Bulletin Articles
Working Together
The people of God are characterized by work. This is not a drudgery, but a blessing that demonstrates a fellowship of God with His people and His people with one another. Salvation is by grace through faith (Eph 2:8-9), yet God’s grace teaches us to “renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age” as we await the coming of Jesus (Titus 2:11-14). This means that we are to be “zealous for good works” because “we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Eph 2:10). We are to be people who act, not simply hear (Jas 1:22).
One of the beautiful aspects of being God’s people is that we are not alone. We are a body of various members who function in unity with each other. There is a special relationship, a fellowship that we share as brothers and sisters in Christ. One of the reasons Paul thanked God for the Philippian Christians is that they had a “partnership (fellowship) in the gospel from the first day until now” (Phil 1:5). They partook of the grace of God together, and this created a special bond for them.
When Paul writes about his coworkers in the gospel, he does so with obvious and deep affection. One of his requests of the Philippian church was that they help certain women (Euodia and Syntyche), “who have labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life” (Phil 4:3). He dedicates a section of Romans to recognizing those with whom he had worked and who had been encouraging to him. He wrote of Phoebe as a servant who had been his patron and who was to be welcomed in the Lord and helped in whatever way needed (Rom 16:1-2). He wrote of many others with whom he labored, who had risked their lives for each other, and worked hard on behalf of churches for the Lord. Read Romans 16. It is encouraging to see such love expressed and gives us something to imitate in our work together. In our efforts to be disciples after the manner of first century Christians, this kind of fellowship should be sought after and followed.
God’s people still ought to be characterized by the kind of affection and love seen in Paul’s notes about his coworkers. Unfortunately, there have always been detractors. People like “Diotrephes, who likes to put himself first,” will hurt the cause (3 John 9). The Galatians were warned about biting, devouring, and consuming one another (Gal 5:15). Through love we are to serve one another (Gal 5:13), but it is easy to drop our guard and become selfish. This ruins relationships and chokes out the beautiful fellowship of God’s people. This is one reason those who cause divisions are to be marked and avoided, “For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites…” (Rom 16:17-18).
The work of God’s people together needs to be bound in love and unity. Jesus gave His disciples the instruction to “love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” The importance of this follows: “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35). Love, in turn, will result in unity. To stand firm in one spirit and strive together for the faith of the gospel requires “being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind” (Phil 2:2). Unity requires not only love, but humility, as there is nothing to be done through selfish ambition or conceit, “but in humility count others more significant than yourselves” (v. 3). Jesus is the supreme example of this mindset, who demonstrated love in the greatest of ways and acted in humility on our behalf by going to the cross (vv. 5-7). “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus…” (Phil 2:5).
Work, love, unity, humility, and fellowship all go together. There should not be one without the other. These all help us form a beautiful bond in the Lord as we seek to “attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Eph 4:13). Note further how Paul makes these connections: “speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love” (Eph 4:15-16). A body functions well when the members act with love, in unity, and in humility. May God help us to work together in a way that glorifies Him!
