If you are a member of a congregation that is faithful to the sound preaching of the Gospel, the right administration of the sacraments, prayer, and the faithful practice of church discipline, you have every reason to be thankful and to give yourself diligently to developing your Christian life. God has appointed the means of grace for the growth of His people.

A significant downside to living in an affluent country with endless organizations, service opportunities, and events is that professing believers can begin to grow discontent with the ministry of the ordinary means of grace in the context of Lord’s Day worship in a local church. They then begin to grow discontent with serving those in the same body of believers as needs arise. When this begins to happen, individuals start to look for programatic ministries that makes them feel useful in their Christian lives. God has called pastors to minister His word, prayer, the sacraments, and discipline for the loving upbuilding and equipping of the saints (Eph. 4:1–16). He has not called them to structure the life of the church in such a way as to programitize Christian living. In fact, that sort of mindset is entirely absent from the pages of the New Testament. Christian living in the New Testament epistles is entirely Spirit-wrought and is organic in nature.  

In the New Testament, we discover a myriad of “one another” commands. These are calls for believers to live in loving community with one another, caring for the needs of one another, and collectively living out organic Christian lives among one another. For instance, the apostle Paul charged Christians to “bear with the failings of the weak” (Rom. 15:1), to “be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another” (Rom. 12:10), to “lay something aside, on the first day of the week, as we may prosper” (1 Cor. 16:1), to “serve one another through love” (Gal. 5:13), to “bear one another’s burdens” (Gal. 6:2), to “share all good things with the one who teaches” (Gal. 6:6), to “do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith” (Gal. 6:10), to “bear with one another in love, with all lowliness and gentleness, with long-suffering” (Eph. 4:2), to “be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you” (Eph. 4:32), to “let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in our hearts to the Lord.” (Col. 3:16), to “increase and abound in love to one another and to all” (1 Thess. 3:12). 

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