Healthy Communication || Romans 12:4-5 || Weekend Wind-Down #17

Welcome to the seventeenth week of “Weekend Wind-Down.” This series is where we take the verse of the day, look at the face value interpretation, check the background and context of the verse, do a deeper dive on the focus scripture, and figure out what we can walk away with. 

Today’s verse is Romans 12:4-5, which says this: 

4 – Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, 

5 – so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other. 

Face Value

All Christians are a part of one body. We have our jobs, but we also support everyone else’s jobs.

Background

Paul wrote this letter to the Roman church to introduce himself and share his message.

Paul shares with his audience how to behave as a Christian. Paul talks about how we need to be a living sacrifice to God. Paul warns them not to copy the behavior and customs of this world but to have God transform them into the person he wants them to be. Paul warns them: “Don’t think you’re better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us.” 

Deep Dive

Just as the parts of the body under the direction of the brain, Christians are to work together under the command and authority of Jesus. 

1 Corinthians 12:12 says: 

12 – The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ.

Christians must avoid two common errors: 

• Being too proud of their abilities
• Thinking that they have nothing to give to the body of believers.

Instead of comparing ourselves to one another, we should use our different gifts together to spread the Good News of salvation. 

Ephesians 4:25 says: 

25 – So stop telling lies. Let us tell our neighbors the truth, for we are all parts of the same body. 

Lying disrupts unity by creating conflicts and destroying trust.

Take-Home Point

We have a special responsibility as part of God’s body. While we do our job, we also need to work with the other Christians doing their things for God. Our job isn’t to compare ourselves to others because our task differs. Don’t use their success in their task as a barometer of how well you’re doing your task. Our barometer comes from how honest we are to God and how much faith we’ve had in doing our task. 

We must avoid being too proud of our abilities and thinking that we are not worth to the body of Christ. I had to stop writing for almost twenty minutes because this had some conviction within me. I’ve had to evaluate my abilities on a one-to-ten scale before, and how I rated myself got me in trouble because they felt like it was too high. I wondered if I overrated myself. Then I thought because this talks about being “too” proud, not being proud, but too proud. I wasn’t too proud of my abilities, but I was proud of my work. I was proud of what I was able to do. I wasn’t prideful or egotistical about it, but I was honest.  

Honesty is healthy, even in moments when honesty is complex. It’s better than lying. Lying disrupts the relationship between parties by creating conflicts and destroying trust. I’m also including not telling the whole truth in this. There are moments when I’ve not lied, but I didn’t share the truth. I told the truth to the point that I felt was necessary. Was it right? Probably not. So why would I do it? Who knows. I could have been ashamed of the truth. I could have felt guilty about the truth. I could have been afraid of the consequences. Yet, truth is healing. Truth allows relationships to grow. Truth allows for healing to happen. 

How we communicate the truth involves two parties: the one telling the truth and the one hearing the truth. When receiving the hard truth, we can express the emotions needed, whether hurt, anger, disappointment, panic, or something else. We also need to extend grace to that person telling us the truth. We need to find out what they’re going through. It requires a lot of courage to tell the truth. Yet, it’s a part of our responsibility as a member of the body of Christ. Paul talks about how we can “gently correct” the other members. It’s part of Jesus’s moral law: Love God and love others. Let’s be a healthy part of the body of Christ.

Thank you for joining me for this Weekend Wind-Down as we explored healthy communication with the body of Christ through Paul’s teachings. Stay tuned for the next reflection. Let me close out with prayer. 

Dear God, thank you for the role and the gifts you give us to your will here on earth. Please help us to harness those gifts wisely and healthily. Please help us not compare ourselves to our fellow humans but use you as our barometer of how well we do your will. It’s in your name; we pray. Amen.