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Todd, thanks for the comments.
" Whether you work for an hour feeding the homeless at a soup kitchen, or move your family halfway around the world to share the Gospel, everything you do should be done for God's glory and reign (kingdom). To do otherwise would be to place a burden on God such that, at the time of judgment, He owes you something for your good works."
There are certainly enough stories of people working with the wrong motives, and many continue to get support for their ministries. There are even proponents of house church who might be in it for the wrong reasons. I am usually careful about these things.
The thought behind my post was that we should always "consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds." (Hebrews 10:24-25 NIV)
The main emphasis was not about financial support. My concern is that lukewarm believers might use the egalitarian concepts to protect their own egos. Or at the least those who are not lukewarm might view anyone with suspicion who needs to serve God in a way that is different than the way they do.
Who am I to say or even think that someone serves in a soup kitchen or travels around the world so that God will owe them something? In fact, Paul said that he would rejoice even when someone preached the Gospel for the wrong reason! (Phil 1:15-18)
The history of the church is also filled with men and women who inspired others to live more earnestly for Christ and His message of the kingdom. Even monastic movements have been known to spark revivals elsewhere. In my opinion we could use a few more crazy on-fire Christians today.
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Hey Dan,
Sorry if I made it sound like this was all about financial support. Those just happened to be a few examples off the top of my head.
I completely understand what you're saying about encouraging others in their faith even when they are different from us. As I've gotten older I've learned to set aside my urge to disagree and instead allow for differences. I you may well know, I've focused a lot on 1 John 4 as my guide for unity in the faith. So long as you can say that you believe that Jesus is God Incarnate, come in the flesh to save us from our sins then you are my brother/sister in Christ. All else is interesting but seemingly irrelevant.
I looked over Phil 1:15-18 as you suggested. I'm not sure what to make of it given Paul's strong defense elsewhere in Scripture of the truths of the Gospel. I'll need to noodle on this further.
Anyway, back to your original point about egalitarianism "tend[ing] toward equal levels of mediocrity". I certainly hope that this would never be the case. As 1 Cor 12:12-27 says...
12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.
13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.
14 For the body does not consist of one member but of many.
15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body.
16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body.
17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell?
18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose.
19 If all were a single member, where would the body be?
20 As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.
21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.”
22 On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable,
23 and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty,
24 which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it,
25 that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.
26 If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.
27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.
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Todd, thanks for bringing up the topic of the One Body of Christ. It is very close to my heart!
26 If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.
27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.
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Comment to Egalitarianism and the pursuit of excellence