What should the Body of Christ look like?

After describing how the body of Christ works together in grace and power (see Romans 12:3-8), Paul described Christ’s body behaving this way (verses 9-21):
-Letting love be completely real.
-Abhorring what is evil.
-Clinging to what is good.
-Being devoted to one another in family-like love.
-Outdoing one another in giving honor.
-Serving the Lord with an ardent spirit and in all diligence.
-Rejoicing in hope.
-Being patient in troubles.
-Being devoted constantly to prayer.
-Contributing to the needs of the saints.
-Pursuing (running after) hospitality.
-Blessing persecutors and not cursing them.
-Being joyful with those who are rejoicing and being sorrowful with those in sorrow.
-Living in harmony with each other.
-Not being haughty, but fitting right in with the lowly, in human terms.
-Not seeing oneself as wise. Never repaying evil for evil.
-Having due regard for what everyone takes to be right.
-Being at peace with everyone, so far as it depends on you.
-Never taking revenge, but leaving that to whatever God may decide.
-Providing for needy enemies.
-Not being overwhelmed by evil, but overwhelming evil with good. 

TODAY’S EXPERIMENT - Imagine yourself as part of a group of disciples of Jesus who made this list their shared intention and actually lived it out. Your group would operate as a small group or even as a church and do the normal things that groups do, but effort and discussion would be focused on doing those things as described above. 

Perhaps every group meeting would begin by savoring God’s grace and power and envisioning life together such as this. All planning would flow from these goals. 

What would marriages in such a group be like? How would that congregation interact with its community? How would disagreements be solved? What would you like most about such a group? What aspect of love (listed above) would you cherish most in that group? How would you be changed by experiencing a group such as this? Seeing yourself as whole? Abandoning defensiveness? Extending yourself in blessing to others? To what group is God calling you to be such a group member today?