Community

“For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.”
1 John 3:11

Community
It is said that the apostle John could be heard living among the first century church with these words constantly upon his tongue, love one another. According to John this is a true test of one’s Christian faith, the presence of love for God’s church. Jesus had told his disciples they would be known as his followers by their love for one another (John 13:35). The apostle Paul wrote to the church at Corinth in regard to their living and worshiping as the church. In his first letter to them he dealt with the gifts God would give them by His Spirit and their usefulness to the unity of the body. Yet he did not elevate any of those gifts that God would give above the gift of love (1 Corinthians 13). The actions of love given and animated by the Spirit of God is the manifestation of Christ’s presence in the church. And this love in the church is manifested in community.

Love that is Biblical is love toward one another. Therefore, love takes place in the context of people living among one another in community. The command to love one another in the Scriptures is far from individualistic. A Christian cannot continue with God as his Father and have no use for the expression of the work of the Spirit in his life from his mother, the church. The church is a place of community where the love of God is manifest and expressed in actions.

This community where the love of God is manifest and expressed is larger than ourselves. We may desire community as a benefit God gives to us. We want to be in relationship with a loving community because it benefits me. Therefore the community we are a part of on Sunday morning tends to be larger than the community we spend the rest of our time with. We will whittle our community life down to a few people that we are comfortable with, have things in common with, who think like we do, and look and dress like we do. But this reveals that our “love for one another” is really a man centered love for ourselves. We are getting out of these relationships what we think we need, that is, to make more of ourselves.

If community is the place in the church where the love of God is manifest and expressed. What gifts has God given that you can manifest and express His love and be used of God to turn the hearts of His people in a Godward direction? We have all be given time, money, we live in houses with refrigerators and stoves, we have transportation, phones, computers, mailboxes, shoes for walking, books to read, movies to watch, games to play, tables to eat on, and beautiful places to enjoy. How are we using these gifts through the spiritual gifts and talents that God has given us to love others in community?

In the field of residential construction there is a movement in America to develop neighborhoods that create community. The houses are close together, the front porches are close to the sidewalk and the street, and the streets are narrow. There are parks in the neighborhood with playgrounds, basketball goals, and trails for walking, and some have developed grocery stores, shops and business offices in the middle of the development. But does this careful planning and developing create community? Community, that is for the glory of God, is developed in the eternal counsel of God. It is given through His love, manifest and expressed by His Spirit and expressed through the lives of a people who have died with Christ to sin and now live to God and one another in a community of love.