Counting the Cost…
03.17.25
(From chapter nine of The Beautiful Community- Irwyn L. Ince Jr.)
“If churches desire to grow into beautiful community, they have to count the cost. Salvation is free, but it’s not cheap. Our salvation cost Jesus his life, and it costs us ours. Jesus says that if we’re going to follow him, we need to be like a builder who’s about to take on a construction project. The builder doesn’t launch into the project thoughtlessly, but first sits down and counts the cost asking, “Do I have enough time, materials, and money to complete this project” (Luke 14:26-28)? Similarly, cultivating beautiful community is not cheap because it is also about discipleship. It will cost you preferences. To put it another way, you will, by necessity, have to die to self for the sake of extending grace to your diverse neighbors. The cultivation of beautiful community is a cruciform pursuit. What preferences do we have that have morphed into idols that need to be destroyed? What preferences do we need to loosen our grip on?
In Romans 15:1-7 we see that counting the cost of cultivating beautiful community is an aspect of discipleship. We don’t find the words beautiful or community in those verses, but that’s what Paul describes when he prays, “May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.”
The strong are strong not to please themselves, but to help sustain and support those who are weak in order to build up one another. By the time Paul’s readers reached this point in his letter he had already set them up for this implication of their lives as Christians back in 5:6-8.
“For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would dare to die, but God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.””