Most people memorize Ephesians 2:8-9. Almost nobody memorizes verse 10. That's where the whole thing changes.

Grace saves us. That part's settled. But the American church has spent so long talking about being saved that it forgot to get on with it. Ephesians 2:10 says we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works. James said it differently: faith without works is dead. Jesus said it most directly: as much as you've done it for the least of these, you've done it for me.

Ubuntu is a Zulu word that means "I am because we are." It's also just the New Testament word allelon, one another, with flesh and bones on it. The Greek word sounds like "all alone," which is exactly what it isn't. Paul uses it all over Ephesians: bear with one another, be kind to one another, forgive one another. That's agape love, self-sacrificing love that puts the interests of another above your own even when it costs you something. When we practice that together, we stop being a minnow and start becoming something the community can actually see. The church isn't just the place where individuals get saved. It's the place where the kingdom of God becomes visible on earth.