God Running is a place for anyone who wants to (or even anyone who wants to want to) love Jesus more deeply, follow Jesus more closely, and love people the way Jesus wants us to.

In our last post from Romans, we learned about how relationships are the fuel of life. If you’re interested, you can read more here: “Relationships are the Fuel of Life–Romans 1:11-12”. In today’s post we’ll learn about seven attributes of Paul’s leadership.

Romans 1:7-15

To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God’s will I may now at last succeed in coming to you. For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you— that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine. I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.

7 Attributes of Paul’s Leadership

Today I was reading about an author who had one of the greatest impacts on leadership in modern times. His name is Ken Blanchard, the author of the book The One Minute Manager. More than 15 million copies of that book have been sold. If you’re a leader in any type of organization, private sector, public sector, any sector, or, if you’ve participated in leadership education or training, you’ve probably read that book. Something I didn’t know about Blanchard is that his book was so extremely successful, he had a hard time accepting credit for his own success. That experience inspired him to start thinking about God. He began reading the Bible and he was struck by the greatness of Jesus’ leadership. What Blanchard saw in Jesus was the greatest leader of all time. Everything Blanchard had taught about leadership, Jesus did perfectly, and, Jesus did exceedingly more. (Gumbel)

Today we’re learning about seven attributes of Paul’s leadership and as you read, I want you to keep in mind Paul’s words about imitating Jesus. Paul wrote: “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 11:1)

1) Grace:

“Grace to you . . .” Paul writes in verse 7. Paul desires for the people in Rome, God and Christ’s grace. He wants for them undeserved, unmerited, free blessings and help from God and Christ. He desires good for the believers in Rome.

2) Peace:

“. . . and peace.” (verse 7) Paul wants for the people in Rome, the peace of God and the Lord Jesus Christ. As an aside, something I’ve noticed in the lives of the people around me is: The degree to which a person embraces the Lordship of Jesus Christ, is the degree to which a person experiences the peace of Christ. This is true independent of their circumstances. Much of what we see written by Paul are admonishments for us believers to surrender ourselves completely to Jesus’ Lordship.

3) Gratitude:

“First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world.” (verse 8) Paul is grateful for the people in Rome. It’s interesting to see what happens to a relationship when I’m intentional about fostering gratitude for a person. Almost without exception, that relationship is a happy and healthy one. One of the best moves I ever made was starting a gratitude journal. In it, I often write about why I’m thankful for specific people in my life. Also, Paul is blessed by the strong faith of the believers in Rome. As the Apostle John wrote in 3 John 1:4, “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.” I love the way John expresses this dynamic. If you’re a parent, you know: You’re filled with gratitude toward God for your children. And your hope is for the faith of your children to exceed your own.

4) Prayer:

“. . . without ceasing I mention you always in my prayers . . .” (verses 9-10) Part of Paul’s love for the people of Rome is expressed through his prayers for them. In fact, Paul says, he prays for them without ceasing!

5) Affection:

“For I long to see you . . .” (verse 11) Paul has a longing for the people of Rome, he has an affection for the people of Rome. The other day I was reading about micro expressions, and how people can tell when we’re faking it. When we don’t genuinely feel something, it shows on our face, either through our facial expressions, or, even if we’re doing a decent job of faking it, through micro expressions. These are facial expressions that are only present for a fraction of a second. And people can recognize these micro expressions. They can tell when our affection isn’t genuine. But the good news is, they can also tell when our affection is genuine. Genuine affection makes loving and helping people easy and natural. “Love turns work into rest.” Teresa of Avila once wrote. Paul had genuine affection for the people in Rome, and that empowered him to communicate the love of Jesus to those people. (If you’re interested, you can read more about Paul’s affection for the Roman believers here: “Relationships are the Fuel of Life–Romans 1:11-12”.) (Van Edwards)

6) Engagement:

“. . . that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.” (verse 12) Paul desired to engage with the people in Rome. He wanted intimate face to face human interaction with the people in Rome. The way Paul lived, his dopamine was invested in a specific type of engagement, in-real-life human-to-human interaction. I think this is so important for you and for me as Jesus followers. We need to be the same as Paul. It’s a waste when we squander our dopamine on entertainment or video games or social media. When we do that our ability to love people is diminished. Each of us only has so much dopamine available to us. We need to invest it wisely. We need to invest it the way Jesus and Paul invested theirs.

7) Diversity:

“I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish.” (verse 14) Paul longed to engage all the believers in Rome, not just those believers who belonged to Paul’s people group. Paul longed to see people who were different than Paul and people who sinned differently than Paul. And Paul recognized the love of Jesus is meant for everyone, not only the people who were like Paul.

Grace, Peace, Gratitude, Prayer, Affection, Engagement, and Diversity. The list is not exhaustive but what we see here in Romans 1 are seven important attributes of Paul’s leadership.

“Lord, have mercy on me and on the dear person reading this right now. Lord, we’re like little children down here, trying to find our way. Please, by the power of Your Holy Spirit impart these attributes of godly leadership upon us today. Bless us with inspired lives. Lives that please You.

“In Jesus’ name we ask this of You.

“Amen.”

Notes:

The Bible with Nicky and Pippa Gumbel, Day 194

Ken Blanchard and Phil Hodges, Lead Like Jesus: Lessons from the Greatest Leadership Role Model of All Time, Thomas Nelson, 2008

Vanessa Van Edwards, Captivate: The Science of Succeeding with People, Portfolio, 2017

Image of affectionate friends by Helena_Lopes from Freerange Stock

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Love Like Jesus: How Jesus Loved People (and how you can love like Jesus)

Love Like Jesus begins with the story of how after a life of regular church attendance and Bible study, Bennett was challenged by a pastor to study Jesus. That led to an obsessive seven year deep dive. After pouring over Jesus’ every interaction with another human being, he realized he was doing a much better job of studying Jesus’ words than he was following Jesus’ words and example. The honest and fearless revelations of Bennett’s own moral failures affirm he wrote this book for himself as much as for others. Love Like Jesus examines a variety of stories, examples, and research, including:

• Specific examples of how Jesus communicated God’s love to others.
• How Jesus demonstrated all five of Gary Chapman’s love languages (and how you can too).
• The story of how Billy Graham extended Christ’s extraordinary love and grace toward a man who misrepresented Jesus to millions.
• How to respond to critics the way Jesus did.
• How to love unlovable people the way Jesus did.
• How to survive a life of loving like Jesus (or how not to become a Christian doormat).
• How Jesus didn’t love everyone the same (and why you shouldn’t either).
• How Jesus guarded his heart by taking care of himself–he even napped–and why you should do the same.
• How Jesus loved his betrayer Judas, even to the very end.

With genuine unfiltered honesty, Love Like Jesus, shows you how to live a life according to God’s definition of success: A life of loving God well, and loving the people around you well too.

A life of loving like Jesus. (Kindle, hardcover, and paperback now available on Amazon and the ebook is now available on Google Play Books.)