Could you imagine being part a group of people who genuinely prefer one another to themselves? When the biggest portion of cake is on the table, it’s offered to the other person. When the opportunity for appreciation and recognition comes, it’s passed on to someone else. When the possibility of a free holiday is made, it’s suggested it goes to someone else in need.
Perhaps this sounds like a bit of a pipe dream, or perhaps an idealistic utopian fantasy? And yet it is exactly this kind of preferring one another that Paul calls his readers to in his letters.
“Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honour giving preference to one another.” Romans 12 v 10
I remember hearing my friend Dave’s experience of a church community he visited in Pakistan. Although they were poor and had very little in terms of material things, their preference for one another was incredible. They genuinely saw the things they owned not as their own, but as belonging to all in the church family, as any had need. My friend Dave can be quite direct (and like many of us Brits at times cynical), and so he really wanted to find out whether this way of living was genuine. Speaking with one of the church leaders he noticed that he owned a motorbike, which of course in such a poverty-stricken area was quite a privilege. “What would you do if a member of the church asked to have your motorbike?” Dave asked. Looking at Dave in a rather confused and yet thoughtful way the church leader responded, “We would spend some time working out who really has the greater need, and the one with the greater need would have the motorbike.”
Surely this isn’t possible we all cry! It would be a free for all! And yet isn’t this the same kind of thing we see outworking in the life of the early church?
“Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common.” Acts 4 v 32
Paul writes to the Philippians.
“Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.”
Philippians 2 v 4
I give thanks that I have been blessed over the years by several people in our church family (and beyond) that live in this way. When we have faced financial challenges, people have offered us sacrificial sums of money. When we felt called to take a sabbatical in America many people gave. I thank God for these moments, because they remind me that ‘Kingdom Living’ means living in a way that says to those around you ‘I prefer you’.
As we look to live more fully in the Kingdom of God, may our love for Jesus and His Gospel teach us to live in a radical, life giving way. May we grow more and more into a community that does not only look to our own interests, but also to the interests of others. And may we, both individually and as a church family truly, in honour prefer one another.
– Tim Barton