"We who are strong are not just to satisfy our own desires..." Romans 15:1-6

Paul is letting us know what we are saved for, not “just to satisfy our own desires” but “to carry the weaknesses of those who are not strong.”  We are to model our freedom in Christ Jesus, not just to demonstrate what freedoms we have because we have been set free from the law, but to pursue the welfare of our neighbor by acknowledging their weaknesses by encouraging and praying for them so that they will also become strong.  We are to inspire maturity in Christ that our neighbor may develop trust and assurance in an abiding relationship with Jesus which can take them further than where they are now.

There is a question that came up in our Home Church last night, what are we saved from? And what are we saved to?  We are saved from the power of sin and death.  To drill-down and define that even further, we are saved from dead works which do not have the power of the zoe life of Christ.  These type of works do not stem from faith, and Paul tells us that what does not come from faith is sin.  (Romans 14:23)  So if we are saved from this type of death, we are saved to live in Christ Jesus who is full of zoe life and truth.

 “…I am the Way, I am the Truth, and I am the Life. No one comes next to the Father except through union with me. To know me is to know my Father too.   

John 14:6 (TPT)

We are to live in this maturity (or knowledge) of Christ on a perpetual basis, constantly being replenished by His zoe life as He abides within us.  Paul understood that we could be a hindrance to others becoming stronger if we used this knowledge as a means of puffing ourselves up and showing others what we have attained and how much we have grown in Christ.  That was never the purpose of our relationship in Christ, our purpose was always to elevate others, to serve others that they may see Jesus within us and desire that life for themselves.

We have had too many examples of top-down leadership which is based on human effort and business models which has not produced the Kingdom as Jesus had desired.  Jesus demonstrated a bottom-up leadership style as a servant to empower others to serve in the same way.  The whole reason for bottom-up leadership is to show that God can build a church from the ground up through a relationship with Himself and others through love, rather than through authoritarian leadership which puts man at the top of the chain as having the ultimate authority and power.  

The Church was never meant to be this way, it was meant for us all to be equipped and empowered as equal ministers and share the gifts that God has given us for one another that we might build each other up together as a body and as a family.

Our purpose is to set the bar by serving and loving others and bring each person to that level of maturity as that bar by demonstrating Christ through our lives in such a way that they see Jesus in us through our actions and our spirit of love.

Paul makes mention of something remarkable in 2 Corinthians 3:2-3 that needs to be mentioned here, that there is an unread epistle of Jesus that has yet to be discovered, it is written by Jesus Himself and not by Paul or Peter or any one of the other apostles, and it is the most dynamic and amazing record of Jesus ever recorded and we have just become aware of it.  Where is it?  It is written on the tablet of your heart.  

Your life is that dynamic living epistle which is being written day by day by the hand of Jesus.  It tells the story of Jesus in such a way as only your life can tell.  He is maturing you and building you up to become confident in His strength in all things, other people read this epistle of Jesus which is coming from your life and they can know what He is like by your continued growth in Him. 

This is the ongoing manifestation of the Kingdom in your life.  Connected, we are one voice, one Church, and one body, which is moving forward in unity with Jesus that He may be at the center of all things.

I am so thankful for Paul, Peter and the other apostles who started us on our path to know Jesus by writing down all of these insights from their own experiences in Jesus that we might get a head start in the faith of Christ.  

But that isn’t the end of the story, it is only the beginning, for we are the continuance of the story by our connection to Christ Jesus and His life within us.  His Kingdom is coming and His rule will prevail on earth just as it is in Heaven, from the bottom up.

Be Blessed;

Stephen Barnett