about the person and work of Jesus Christ. None of them denied that Jesus was the Lord Jehovah God. They all knew that he had died on the cross to redeem them from their sin. They knew that he had come out of the tomb alive. They all knew that he had ascended into heaven and they were all living in light of the fact that he was coming again.

In that fellowship there was unity…a real oneness. What characterized the early assemblies of these believers was their sense of oneness in Jesus Christ.

Today, the Holy Spirit reaches across our denominational lines and gathers to Himself all in whom He dwells. The true church is an organism not an organization. No man or group of people can claim a copyright on God, on the Holy Spirit or on the divine truth of the body of Christ.

A local church has named itself “The True Jesus Church”. The implication being that your church is something else and that they have found the real Jesus. We obviously would have to go to them to find the true Jesus. And they simply don’t understand that the true body of Christ is one and is comprised of all who believe in Jesus Christ. 

When we were growing up in downstate Illinois we knew of the Sandy Creek Baptist Association of churches. They believed and taught their people that the only ones going to heaven were those that they reached for Christ and baptized in Sandy Creek. I hope that if they still exist today, that they have grown in their understanding of the body of Christ and that it includes all who believe in Jesus Christ.

All of us who are believers in Jesus Christ are part of one body. Our text tells us that we belong to each other. In 1 John 1:3 we read: “That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that you also may have fellowship with us [horizontal fellowship between men]; and truly our fellowship [vertical fellowship between the individual believer and God] is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.” If we refuse fellowship with other true believers, we are not in true fellowship with God.

1 John 1:6,7 go on to tell us: “If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth; but if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanses us from all sin.”  We must be willing to recognize every true believer as a brother in Christ, no matter what organization he belongs to. We are to have true fellowship with true believers. That is God’s plan. The Church is truly one body not many little bodies scattered all over the place.

Some will argue that we are to separate ourselves from those who do not truly believe. And while there is some truth to that and Biblical teaching to back it up; we must be careful to do it God’s way.

Look at Jesus, His life and attitude. You will see that he was not a separatist. Jesus freely mixed with all manner of people, without regard to their social background, moral standards or religious views. He became known as “a friend of publicans and sinners.” (Matthew 11:19) He touched the leper, an outcast of society (Mark 1:41). He talked with the Samaritan woman of doubtful reputation (John 4) – something  no respectable Jew would have done. He allowed another fallen woman to anoint his feet and wipe them with her hair (Luke 7:37,38). In fact one of the charges leveled against Jesus was that he associated with bad company.

Jesus was always reaching out to someone. He was always seeking to bring faith and healing to the people he met along life’s way. He thought a lot of those he came to save. He knew that without Him they could do nothing, or be nothing but lost and dying sinners. But with Him they could have forgiveness, and life. And He intended that we would be one body…united together in Christ.

During World War II, Hitler commanded all religious groups to unite so that he could control them. Among the Brethren assemblies, half complied and half refused. Those who went along with the order had a much easier time. Those who did not, faced harsh persecution. In almost every family of those who resisted, someone died in a concentration camp.  

When the war was over, feelings of bitterness ran deep between the groups and there was much tension. Finally they decided that the situation had to be healed. Leaders from each group met at a quiet retreat. For several days, each person spent time in prayer, examining his own heart in the light of Christ's commands. Then they came together.  Francis Schaeffer, who told of the incident, asked a friend who was there, "What did you do then?" "We were just one," he replied. As they confessed their hostility and bitterness to God and yielded to His control, the Holy Spirit created a spirit of unity among them. Love filled their hearts and dissolved their hatred.

When love prevails among believers, especially in times of strong disagreement, it presents to the world an indisputable mark of a true follower of Jesus Christ.  Our Daily Bread, October 4, 1992.

What would the world around us say about us and our relationship with Jesus Christ and each other?

How do we see ourselves?

Do we have the proper estimation of our selves?

Are we in our right mind regarding who we are in Christ?

What about others who believe in Christ, but are in another church or denomination? How do we relate to them?

We need each other. We, as true believers, need every other true believer and must be open to fellowship with them.

There is only one body of Christ and we all belong to each other. Let’s treat others as if it were true.

 --Dennis Gleason