Being a Good Teammate

Introduction

If you have ever played any type of team sports, you have heard many cliches. For example, “There’s no ‘I’ in TEAM.”

"TEAM stands for Together Everyone Achieves More."

"Chains are only as strong as their weakest link."

"A snowflake is one of God's most fragile creations, but look what they can do when they stick together!"

One of my favorites is “Teamwork makes the dreamwork.”

All of these are great sayings about teams. But what does it take to be a good teammate? To stay in the game, you have to be on a great team. To have a great team, you have to be a great teammate. There are several passages of Scripture that could be used to illustrate this. One that comes to mind is that great passage in 1 Corinthians 12 where it speaks of one body and many parts. Romans 12 also speaks of one body with many members in verses 4-8. Romans 12:9-13, however, give us a wonderful description to which if we would adhere, we all would become phenomenal teammates. First, let me define what I mean by a teammate. It simply means “a member of the same team.” It can also mean one that collaborates with you to achieve a goal. When it comes to Christianity, we exist for One God, One Christ and one function to grow the Kingdom of God. Listen to what God’s Word says in Romans 12:9-13

Romans 12:9–13 NIV84

9 Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10 Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. 11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 13 Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.

There are four distinct ways you and I can be a good teammate as Christians. First, we need to practice with authenticity.

Practice with Authenticity (vs. 9)

There is nothing worse that a person that claims to be a Christian but continually does things that are not Christlike. Paul stresses first and foremost, love must be sincere.

Love must be sincere

The word for love here is indeed agape. It is unconditional love. However, the Greek text does not just have agape. It has ho es agape. It literally means, “The things that be of unconditional love.”

The very foundation for being a good teammate is sincere love. It is the foundation for all believers. Love spells out in the rest of these verses all the conduct of the Christian. It covers the Christian inside and outside of the church. It is love that gives us salvation.

Romans 5:8 NIV84

8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Paul says love must be sincere. The word of sincere is anupokritos. It means genuine and without hypocrisy. How many times have you heard someone say, “I think the church is full of hypocrites.” Where do you think that statement originated? I don’t know for sure, but I would be willing to say that it started when someone was not shown sincere love. We as Christians must love sincere. We must love genuinely without hypocrisy.

Just as we love sincerely, we must also hate what is evil.

Hate what is evil

Theologian Leon Morris wrote, “True love involves a deep hatred for all that is evil, for evil can never benefit the beloved.”

2 Timothy 2:22 NIV84

22 Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

Sincere love weeds out anything that is evil. Therefore, when we practice authenticity, we will cling to that which is good.

Cling to what is good

The word for cling means glue together. The Christian is committed to the way of goodness. The Christian’s whole life will be wrapped up in it.

Psalm 97:10 NIV84

10 Let those who love the Lord hate evil, for he guards the lives of his faithful ones and delivers them from the hand of the wicked.

Amos 5:15 NIV84

15 Hate evil, love good; maintain justice in the courts. Perhaps the Lord God Almighty will have mercy on the remnant of Joseph.

1 Thessalonians 5:21–22 NIV84

21 Test everything. Hold on to the good. 22 Avoid every kind of evil.

Secondly, to be a good teammate, we must play with allegiance.

Play with Allegiance (vs. 10)

Have you ever seen anybody play on a team that did not want to play on that team? It is easy to spot that player! If you want to stay in the game, you need to play with allegiance and the first step to do so is to be devoted.

Be devoted

The King James Version uses the words, “be kindly affectioned.” That is a closer and more accurate meaning of the original text. The word for devoted comes from the Greek word philostorgos and it means to have the mutual love of parents and children or that love between husbands and wives. It means loving tenderly. When we are devoted, we are showing affection and fondness to one another. We are to be devoted to one another and to show brotherly love.

Show brotherly love

The word here is actually philadelphia. It is in the New Testament as the love which Christians cherish for each other. In fact, it is a love only found characteristic of Christians as there are no examples of brotherly love outside of Christian writings.

A great example of this is found in Philippians 2:3

Philippians 2:3 NIV84

3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.

and also in

Ephesians 5:21 NIV84

21 Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Paul says to “Honor one another above yourselves.”

Others before self

There’s a concept… others before self. I think it is important to look at what the word honor means and the word in Greek from which it comes from. It is pronounced tee-MAY and it means precious. If you take the Greek to English spelling of the word, it is spelled T-I-M-E. I can’t help but think that if we are putting others before self, we are giving them time.

How are you honoring those on your team? Let me ask this in a different way, how are we honoring one another, our fellow Christians, within our church? I think this is an important question for Christians today. We need to practice with authenticity, we need to play with allegiance, and we need to perform with assurance.

Perform with Assurance (vs. 11-12)

Romans 12:11–12 NIV84

11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.

Be zealous

We need to be zealous. This means we are not to be slothful in our Christian walk. We are to be diligent and we are to do so by keeping our spiritual fervor.

Be hot

The word fervor literally means to boil with heat. We are to be hot! There are two verses that come to mind to help understand this more.

Matthew 5:14 NIV84

14 “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.

Revelation 3:15 NIV84

15 I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other!

If nothing burns, there is no light.

Be all in

To stay in the game we must perform with assurance that we are on the winning team and therefore we must be all in. Now let me get something straight, we are saved by grace. There is absolutely nothing we can do to earn our salvation. Ephesians 2:8

Ephesians 2:8 NIV84

8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—

However, when we are saved, we are compelled to be all in and that happens by serving the Lord. The more we serve, the more we move closer to God! We are reminded that the natural progression when we serve the Lord is to be joyful.

Be joyful

In fact, Paul says “Be joyful in hope.” Joy and hope make great partners! Paul says in Romans 5:1-2

Romans 5:1–2 NIV84

1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

Philippians 4:4 NIV84

4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!

Leon Morris wrote, “Hope lifts the Christian out of (one’s) present difficult circumstances and rejoicing is the inevitable result.”

When you are a good teammate, you will be joyful. You also will be patient.

Be patient

“Great! You just has to throw that in there Paul, didn’t you?” Actually, Paul says to “be patient in affliction.” Patient means to remain, to abide, tarry behind and hold fast. Affliction means trouble, anguish, and oppression. When he writes “be patient in affliction,” Paul means to be patient more than being frustrated in a drive-through line. He is talking about active steadfast endurance. In other words, it is not just a pin-prick or dealing with some discomfort. It is being with your teammate in the trenches and helping them fight the battle. It is being the truth of

Ecclesiastes 4:9 NIV84

9 Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work:

Paul adds another simple way to be a good teammate by saying to be faithful in prayer.

Be prayerful

Paul uses “prayer” 36 times in the New Testament. He himself was constantly praying. I am reminded here that faithful prayer is constant, persistent, habitual yet alive and refreshing. Further study of the word for prayer, proseuche (pros-yoo-khay), shows that it not only means prayer addressed to God, but it is also a place of prayer. It was another name for a synagogue or a place outside of the city where they went to pray when they had no synagogue. We should be known as a people of prayer and our church should be known as a place of constant and consistent prayer! Prayer ought to happen in every event that is held inside these walls. We need to come together often as teammates praying together.

We need to practice authenticity, play with allegiance, and perform with assurance. But a good teammate will also provide accommodation.

Provide Accommodation (vs. 13)

Romans 12:13 NIV84

13 Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.

Sharing with God’s people literally means to share with the saints. The word for people is hagios which means saint.

Sharing with the saints

Did you know that as a child of God, you are a saint? Psalm 34:9

Psalm 34:9 NIV84

9 Fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him lack nothing.

Seek eagerly

Sharing, by the way, indicates that we are to seek eagerly. We are to look for the needs and how we can meet those needs. The word for share is koinonea. It means to come in communion with or fellowship with or to become a partner. Interestingly, it is not just sharing with those we already know. We are called to enter into koinonea with strangers.

Serve strangers

We serve strangers by practicing hospitality. It is not a social exercise among friends but the use of one’s home to even help people we do not know to advance God’s cause.

One author summed it up this way: “Christian hospitality must inconvenience us more than that of the world; we do not choose out time or our guests.” -Leenhardt

Can I give you an example of this? There is a lady that you know who quietly has been serving a stranger. She had become acquainted with a lady in her neighborhood that is from Ukraine. She is a Christian and a refugee from her war-torn home. In fact, I understand that after she had left, her home was indeed destroyed. A relationship has been developed and they are teaching each other their respective language. They have sewn together and they have sung together about their Lord. They are sisters in Christ and can encourage each other because of a single decision to provide accommodation. This lady has become a missionary to a war ravaged country and never left her neighborhood to do it! Do you see how big our God is and how great is His work?

God puts people in our path to which we can practice hospitality. When we are obedient to the truths of these scriptures, God is glorified, His Kingdom grows, and He helps us to be good teammates!

But, in order to be a good teammate, you have to get on the team. There are no tryouts nor limited spaces, just one question: Do you believe with all your heart that Jesus is Lord and confess Him as your Lord and Savior? If the answer to that is yes, then get busy being a good teammate! If the answer is no, join us today by trusting Jesus as your Savior!