To wrap up the question we have been considering is the fact that the best thing for both the church and the community is God and His Word. Therefore, the number one function of the individual church member to serve in the church and the community is—to serve God.

We must walk in the light if we want to serve the church and our community. “But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). Our example of how we live our lives is key to how we serve the church and our community. “Therefore be imitators of God as dear children” (Eph. 5:1). But if we want to actually pull this off, we must walk in love and offer ourselves as a sweet-smelling aroma. “And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma” (Eph. 5:2). If we desire to change the world, we must walk with God. “Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?” (Amos 3:3).

Over the past several weeks, we have talked about several functions the individual church member serves in the church and community, but In actuality, our function in both the church and the community is to serve God to the best of our ability. This is the greatest way we can serve the church and our community. Paul recorded, “Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ” (1 Cor. 11:1). Our function in the church and the community is to imitate Christ. This is accomplished by imitating the mind of Christ. “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 2:5). When we start to think like Christ and see the world and the people in it as He saw them, then we will serve our community and church, because He saw people as souls in need of salvation. “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10).

We also need to see ourselves as servants, just as Christ understood He was a servant. “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). In order to understand our function in either the church or the community, we must understand that we are servants and be willing to serve. “But Jesus called them to Himself and said to them, ‘You know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant. And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all’” (Mark 10:42-44).

If we are going to be a servant of the Most High God, we must be offered as a sweet-smelling aroma, which means we must offer ourselves as living sacrifices to Him. “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service” (Rom. 12:1). The question under consideration for several weeks now has been—what function do individual church members serve in the church and the community? The answer is none, if they first do not serve God. Our reasonable service is being a living sacrifice to God, and our function in the church and the community is to “fear God keep and His commandments, for this is man’s all” (Eccl. 12:13).

Just something to consider.