Mutual Encouragement and "One-anothering"

In Romans 1:11-2, Paul says, "For I long to see you so that I may impart some spiritual gift to you, that you may be established; that is, that I may be encouraged together with you while among you, each of us by the other's faith, both yours and mine."

These two verses really struck me in my studies today and yesterday. Just think, the Apostle Paul is about to pen the greatest letter ever written, the greatest expression of Christian Theology in the New Testament, and here in the introduction he says that he looks forward to coming to the Romans so that he can be encouraged by their faith! That is truly amazing to me. Paul shows us here an incredible amount of humility. He could've been prideful and thought, "What can I possibly learn from these Romans?" or something of the sort. But that's not the way Paul learned Christianity from his Master. Instead, Paul longed for an opportunity to come to them in order that both he and they could be encouraged by the other's faith. Is this something you practice in your local church, in your small group, in your group of friends? Is this something I practice? Dr. Black, one of my professors at SEBTS really made me aware of the New Testament concept of every member ministry and the "one-anothering" that is seen throughout the pages of the NT. Its almost like reformed soteriology, once you see it, you see it everywhere. I can't read my Bible anymore without seeing the one-anothers and the ways in which the body of Christ functioned as a family in the NT. We've drifted so far from this pattern in our modern congregations, but there are a lot of folks out there who are desperately seeking to reverse the wrongs and restore to American Christianity a more biblical model. I can only hope that the Lord will see fit to use me in this reformation of sorts.