This week we spent two days in Romans 12:10: love each other with genuine affection, and go first in honoring each other. Six verses later Paul writes:
“Live in harmony with each other. Don’t be too proud to enjoy the company of ordinary people. And don’t think you know it all!” (Romans 12:16)
Harmony isn’t unison. In unison, everyone sings the same note. In harmony, sopranos, altos, tenors, and basses each sing a different part, and the parts fit together into one sound.
Paul’s phrase is about the mind. In Greek it reads, roughly, “setting your minds on the same thing toward one another.” The verb is phroneō, to think or set your mind on something. It appears twice in this verse, and a related word, phronimoi, closes it: don’t be wise in your own eyes. Paul comes back to the mind three times in one verse.
He uses the same phrase in Romans 15:5: “May God, who gives this patience and encouragement, help you live in complete harmony with each other.” He wrote that right after a whole chapter about believers who disagreed. Some ate anything, and some ate only vegetables. Some thought one day was more holy than another, and some thought every day was alike. Paul didn’t make them settle it. He told each of them to be fully convinced (Romans 14:5), and then he prayed for harmony anyway.
So harmony doesn’t mean we all hold the same opinions. It means we hold the same mind toward each other. Paul names that mind in Philippians with the same verb: “You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had” (Philippians 2:5). Jesus humbled himself. That’s the key the whole church sings in.
Then Paul adds, “Don’t be too proud to enjoy the company of ordinary people.” The verb behind “enjoy the company” is synapagō, to be carried along with someone. It appears only three times in the New Testament. In the other two, people get carried away by hypocrisy (Galatians 2:13) and by error (2 Peter 3:17). Here Paul turns the word around: let yourself get carried along with the lowly.
Pride breaks harmony faster than any disagreement. A person who knows it all can only sing solo.
Who in your church sings a different part than you do? What would it take to sing alongside them this week?
On Tuesday: Romans 13:8, “Owe nothing to anyone—except for your obligation to love one another.”
In His grace,
Bruce
Grace. Always grace.
Bruce Mitchell is a Christ-follower, loved by grace and learning to love one another as He commanded. He studied at Biola University and Dallas Theological Seminary, spent most of his working life as an accountant, and founded Agapao Allelon Ministries to share the love of Jesus with anyone looking for grace.
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“Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.” 1 Peter 4:8 (ESV)