Nothing is more natural than community.
“Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness’” (Genesis 1:26a). God the Trinity, being in community in His very being created mankind. Therefore, community is part of the fabric of our nature.
The issue then is what it is exactly that binds people together in different communities. The Christian contention is that unless a community is built on and for obedience to God through Christ by the Holy Spirit it is ultimately evil. The essence of evil is understood to be putting anything in one’s life above God in importance.
The primary intention for Christians is to love God with all their heart, mind, strength and soul, then to love their neighbors as themselves (Matthew 22:37, Mark 12:30, Luke 10:27). This reality will look the same in everyones life to some extent, but ultimately each person has different giftings and callings that will make their loving God and neighbor unique to them alone (1 Corinthians 12:7). This is accomplished by following Christ’s example, who knew the Bible well enough to stun theologians of his day as a 12 year old (Luke 2:46-47), often withdrew to lonely places and prayed to God the Father (Mark 1:35, Luke 5:16), and then by the power of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 3:16) not only knew what the Father wanted him to do in life (John 5:19), but did all and only what the Father told him to do in perfect obedience (John 5:30, Matthew 26:39).
Out of this obedience, Christ was surrounded by a constant fellowship of twelve men he chose to be with (Mark 3:13-19), three of whom were especially close (Matthew 17:1, Mark 5:37, Mark 9:2, Mark 14:33, Luke 8:51), one who was closer than all of them (John 13:23, 19:26, 21:7, 21:20). Outside of them, he had several other very close friends which he loved dearly and would visit (John 11:5). Beyond that, he constantly sought people out by the Holy Spirit’s leading and taught (Luke 4:14-16), ate (Matthew 9:10), and shared life with them. Community in the life of Christ and subsequently in His Church was formed out of love for God, and therefore obedience to Him. There were, however, times when the community was threatened and broken because some were in community for reasons other than obedience to God. Many followers of Christ left when He stated clearly that he came down from Heaven in obedience to God to give eternal life, and that eternal life was gained by eating his flesh and drinking his blood (John 6:66). Christ had to constantly re-establish the purpose of the fellowship he had by reminding his followers of the mission God had him on, and that it was a spiritual and not a physical war they were apart of (John 6:60-65; Mark 7:18). Ultimately the community disbanded, for all intents and purposes, having gone into hiding after Christ’s death (Matthew 26:56). Once Christ rose, He had fellowship with and made the Scriptures clear to his community, and they then reunited around their King, the Son of God, Jesus Christ, and waited for his promised Holy Spirit to seal them for salvation, empower them for ministry, unite them in mission and bind them for eternity (Luke 24). Once Christ ascended, following the same pattern of Christ, the Community of Christ prayed constantly (Acts 1:14) , knew and trusted the Scriptures in a way that shocked the religious teachers of their day (Acts 4:13), and by the power of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:1-4) listened to God and did and said what he commanded (Acts 4:18-20), namely preaching the Gospel boldly (Acts 4:31).
Today, Christians are living out the same reality, loving God with everything, and then by extension loving their neighbor out of obedience to God, which includes at its foundation the reality of the Gospel. The birth, death, burial, resurrection, ascension and eternality of Jesus Christ as the one true and only God of all the universe is the foundational reality at the root of every true Christian community.
The one intentional thing every Christian does is follow Christ, and everything that comes with actively doing that one act. This means that they cling to his words, they follow his example, they submit to his doctrine, and they obey what he tells them. By virtue of the fact that there is more than one Christian, the groups of people who follow Christ are naturally in fellowship with one another, and naturally have community with one another. If a Christian does not have this fellowship happening, than there is a problem with their connection to God, and they must intentionally seek Christ in order to find fellowship with others doing the same thing.
From the very beginning, God’s children have not listened to him, and have found other voices to obey. When people do this, they form communities built on listening to those other voices. The Bible tells repeated stories of God raising leaders who were listening to his voice to bring his message to the masses so that he might be the one they listen to and obey. As creator, he has every right to do this and the right to do the way he understands is best. This is why Christian communities, at their best, are communities of humility and repentance, because like our first parents and their early prodigy, we too listen to other voices repeatedly and need God to speak to us through His word and His faithful ministers in order to remind us to listen to him.
Today, like in the beginning, there are voices fighting to be heard as God who are in fact not God. One of those voices that has gotten very loud in my day and among my generation is saying that in order to find the wholeness that we seek, we need to intentionally focus our efforts on building community with people. This voice says that we tend to individualistic and isolated from one another and that this is the root of the problem of our human condition, and that by making it our primary goal to live in community we will fix the problem.
The deception here is the implication that loving your neighbor is of first importance. Christ claimed that the greatest commandment was the greatest for a reason. That being that loving God with everything comes first. Christ withdrew from his neighbors often to places where he was alone and loved God by himself by communing with him. Did he have community? Yes. Did he love it? All indications from Scripture point to another yes. Was it his primary intention to build and develop community? Absolutely not! His primary intention was obeying God. Subsequently, he developed community to that end, to obey God the Father by establishing His Kingdom community. His primary way of staying on task was through prayer and active knowledge of the Bible. Christ would quote the Old Testament when talking about himself. When community facilitated this end of obedience or was a byproduct of it, it was embraced. When it got in the way, it either had to change or was rejected. What made the community pure, what made it great, what made it right was that it was only as a result of and a means to obey God, therefore glorifying, magnifying, worshipping and pleasing him.
This lesson I am constantly learning, as every follower of Christ will. I don’t think I can ever emphasize the importance of seeking God with everything in the life of a Christian enough, and how only that will produce the kind of community so many are searching for. God calls people to Himself, God builds community around Himself and His will, God gives purpose and meaning to life, and the only way to find true life is not by intentionally seeking it, but by intentionally seeking, following, listening to and obeying God. I suck, and my close friends suck. But Christ has saved us by dying for us and paying for the fact that we suck, and because of this salvation and by the power of the Holy Spirit we are able to know God’s perfect and pleasing will (Romans 12:2), and able to grow in obeying Him (1 Peter 1:2).
1 Peter (ESV)
13Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 14As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” 17And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, 18knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. 20He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you 21 who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
22Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, 23 since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; 24for
”All flesh is like grass
and all its glory like the flower of grass.
The grass withers,
and the flower falls,
25 but the word of the Lord remains forever.”And this word is the good news that was preached to you.
Strong words, I like. I agree, there are so many things that we put in front of loving God. Alan Hirsch has some great comments on this in terms of what should be our “Organizing Principle” as Christ Followers. He says that Loving God is the primary action that all should seek. Then, when defining “church”, he suggests that we have 4 separate sections: Worship, Discipleship, Community, and Mission. He says that Christians have become great at putting worship in the #1 spot and then struggle to have true discipleship, authentic community, and struggle to live out the mission. He says that if we were to put Loving God 1st, then Loving our Neighbor….or in his terms “MISSION” as our organizing principle, that discipleship, community, and worship would be natural outpourings.
Hope you are doing well bro. Good to read your stuff.