What’s in It for Me?

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

I wonder if you’ve had this experience: you are listening to a sermon and suddenly realize the main points of application have little obvious connection to your situation. The explanation of the text is true, and the illustrations are helpful, but the application seems to be oriented toward someone else. Perhaps the text is speaking to those who are suffering, but right now the Lord has you on a fairly level path. Maybe the application is for parents who are raising covenant children, but you are childless or your children are grown. What do you do with the “Husbands, love your wives” passages when you remain single? It’s a fair question.

In Romans 12 (cf. Ephesians 4:25) we read about an essential reality for the Christian: we are not mere individuals, but rather members of one another within the body of Christ. This transformative truth informs how we live alongside one another — Romans 12 is largely about life together in the church, after all — and how we hear Scripture as it is preached. The problem (at least for me) is that we often find ourselves only listening for application that relates to what we perceive as our greatest need. Put a bit differently, we want application that addresses what we believe is most essential about our individual selves and our personal lives. For some, that’s singleness; for others, it may be a wayward child; and still for others, it could be their cancer.

Let me offer a suggestion: consider how the application calls you to participate in the lives of those around you more than how it speaks directly to your situation. Rather than asking, “What’s in it for me?” ask, “What’s in it for us?” This is essential to the Christian faith — that we are all members of the same body. So when a passage speaks to husbands and wives, but you are single, consider how it encourages you to pray well for your married friends. Or when the text relates to those who are suffering, store up those points of application in your memory for the time the Lord brings you through the fire and the water. Or when the passage is about raising covenant children, yet you have no children, remember the vows you took to undertake together with the parents the Christian nurture of their covenant children.

In the final analysis, the best remedy for feeling like the text doesn’t speak to you is to remember that we are all members of one another. If we approach the Christian life with others in mind, all points of application will begin to have more relevance to our daily pilgrimage, especially as we journey together alongside our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Rev. Kyle Lockhart, Associate Pastor