Ryan Hale

Recently as I’ve talked with friends here in Catania and we have shared with one another the areas in our lives that we have had difficulty, both I and the others have talked about something that we have held in common. I wish I could say that it has been a good thing that we have in common, but unfortunately it isn’t. It is anxiety.

Our anxiousness has generally been over what is happening in our lives. For example, how am I going to pay for this or that? Or what will come next for me? What will my livelihood look like in 6 months? How am I going to move forward in my ministry work so that it becomes what I hope for it to be?

These can be natural and healthy questions…but they can also be sources of consistent concern and worry, leading to anxiety when we don’t have answers to those questions.

That anxiousness has characterized my life, certainly, and in our recent discussions, I discovered that I am not the only one. Instead of depending on God to answer the questions, instead of continuing to put the questions to him and waiting for him to answer, my mind – our minds – have continued to swirl to look for answers to the questions ourselves.

Rejoice!

Today as I opened the Bible and read, I read this from Paul:

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:4-7

There is an antidote to anxiousness. It is that we should rejoice in what God has done for us. What could come against us that could truly hurt us if we are in the Lord? He is near, so we shouldn’t be anxious but instead continue to pray and ask God for each thing that we need. He knows what we need and he an fulfill each request if it is his will and the timing is what he desires.

So today is a reminder to me. Don’t be anxious, but rejoice in what he has done and put every request before God until he answers.

Paul was a man that had a lot of reason to be able to boast and brag about his background. He was a zealous Pharisee with all of the right pedigrees, background, and upbringing. From a human perspective, he would have had a strong case to tell people why they should follow him. He had figured it out. He had done it all. He was prepared and ready and now he was ready to be rewarded by God in finances, in power, in fame, and certainly in reward from God from heaven.

God owed him for this, didn’t he?

At one time, Paul may have thought this. In fact, it was very likely given the extent to which he is aware of his pedigree. He knows where he comes from, and if he was a man that looked for praise from other men, or if he was a man to expect that God would reward him because of the righteousness that he had built for himself, his pedigree could be easily flaunted before others.

But now, having come into relationship with Christ, he knows that it all means nothing. In fact, he calls it all garbage. It means nothing when compared to being found in Christ. In fact, this is how he said it:

But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.

Philippians 3:7-11

Our own righteousness

Paul warns the Philippians that they should watch out for the people who would come to tell them that they should be circumcised to fulfill the law. Why would they need to do fulfill the law? Because, according to those that advocate this idea, the people need to be righteous before God.

But what is that righteousness based on? It is based on religious actions that we take so that we can build our own righteousness.

Or in reality, so that we can appear that we have been righteous people.

In fact, they would only be appearances because our actions have been evil. Have we lied to other people? Have we stolen from others in some way? Have we been unfaithful? Have we broken any of the other commandments?

Yes, of course we have and it is because our actions on the outside come from a heart that thinks of the needs of our flesh. Our hearts are far from God and are evil and need to be renewed by God through his Holy Spirit. This is a righteousness that comes from God, not from us. Otherwise, our “righteouness” that is built by us is only an appearance of righteousness in front of other people, not a true righteousness that we would be able to stand before God and proclaim that we have truly been the people that He has called us to be.

Boasting in Christ Jesus

There is only one way that we can be considered righteous before God and that is by taking on the righteousness of Christ in faith. Jesus died as a sacrifice for our sins and was resurrected by God, defeating death. He did this to purchase, to ransom them away from captivity to sin, many people from many nations so he could give glory to God.

And so Paul is saying that there is only one way that we can be considered righteous: Through faith in Jesus’s death in resurrection.

What does that mean?

It means that we trust that Jesus will keep his promise. His promise is that his blood that was shed on the cross was the payment that makes us righteous, and so any righteousness that we have hasn’t come from us or anything that we have done. Instead, the righteousness comes only from Christ. Only in him can we have any confidence that we can stand before God and declare ourselves righteous. We will say that it is because of Christ that I am clean.

Not because of anything that I have done. My righteousness comes only through Christ.

There are several statements in the Bible, I find, that people will often say, “Yes, of course” when they read it. On first glance, they see it and, when read theoretically, it is something that we can agree to, primarily because we realize that we should agree to it.

Let me give you an example. Here is a simple, one-verse, two-sentence parable that Jesus told his disciples:

The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.

Matthew 13:44

So for many years, I read that parable and I thought: Oh, that’s nice… the man found the treasure. Isn’t that just great for him?

But then one day, a year or two ago, I read it and I saw these things in a new way:

The Kingdom is like a treasure.

In this man’s eyes, it is more valuable than everything else in that man’s life. All of his possessions, everything.

In fact, it was worth so much more that the man sold everything just to be able to buy the field and get the treasure. He understood the value of the treasure and it was worth more than all of the rest.

OK, so before, as I read that story, I thought: Great, I’m happy for that man.

But now, the question that I had to put to myself was, and still is: Am I like that man? Have I exchanged everything to have the treasure? Or am I still holding on to my old way of thinking, my old life and its sin, my – my – my… Am I holding on because I see those other things as more valuable than the Kingdom of God?

Do you see the problem? I had been reading Jesus’s parable in theory. Instead of seeing myself as that man, instead of seeing the cost, I just saw the gain. For him. For that other person.

But for me?

To live is Christ

So now let’s fast-forward to our present day where I read another verse that is a little bit like that one. In this one, Paul says:

For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

Philippians 1:21

So I see this one, again, as a simple statement. But let’s not let the simplicity fool us. This statement is packed with all sorts of implication.

Paul is writing to the Philippian church from Rome where he has been wrongfully imprisoned because of the accusations of the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem. Now, he is waiting to see what is going to happen to him, whether he will continue to live and go on with his work, or if he will be executed for his “crimes”. And he is weighing these potential options and the implications of each.

I think it would be fair to say that each of us, if we were in that same situation, would think that we want to get out of prison and go on with our lives, right? Well, Paul is fine with this. He told the Philippians that it is better for them if he lives so that he can go on teaching and encouraging them.

But Paul is also fine with the possibility that he dies. In fact, for himself personally, he seems to indicate that it would be even better. Why? Because he would be with Christ at that point. What would be better than that?

So what does that mean? What could Paul not risk at that point? He can risk anything because what is the worst that they could do to him? Kill him? I imagine, based on what Paul says here that he might think:

OK, fine. Go ahead. For me to die is gain. I’m not asking to die, but if that is the consequence of what I’ve done, do it. It is my gain.

Whoa… Are we there? Do we live like this? Are we certain that we could say the same things?

To live is Christ.

And to die is gain.

What couldn’t we do for Christ? How would our lives change? What would our priorities be if we actually thought like this? What would we do as a result of those new priorities?

Paul was sold out for Christ, but if we read this “in theory”, we might respond something like, “Well, yes, of course. I agree with that.”

But let’s make sure that we understand what Paul is saying. To die is gain. Are we sure? If so, then most of our lives should radically change. If we actually did this verse, not only understand it theoretically, but actually lived out the meaning of this verse, our lives would turn around 180 degrees and change in an instant. I believe that we would repent immediately. Like the man in Jesus’s parable, we would recognize the value of the treasure that we have and sell it all to obtain it. Completely and fully. Everything gone to have that one thing.

Because to die is gain.

I remember a few years ago, there was a West African man who wanted to meet with me and had expressed a concern to me that the Bible taught that slavery was a fine and accepted practice. He had read some scriptures, some similar scriptures to what I read today, and thought that they meant that people should be kept in slavery.

In fact, I believe that it means the exact opposite, but you have to understand the context of the time and situation that Paul found himself to understand what he is saying.

For the captives

The story of how God set the Israelites free, who were slaves in the land of Egypt at the time, has been told, and will continue to be told, both by the Israelites and at least by everyone who follows them in the Abrahamic religions, namely the Jews, the Muslims, and the Christians. It is one of the most famous stories in the world.

The Israelites had been held as slaves for 400 years in Egypt, but God had heard their groaning, their desire to be set free. So God chose Moses, an Israelite who had been adopted by Pharaoh’s daughter and had grown up in the company of royalty in Egypt. God sent Moses to have Pharaoh let the Israelites go so that they could worship him in the desert. Pharaoh’s heart was hardened so he was unwilling, but through the plagues, and finally the killing of the first-born sons amongst the Egyptians, Pharaoh relents and more than a million Israelites escape across the Red Sea into the wilderness.

So here we see that God works to set his people free from slavery. In fact, there were festivals that were appointed as a result of what God had done amongst his people to remind them of how he had freed them. The Passover, for example, is a holiday that is still celebrated today as a reminder of how God set the Israelites free in Egypt. The night before God would send the Israelites out of Egypt, his Spirit would enter the houses that did not have lamb’s blood wiped along the door frame. For those that did, which were only the Israelite homes, the spirit would “pass over” those homes and not enter to kill the first-born son.

From slavery to sin

Poetically, it was the celebration of the Passover that Jesus chose as the “Last Supper”. It was at this celebration that Jesus gave his disciples the bread and the wine while they were eating dinner together saying that they represented his body and his blood, that they should take them, eat them, and remember his body that would be broken for them and his blood that would be shed for the forgiveness of sins.

We have been subjected as slaves to sin, but in a similar way to how God would send Moses to lead the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt, God would also send Jesus to lead the new Israel out of slavery to sin through the New Covenant that God was now establishing with his people. For those that would put their faith in the sacrifice of his blood, God would give freedom from their sin, making them clean and righteous as they stood before him, allowing his people to enter into his Kingdom, to come into communion with him again.

As stated purpose

Jesus, in fact, even stated his purpose at the synagogue in Nazareth as he read from Isaiah 61. Jesus said that he fulfilled these verses right there, in their hearing of him reading these verses:

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

Luke 4:18-19

Jesus states his purpose to proclaim freedom and to set the oppressed free. How is he to do this? His Kingdom was not a kingdom of this world. His Kingdom was a heavenly kingdom. His freedom was for prisoners to Satan, those that were oppressed by him, those that had been held captive in their sin.

From slavery

So with this as the background, understanding God’s heart and desire to set slaves free, both physically and spiritually, I think that we can begin to see Paul’s discussion about slaves in a new light. Here is what he said:

Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people, because you know that the Lord will reward each one for whatever good they do, whether they are slave or free.

Ephesians 6:5-8

We can see that Paul tells slaves to obey their masters, even going so far as to obey them as they would obey Christ.

But why? Shouldn’t they instead be resisting, declaring their rights before God and before their masters? Hasn’t God made each man and woman in His own image? Hasn’t God determined to make a people for himself from every tongue, tribe, and nation without favoritism.

Yes, of course he has. But Paul also knows that the best witness for Christ is to treat the other person well, not to demand rights, especially amongst people who do not believe the same as you believe. This will never be considered to be right before other people, neither as a master treating his slave badly nor as a slave working badly for his master.

Ambassador in chains

In fact, in an ironic twist, Paul is actually writing this letter to the Ephesians from Rome where he is in chains. In verse 20, Paul says that he is an “ambassador in chains”. He isn’t a slave, but he is a prisoner without true reason and yet he goes ahead to declare Christ amongst those that he is with and continues to encourage other believers and other churches even though he himself is unjustly kept from his freedom, similar to many slaves.

By living this way, the Gospel undermines the institution of slavery. Paul is, of course, teaching each person to live as God has called them to do, but he is approaching each person, and calling each person to approach others, in love and grace and mercy. Slavery generally assumes a power-based relationship, but the Gospel does not call us to power relationships between each person, but instead to undeserved love and grace, to freedom in Christ as he has given to each of us who believe.

When we consider where we have come from, and how the relationship started, you can begin to get an understanding of how astonishing it is that Paul tells husbands that they should love their wives just as they love their own bodies, even going to the extent to give themselves up for them.

Here is what I mean:

If you look all of the way back to the Fall, when Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s commandment to not eat the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, we can immediately see where both sin entered the world as well as the problems started between men and women.

God asks Adam whether or not he has eaten from the tree that he commanded him not to eat from. Adam’s answer?

“The woman you put here with me —she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

Did Adam not know God’s commandment? No, of course he knew it. He and Eve both knew God’s command.

So why would it be that Adam would blame Eve for disobeying God’s command? Because Adam felt ashamed and didn’t want to solely take the shame upon himself. He wanted to deflect it onto Eve and to prevent the blame from resting upon him. He didn’t want the punishment that would come from God for what he had done.

Rewriting the story

But of course, this is the opposite of what Jesus did. Jesus didn’t have a reason for shame, and yet instead, he stepped forward to take the blame and the punishment. Jesus knew that it would be too much for his bride to bear.

Who is Jesus’s bride? It is the church. The people that he came to win. He would win them through his sacrifice and they would become his bride. He took the blame and punishment for them even though he didn’t have the shame of having sinned. The bride consists of the church, the people that deserved the shame, the blame, and the punishment.

Jesus, instead of turning to blame his bride as Adam did instead took the blame upon himself and received the punishment that came from God.

Radical love

So now we can begin to see how radical of a statement this is when Paul calls husbands to love their wives. Here is what he says:

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— for we are members of his body. “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church.

Ephesians 5:25-32

Clearly, Paul isn’t just saying that we should be nice. Nor is he calling husbands to be a little bit better husbands…maybe we bring flowers from time to time. Paul is calling husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the church.

Jesus put himself in harm’s way and took the full brunt of the harm that came so that the church, his bride, would be unharmed. The church, instead, would receive grace and mercy through Jesus’s actions. This is the level at which Paul is telling husbands to love their wives… just as Jesus loved the church. A profound mystery indeed!

As believers in Christ, we are made to be one body, made up of different parts and functions, all under Jesus Christ as the head. Within the body, Jesus has given different types of spiritual gifts and in this chapter, Ephesians 4, Paul lists some of those gifts. Here is what he says:

So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

Ephesians 4:11-13

I see a few parts here that I think are worth noting:

Christ gave the gifts

Paul starts in verse 11 by saying that it was Jesus himself who gave these gifts. He had descended from heaven and provided these gifts to the believers, those who are part of his body.

Paul says that Jesus did this so that we all could attain the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. So there is something special about these gifts, that they help us and allow us to grow in Jesus.

I think, therefore, that we can say that Jesus himself, as the head of the body, gave us everything that we would need to be able to grow healthfully as the body.

Equipping for works of service

Yes, the gifts are, of course, to be exercised, but according to what Paul says here, they have an even bigger purpose. Jesus gave them to us so that we can go on to equip others in the body. So, what does that mean?

It seems clear to me, for example, that if you have the gift of teaching, you should be teaching. But beyond that, part of your responsibility in the body of Christ is to teach others to teach. By teaching others to teach, you are making it possible for them to do works of service, building them up so that they also can teach and be built up into maturity.

Or let’s take an evangelist. Maybe they are excellent at sharing the Gospel with others. Maybe they understand how to do it in such a way that many decide to follow Christ. Great! But their work is not done. There are others in the body of Christ that need to know how to do this. Everyone should share their testimony, or share the Gospel with others. It is both a natural consequence of the gifting from Christ that they should exercise their gift as well as teach others how to be strengthened in that gift also.

And we can say the same for each of the giftings. Beyond the two already mentioned, the prophet, the apostle, and the pastor all have gifts that they should both use and teach.

The Fullness of Christ

And the main reason for doing all of this is that the body would grow. By serving, by using the gifts that have been given and that are being taught and passed down to others, we are performing works of service, and those works have a way of teaching us, growing us, refining us.

There is nothing like doing, nothing like participating, that makes us grow. We grow very little when we sit and listen, or watch others use their gifts, but we grow a lot when we are taught and we enter into service. As we begin to use the gifts that we have been taught, we can find greater purpose and we begin to be used by Christ within the body in ways that we never had imagined before. Our lives in Christ become utilized in incredible new ways, and now we not only serve but we begin to teach others to do the same… to allow them to experience the same joy of service and doing works that will allow them to mature as well.

We must equip

Let’s not forget this lesson as we lead others. It is important to keep in mind that it isn’t for us that we are doing the work that Christ has given us to do. Instead, it is for the body of Christ. It is his body that we are working to build up, working to strengthen. Let us make sure that this is a regular part of the work that we are doing so that those that we are leading are being built up into the members of his body that God made them to be.

Now with more than 2000 years of church history behind us, it doesn’t to us seem like much of a mystery. But if you look backward in history and time, you can begin to see what Paul is talking about.

What is more, you can also begin to understand God’s global plan in a much clearer way.

This week, we started a new study with a few people that we have been discipling over the last several months. The long-term plan is that we will do a survey of the Bible so that everyone can understand the story of the scriptures. The entire story, not just a few snippets here and there.

But this week, we started with the big picture: What is the story that God is telling? What is God’s plan, his mission? And how can we know?

We looked at Genesis 1 and saw how God is working to spread his image all across the earth. And then we saw from Matthew 28 that God’s plan remained the same through Christ. And finally, we looked in Revelation 5 and saw that God will complete his plan. If you want to see the whole study, you can read through it – better yet, teach it to someone else! – using this link.

In today’s reading in Ephesians 3, we see a direct reflection of this same idea. Paul says that there is a mystery that God has revealed, and that mystery is that the Gentiles are now co-heirs with the Jews to be God’s people through Jesus Christ:

This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.

Ephesians 3:6

You see, God has, from the beginning, been working to reach all people, working to have every tongue, tribe, and nation know him and reflect his glory. This has been God’s true plan. We might say, “of course” to this statement, but there was a time when that wasn’t understood. And probably isn’t even as well understood, nor practiced, as it should be today.

At the time that Paul wrote these words, he was writing to first generation believers in Ephesus. Gentiles who had received and believed the Gospel. By faith had understood that this God of the Jews wanted them, and that he had accepted them through the sacrifice of Jesus. God had forgiven their sins and had adopted them into his family, just as he had the Jews.

Good enough?

This week, I had a conversation with a friend and talked about how their church was planting other churches and reaching people in their communities. Thankfully, his report was that there were many new believers, not simply generational baptisms from families within the church. So he asked me my opinion…is this good enough?

Not really knowing the church, I didn’t think that I could give a good perspective or insight, but I tried to simply offer my perspective. And that is this:

If we understand God’s mission and plan to reach all nations… If we understand that the Gospel is intended to unite people from every tribe, tongue, and nation… If we call ourselves Christians and believers in Christ… Are we living, both individually and as a community to participate in the plan of the One that we call Lord? Are we acting and taking part in His plan? Or are we primarily doing our own thing? Are we primarily building our own kingdoms?

I think those are important questions regardless of where we are. Regardless of what size of church we are a part of. Small or large, we should insert ourselves into God’s plan to unite his people and usher people into the Kingdom of God, both locally and globally.

This is the mystery that had been revealed through the law and the prophets, that God was using Israel to bring all nations to Him. And now we are part of the true Israel, the spiritual Israel not the nation of Israel, and he wants to use us. Let’s recognize God’s plan and be part of it with Him!

There is something within us as human beings that says, “I can do it.”

There is something in us to drives us to take agency, to want to take control.

“Mine!” is heard throughout the house if you have ever had a couple of toddlers playing in the same place together.

So often, we are focused on ourselves, on our ability to do it, our capacity to overcome. If only we strive a little more, try a little harder, work a little more.

And in some aspects of life, that works well. But it assumes one very important idea… That you are alive.

If you aren’t alive, you can’t overcome. You can’t strive nor try. You can’t work a little more.

Why?

Because you’re dead. And once you are dead, there is nothing more that you can do. You’re done. Nothing more.

Spiritual death

I think that we, in our physical bodies, are so used to sinning that we lose track of the horror that we are committing. Our sin means that we are walking away from God, walking away from our Creator, walking away from his glory and the glorious plan that He has for each of us.

Instead, we are choosing a short-term enjoyment that leads one place: to death. This is what Paul says to the Ephesians:

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins

Ephesians 2:1

Our spirit is dead before God. Our spirit, before him, is no longer able to do anything. We no longer live because we are dead. If we have sinned, we have experienced a spiritual death that is worthy of nothing more than the wrath of God who will destroy everything that is not living spiritually before Him.

What must we do?

On the day of Pentecost, when Peter told the Jews that they had killed the Messiah, the Jews responded: Brothers, what must we do? They were in big trouble, and they realized it. They knew that their sin would produce a punishment from God that they wouldn’t be able to bear.

In fact, there was nothing that they could do. Their entire relationship with God was based on obedience to God’s law that neither they nor any of the Jews before them, nor after them, were able to fully keep. As a result, they also had sinned. They also were dead in those sins and there was nothing more that could be done to merit God’s forgiveness. They couldn’t make God owe them for the good works that they had done. God didn’t owe them anything except punishment.

The only thing that they could do is repent and believe in the Messiah that they had killed, and have faith that God would have grace and mercy upon them.

Made alive

Only by God’s grace and mercy can we be made alive. Paul goes on to say that God has had grace and mercy upon the Ephesians, and upon all people who believe in Jesus. This grace, this mercy that he has had upon us, allows us to be resurrected, to be made alive once again after having experienced our spiritual death.

Jesus took the punishment for our sins as he was nailed to the cross and killed there. He didn’t deserve God’s wrath because he hadn’t sinned. He was fully alive before God, in his physical body and in his spirit, but yet God both sent him and then killed him as a sacrifice for our sins. A perfect sacrifice that would be done once for all sins, for all people, for all time.

And by doing this, God did the work that would allow us to be made alive once again. But it is not because of what I, or any of us, have done. Instead, it is only by the grace and mercy of God through Jesus Christ that this is made possible. Without him, I am dead. With him, I have been made alive again.

It is clear that Paul’s work was not just Paul’s work. He saw his work as a catalyst for a much greater final work that would involve people from all over to be involved and be part of what he was doing.

In Romans 16, by my count, Paul tells the church in Rome to greet at least 27 people, not counting those that are in the households of those that Paul names. And these aren’t people that Paul has heard about. It seems that he knows these people personally, and it also seems that they have come from many different locations but have now moved to Rome, or moved back to Rome for whatever reason and are now part of the church there.

So I think that it is fair to say that Paul has been not only evangelizing, but he has also been making disciples and building up leaders, then sending these different leaders as part of the work that he has been doing to spread the Gospel everywhere. Here, he names 27 different leaders, amongst them 7 are women, including the first two that he names.

As leaders and catalysts of the church of Christ, we have a choice in how we will do our work. There may be additional variants, but we can choose between gathering people around us or sending people to do the work. We can either be the center of the work making people dependent on us, or we can equip them to do the work, teaching them to hear from God and do what he has called each of us to do. In the extreme, I would also say that we can create our own kingdoms or we can unleash the Kingdom of God.

A network of relationships and churches

Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ send greetings.

Romans 16:16

As he wrote this letter, Paul has now created a network of churches across Galatia (central Turkey), Macedonia (northern Greece), Achaia (southern Greece), and Asia minor (southwest Turkey) through three different missionary journeys. What is more, the disciples that he has made are now going on to make disciples and plant churches in those areas and far beyond, leaving Paul to say back in Romans 15 that he doesn’t have any further place to work in these regions and he is ready to move on to Spain with his work of the Gospel.

Paul has left a legacy of disciples and churches in his wake that we should learn to imitate. He has, of course, been the leader. No one would dispute that. But he hasn’t set up a hierarchical organization with himself at the head. He has equipped and sent, equipped and sent, and those that he is greeting in this chapter are those that have worked alongside of him, or even those who enabled him to do his work as he mentions in the case of Phoebe who evidently helped support Paul’s work along with the work of several others.

This is the way that the Kingdom of God is intended to grow. Jesus sent his disciples to make more disciples and each of those disciples were intended to fully become the disciples that Jesus intended them to be. Yes, there are different giftings, but there are no limitations. Paul followed Jesus’s example in making disciples and would go on to do the work, not simply come to be part of a church community, but be engaged and deployed in the work of taking the Gospel to the front lines where people have not heard and then making disciples of Jesus amongst those people.

So, let’s pray for more catalysts. Let’s pray for more equippers. Let’s pray for more people that will teach and send and care for others as they do and let’s be about the work that Christ has called us to do. We should no longer “go to church”, we should go to be the church in the places that need to hear, and as we do, we will see the body of Christ grow in numbers and in depth of connection to the head, Jesus Christ because they only, and fully, belong to him, not to us.

This jumped out at me today while reading Romans 15:

May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Romans 15:5-6

Paul is encouraging the Roman church to move forward, to persevere, to endure and encourage one another. In fact, he says that, as they are doing this, they should have the same attitude of mind that Jesus had.

Jesus’s attitude

What was that attitude that Jesus had? It was the attitude of not living for himself, not living to please himself. Paul had just been speaking of how we should live in love for one another, which may mean living in sacrifice in order to show love for other people, whether they be believers or unbelievers.

In this way, just as Jesus did, it is not for us that we live, working to gain everything for ourselves and living in a way to please ourselves, but it is for the other person that we live.

Jesus did this, initially, just by existing as a human on earth. Think about it. The God of the universe, the God that created all things, is now humbling himself to come to earth as a human being. Is he living for his own good, to please himself and enjoy his time on the earth? I’m sure that there were many times of joy and happiness, but how humbling would it be to do what God had done through Jesus? He is the King of the Universe, the King of kings, and yet he places himself in this very low position as a human being.

We could continue to tell this same story throughout Jesus’s life in multiple ways, but if we skip foward, it is extremely clear that Jesus didn’t live for his own pleasure. He lived for his people.

Jesus came not to be served, but to serve. Yes, he was announcing and demonstrating his Kingdom. Yes, he would be taking his rightful place as King. But he would be doing it by paying the price for his people that would enter his Kingdom. Blood was required to pay for the sins of his people. No one would be able, however, to pay that price, so Jesus pays it on their behalf through the cross. Jesus takes the punishment for each of us, and in so doing, pays the price for each of us, allowing us to enter into his Kingdom.

An example to live by

So this gives us an incredible example of a servant who lives for the other person, for their good and their benefit, rather than our own. This is what Jesus did, and this is what Paul is calling us to do as well. To live sacrificially. To live for the other person so that they will know God through Jesus Christ.

And ultimately, there is one reason for this, and it speaks to the reason that we live. Paul says that the reason that we would live this way would be so that we may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. We live so that our lives will glorify God.

It is important to understand the distinction that Paul is drawing here. Typically, as we live, our lives are all about us. Me. What I want. What pleases me. These are the things that we think about. These are the things that we pray about.

But this is the opposite of what Jesus lived for, and this is also the opposite of what Paul says that we should live for as well. Our lives are designed by God to live for others so that they will know him through Christ, and by doing this, we will glorify God.