Human Movement and Christian Minds

A lone ranger is a dead ranger—or so the saying goes. In Christianity, the statement is a little more striking: “A lone Christian is an arrogant Christian.” A lone ranger might die because he has no one watching his back, but a lone Christian will die because he has too long neglected some serious responsibilities. When your arm stops performing its responsibilities, it will eventually degenerate into a weak bone, with atrophied muscle tightly wrapped in skin. The same is true for Christian minds.

When you, as a Christian, think of yourself incorrectly, you will fail to understand your responsibilities to the other believers at Church, and as a result you will be a drag on the church like an inactive leg on a person. God has created human movement to keep the entire human fit; so also God has created every Christian to keep the believers fit. A Christian with incorrect mind processes is like a human body with incorrect limb movements.

Romans 12:3 calls us to stop all incorrect thinking about ourselves, but instead to think accurately about ourselves. We are not too good to be part of God’s plan in this world, nor are we too bad—for God has given each of us faith as He decided.

Romans 12:4-5 continues with the first important step in a proper Christian mindset. Verse 4 is an illustration from your human body; verse 5 is the point of the body illustration.

For as in one body we [each of us as humans] have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we [each of us as Christians], though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.

Romans 12:3-4

Pulling it apart, proper Christian minds believe the following:

1. There are lots of us
   (i.e. you are not special, superior, inferior, or exempt)
2. We are united in something greater than us
   (it isn’t about you)
3. I am responsible for my function
   (I may not be absent, nor may I be a busy-body, but I need to make sure that I get my part done right!)

Glancing ahead to Romans 12:6-8 , we are reminded that what our minds believe will soon be evident in what we do (our actual deeds) and how we go about it (our motives and attitudes).

Let us not grow weary, but excel all the more!