Mutual Care Among Christians

The Word of God prayer meeting 4/21/02

-- Peter Williamson

Roots & Fruits Series

I. Together in Christ

Talk #5: Mutual Care Among Christians

Intro

One of the steps we are taking to restore the fabric of our community life is to make sure that everyone in the community is in a small group or has a sharing partner from the Word of God.

For some of us this requires effort to do something we haven’t been doing.

For many of us, to improve on something we have approached very loosely.

Now that we’re getting into small groups and areas. How are we supposed to be caring for one another?

It could seem that focusing on spending time together and caring for one another would drain energy from mission, but it doesn’t have to.

Look at the end of Acts 2:46

Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple area and to breaking bread in their homes. They ate their meals with exultation and sincerity of heart, 47 praising God and enjoying favor with all the people. And every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.

If we are coming together in the Lord, i.e., caring for one another in the Spirit, it releases greater power in our lives for mission.

NT on Caring for One Another

The NT is full of teaching precisely about how Christians should care for one another. I used my Bible software to search for all the verses in the Bible that use the phrase "one another." There are probably a couple hundred of them..

Three Observations:

Obvious that Scripture addresses Christians who have relationships with one another, who spend time together, rather than a collection of individuals who only see each other on Sun am. Otherwise, all this "one another" talk makes no sense. Christian community is normal Christianity.
This is the ideal for all Christians in their relationships with one another, not just people in covenant communities like the Word of God .
What distinguishes members of intentional communities like ours is that we organize ourselves to fulfill Jesus’ command to love one another. Our sharing partners, small groups, and "areas" [fellowship groups, mutual help groups, koinonia groups] are the concrete means we have established to live out what Scripture teaches us. They are NOT the only place we should express this kind of Christian mutual care They are simply the place we begin.

I’ve prepared a sampler for you. You know what a chocolate sampler is? My wife gave me one for Valentine’s Day. Here is a little Scriptural sampler of "one another texts." Speak both of attitudes and actions.

As you hear these verses read, listen to the Lord, because it is he who is speaking to you through his word.

Bible Sampler
Attitudes:

Romans 12:5 we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.

12:10 love one another with brotherly affection; outdo one another in showing honor.

1 Peter 5:5 Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble."

Eph 4:32 (And) be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ.

Actions

1 Thessalonians 5:11 Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.

RSV 1 Thessalonians 5:15 …always seek to do good to one another and to all.

Hebrews 3:13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called "today," that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

Hebrews 10:24 We must consider how to rouse one another to love and good works.

James 5:16 Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed.

1 Peter 4:9 Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling

1 Peter 4:10 As each one has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's varied grace.

Gal 6: 2 Bear one another's burdens, and so you will fulfill the law of Christ.

Col 3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teach and admonish one another in all wisdom, and sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

Eph 5: 19 address[…] one another (in) psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and playing to the Lord in your hearts,

What Kind of Caring for One Another?

Responsible for one another and responsible to one another.

What it does mean

we listen to one another, we ask questions, we try to understand
we encourage, exhort (appeal to), give advice, teach, admonish (warn or correct)
we be as open as we can be with our small group or sharing partner
we also make sure there is nothing in our lives in the dark, i.e., that some brother or sister knows about everything we are carrying, and can speak into our lives

What this does not mean:

total responsibility for one another (more on limits in a moment),
authority over one another’s lives,
obligation to disclose everything to our small group or sharing partner

What does mutual care include?

Spiritual care: helping one another love the Lord with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength. Thus the exhortations

"employ spiritual gifts in service of one another,"

"to let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one in all wisdom,"

Eph 5: 19 "addressing one another (in) psalms and hymns and spiritual songs"

the rest of our lives as well: physical, economic, familial, social care. This is why Scripture tells us,

Acts 4: 32 The community of believers was of one heart and mind, and no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own…. 34 There was no needy person among them, for those who owned property or houses would sell them, bring the proceeds of the sale, 35 and put them at the feet of the apostles, and they were distributed to each according to need.

Heb 13:16 Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have; God is pleased by sacrifices of that kind.

Examples: Insofar as you have a resource, help your brother’s job situations, family situation, emotional well-being, etc.

We all have the resource and responsibility to pray for one another’s needs.

Other resources include wisdom, contacts, time, skills, a listening ear [Marsha], money to loan or give, etc.

What are its limits?

Gal 6:10 So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all men, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.

We do what we can: we’re not God, not the Messiah. Seek the guidance of the Spirit regarding where and how to distribute the resources of time, money, energy at our disposal.

These verses from 2 Corinthians on financial sharing between Gentile Christians of Corinth and Jewish Christians in Jerusalem point us in the right direction.

2 Cor 8:3 "they gave according to their means..and beyond their means".

2 Cor 8:12 "For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have."

2 Cor 9:7 "Each one must give as he has made up his mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver."

Wesley catches the spirit of it: Do all the good you can, whenever you can, to whomever you can, as long as you can.

Practicalities

some of us need to meet more often or more consistently

some of us need to change what we do in our groups to make them true expressions of the body of Christ: question format, add prayer and praise, make room for spiritual gifts

some of need to decide to be more open and honest about what’s happening in our lives—at least with someone

some of us need to take an interest and draw out our brothers and sisters. about what’s really happening

(sometimes we’re afraid they’ll be put off, considering us nosey; others of us are afraid they’ll tell us, and we’ll need to get involved)

What obstacles arise in us?

problem of complacency: we’re surviving—do we need this?

Especially for we who are older: full relationships, full schedules.

Solution: 1) ask the Lord who, his priorities—then act in faith; 2) be prepared to stretch, open up, go beyond your comfort zone

differences from, or not liking, or problems in the lives of some of people the Lord is calling us to love and care for

Solution: 1) asks the Lord for love, 2) choose to love, 3) act in love while you wait for your heart to change

individualism, resistance to commitment, to anything that might limit our freedom

Solution: remember Jesus—he was willing to bind himself, to be nailed down for us

What benefits can we expect?

more fervent Christian life

deeper communion with the Lord and one another

spiritual protection

greater fruitfulness: by living a closer life with one another, we can pass on to others the life the Lord has given us

There is a cost—time, energy, self-denial.

But that’s what we want, isn’t it? Once upon a time many of us here made a considered choice. I, …, want to give my life fully to God, and to live as a member of the word of God.

Committing ourselves to mutual care in small groups or with sharing partners is how we can reaffirm that decision.

This investment will be worth it.

Extra Stuff

For whom am I responsible to care?

Because we are finite human beings, we cannot personally love all the Christians in the world, much less all the people in the world. So who is it my job to care for?

This is what the lawyer asked Jesus, after Jesus had told him that the second great commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself. Who is my neighbor?

Sometime ago I noticed something in Scripture that helped me to answer the question, "Who is my neighbor?"

I call it the proximity principle. I noticed that in Gk, as in English, the word for neighbor comes from the word for "near." (neighborhood, nigh) The neighbor, whom I am called to love, is the person who is near to me. A variety of factors can make someone near to me.

Family members and relatives are near either on account of a blood relationship, or through a solemn acts of adoption or marriage.

Scripture confirms this when it says in 1 Timothy 5:8 "If any one does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his own family, he has disowned the faith and is worse than an unbeliever."

Generally speaking, Christians are nearer to us than non-Christians because we are all members of Christ’s body. We are members of the same spiritual family by being sons and daughters of God. This is an even closer relationship that we have with the members of our human families.

Jesus taught this, when he said, "Who is my mother, brother and sister? The one who hear and the word of God keeps it."

We are "nearer" to some of them geographically, or nearer to some brothers and sisters because we belong to the same Church or parish.

Within the body of Christ there is also a particular "nearness" that belongs to fellow Christians to whom we have explicitly committed ourselves to serve the Lord together, such as our relationships in the community. This is my focus today.

Others, whether Christian or not, are nearer to us on account of friendship (e.g., my friend Mohamed)

or on account of our becoming aware of some need of theirs that we can help fill (Good Samaritan, Rosaleen and Daiva, etc.)

or on account of the Lord bringing them across our path in some other way

e.g.’s, neighbors, people at work, god-children, some of the people the Lord has led Marsha to care for, etc..

It is worth asking the Lord—beyond my family and those in my small group and koinonia, who are the individuals the Lord has given me to care for?