Reflections:Â Working it out
As the gospel spreads throughout the world, new communities of believers are planted in new places, drawing together people from different backgrounds, experiences, ethnicities, and statuses. This creates challenges as they seek to learn to be family to one another and to be on mission together so that the gospel might be seen and spoken in and through their lives. The letters of the New Testament contain practical instructions and applied theology as the leaders of the early church seek to help these new communities live out their faith in practice. This is always done together – all the ‘yous’ here in Romans 12 are plural. The church is to be a community that lives differently to the world around it, in ways that please God and demonstrate his character to the world. Here is where we find ourselves in the story.
Questions:Â How does it change how you read this passage to read it as written to the community, the church, rather than just to you personally? In what ways is God calling you to be more and more different to those around as you re-story the world that Jesus is making new?
Prayers:Â Merciful God, we can never repay you for all you have done for us, but we want to respond with worship that brings you honour and makes your name great. Show us how to live more and more in your will, so that you might be seen in and through us.