“...the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.”
– 1 Timothy 3:15

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18. COMMUNITY FORMATION

We have more or less covered the epistle to the Romans except for chapters 15 (latter half) & 16, which we hope to do so in the next article. In the process, we have taken the platform of community formation as our principal approach to understanding the epistle. We believe that if there is any over-arching theological theme that will serve as the master key to unlock the apostle Paul’s writings to the Romans, it will be this: that Paul was writing to the Roman church to persuade them to tone down their hubris and belligerence towards one another along the Jew-Gentile divide, and to discard the non-caring and indifferent attitude that the ‘strong’ have towards the ‘weak’. In other words, it is all about taking care of one another with the single goal of community formation and building-up.

In coming to this end, the apostle uses every ounce of his spiritual intellect and force of persuasion (‘I have written you quiet boldly on some points’, he tells them almost towards the close of his epistle; see 15:15) to convince his Roman audience to ‘live in harmony with one another’ (12:16); and in the process, he gives us his majestic treatise on the doctrine of justification by faith (principally, 3:21-chapter 5). He precedes this with his reduction of Jew and Gentile alike to the common level ground of ‘all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God’ and therefore ‘there is no one righteous’ (3:23; 2:10) and thus, all stand before God condemned as sinners. The only way for Jew and Gentile alike to escape from this condemnation is to have faith in Christ and to obtain a righteousness from God that justifies them and removes from them the stain of sin (chapters 1-5).

This, the Roman Christians have done; having heard the gospel and obeyed it and have been united with Christ through their being baptized into Christ. They are now no longer their old sinful selves, which have been buried with Christ in baptism. With those sinful selves sunk in the watery grave of baptism, they are now raised to lead a very different kind of life, a life that is new, so to speak; a life that is free from sin and which is in accordance with the measure of the grace of God and the control of the Spirit (chapters 6-8).

They, therefore, have to reflect this new life, not only in their own individual integral living, but also in their communal living with one another as the community of the people of God, saved and shaped by the grace of God. Lest they have not imbibed the lessons presented at the beginning of the epistle, Paul grinds through the road once again. The Christian who is a Jew should not want to cling to his Jewish privileges or insists on his righteousness through the law. By the same token, the Christian who is a Gentile should not dwell on his pride for long for having come to the same privileged position as the Jews (grafted in and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive tree, 11:17) and to a certain extent, displaced some of them. After all, it is still the prerogative of God to show ‘mercy on whom he wants to have mercy’ (9:18). Jews and Gentiles alike must plumb ‘the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God’ (11:33) to understand the will of God for them to live side by side in peace as truly the community of God’s people on earth (chapters 9-11).

The way to go about this is for the Roman Christians to offer their ‘bodies as living sacrifices’. They are not to conform to worldly ways and values; rather, they are to transform themselves through a remaking of their mind (12:1-2). As they constitute the spiritual body of Christ on earth, they need to know that it is God’s will for them to act in such a manner, that though they are many and all have different gifts, they should maintain the polity of unity that is the body of Christ. Differences in gifts should not give way to the sharpening of personal egos to the detriment of the community. Instead, the diversities should be harnessed and offered in service to God and to enhance the community’s growth and well-being. In intra-community relationships, the guiding principle is sincere love; in extra-community, it is the principle of ‘peace with everyone’. Yet all these can be summed up in one single principle: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself’. ‘Love does no harm to its neighbour’ (chapters 12-13).

As a practical play-out of this ‘love-neighbour’ principle, the apostle urges the strong to accept the weak and to bear with their failings. They are not to be overly judgemental against their weaker counterparts. Instead they ought to use their superior faith to ‘make every effort to do what leads to peace and mutual edification’ (14:19). All this is necessary because God accepts and Christ died for the weak and the strong, making no distinction of favour between the two. The weak is a brother and community formation demands that he be treated as such. Disputable matters ought not to come into the way of community harmony and unity. After all, ‘the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking [nonessentials], but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit’ (14:17) (chapters 14-15).

Archive
The Romans Series
1. Being the Community of God’s People
2. Ethno-Religious Tensions
3. The Power and the Wrath of God
4. Justification by Faith
5. Justification Brings Blessings
6. While We Were Still Sinners
7. Died to Sin
8. Slaves to Righteousness
9. The Difference of the Spirit
10. The Israel Problem
11. The Gentile Problem
12. Community Living
13. Community Unity
14. Community Ethics
15. Loving the Enemy Ethic
16. Extra-Community Ethics
17. The Weak and the Strong
18. Community Formation
19. Paul, the Minister
20. Gems in Greetings

Articles on The Da Vinci Code, Gnosticism and
the Gospel of Judas
1. The Da Vinci Code: A Christian Response
2. The Nag Hammadi Documents and Gnosticism
3. The Gospel of Judas
4. The Gospel of Judas - A Retake
5. Teachings in the Gospel of Judas Compared (Part 1)
6. Teachings in the Gospel of Judas Compared (Part 2)
7. Teachings in the Gospel of Judas Compared (Part 3)
8. Canonicity and the Gospel of Judas

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