“Love One Another”: A Spirituality of Organizational Citizenship Behavior

Abstract

The writers of the New Testament use a variety of images to portray the reality of the church as a building being fitted together to accomplish God’s purposes. Members are described as living stones that are being added to Jesus as the cornerstone and the foundation that is laid with the apostles and prophets. The image of the body provides the most comprehensive analogy of the humble interdependence and reciprocal submission to one another that is to characterize the church. According to this image, believers are members of the body of Christ and members of one another. These images are used to emphasize the fact of the church and to describe the position of the believers in Christ. However, these positional truths are also intended to inform the daily practice of the believers as they live out the unified diversity and mutual interdependence depicted in the many images of the church.