Two Kinds of Community
When we hear certain words they can have a profound effect on us. Maybe a word elicits an emotion. Maybe it conjures up an image in our head of what we think it means. Maybe it gives us an idea or makes us want to go out and accomplish something. Regardless of the effect individual words have for individual people, words hold power. As Christians some words hold more power and elicit more of a response than others. One of these powerful words that elicits a significant response for many is the word “community”. As I reflect on the word “community”, it brings images of friends and families and of gatherings and good memories. These feelings are not by accident. Community is not something that we created, although we are quite responsible for cultivating and working on it! There is a reason that we enjoy being around others, at least most of the time. There is also a reason that as humans we build towns and cities, that we create places for gathering; this reason is not by our design! Community is something God created. It is part of His perfect design for us. He designed community for us so we would not be alone and so we could provide support to grow stronger in Him together. Community is also something bound together and driven by emotion, and we see God designed love to be the primary emotion of community. I want to take a closer look at what Scripture has to say about community and why this is important to us as Christians. What does Scripture say our responsibilities are as a part of our communities?
What Is Community?
Let’s look at a couple different aspects of community as it pertains to us as Christians, those being the community we live in and the commands in Scripture that we have regarding community. Before we can begin talking about all these different aspects, I want to lay a foundation of what community means. This word is typically used to refer to groups of people who have something in common. We all have something in common, and first and foremost that is our relationship with Jesus Christ and our desire to share that relationship with others. First John 1:3 (ESV) says, “that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.” If the Word of God is true, then as Christians, we all have fellowship and therefore community with the Father and Jesus Christ, His Son. This means when we have fellowship and community with Christ that by extension we also have community with other Christians. What a wonderful truth to consider: When we join the Family of God and have a relationship with Jesus Christ, then we immediately join a larger community. We automatically have a group of people with whom we share similar goals and interests. This also comes with responsibility as we will continue to look to Jesus to give us the commands and guidelines we must follow when we are part of His community. We have these responsibilities both to Jesus and to each other, and they also extend to those that we encounter who are not believers in Jesus and have not yet become a part of our amazing community.
Responsibilities to Our Christian Community
In regards to Christian community, Hebrews 10:24-25 (ESV) says, “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” This scripture comes in the letter among a list of other commands and ways to act and behave in accordance with the will of Jesus Christ. Here it begins with the author proposing a question. He asks the recipients of the letters to consider; the verb he is using here is the same verb that he used to refer to Jesus back in Hebrews 3:1, which holds significance for the audience. It was not just a question for them but a reference to Christ as well. This was also not an invitation for any one person but for the collective members of the Hebrew community. This is a group of people who had been considering returning to their old way of life. They were contemplating going back to a Levitical system and abandoning the commands and ways of life given to them by Jesus. That is why this command – or invitation really – is so important. It calls them back to meeting together and helping one another to “love” and do “good works”. These are the commands of Christ that they have been neglecting. The author here is telling each individual as much as the community as a whole that they must be there for each other to help one another love and do good works on Christ’s behalf. They also needed to focus and make it a habit to gather because that is how to create community and encourage one another. If we as believers do not meet, how can we expect to be a community? Collective and corporate worship is a vital part of our community and spiritual lives as Christians. We cannot expect to grow either individually or as a community if we are not meeting together to help encourage and hold one another accountable. This is not just a spiritual truth but a fact of our human nature. As human beings, when left to ourselves, we will stray away from the truth and naturally be drawn toward human desires. That is why we must meet to encourage each other; the author here is referencing the second coming of Christ and exhorting – or encouraging, comforting, warning, and strengthening – the audience. That is what we are called to act as as a community of believers in Jesus Christ just like the audience of Hebrews. We must meet regularly so we can encourage each other, provide comfort, warn each other of what we have learned, and strengthen each other. This is an essential function of God’s community and His design. We are reminded throughout Scripture that, if we are left alone, we will stray away from God’s will and return to our own depravity pretty much every time. It is through the strength and bond of community that we are able to remain strong and continue to do good works for Christ.
Responsibilities Towards Unbelievers
So now that we understand some of the basic purpose of community and what it looks like from a scriptural perspective, let’s look at what the responsibilities of this community are to those outside of it. The scriptures we are going to look at in this regard focus on love and affection to others. This was a focus for Christ and that focus does not change for His followers and the communities we form. We are not just commanded to be in community as believers, but we are also called to go out and represent Jesus Christ in the communities where we live and work in as well. So far we have looked at community in the sense of fellow believers and the responsibilities we have, and now we will check out the outward responsibilities we have to the community of non-believers we exist in daily. As we talk about community and what that looks like outside our community of believers, I want to focus on a couple passages that talk about love. This is extremely important as we look at going into our communities to represent Christ with the hope of sharing His Gospel and bringing them into His community. Mark 12:29-31 (ESV) says, “Jesus answered, ‘The most important is, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” The second is this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” There is no other commandment greater than these.’” This verse is a response to the Pharisees as they question Christ and His motives. Jesus is doing several things here on top of giving us guidance. The first thing He does is reference Deuteronomy, and by using God’s Word from the Pentateuch to answer the question the Pharisees are posing, He not only answers their question but solidifies His theology. He is essentially using the truth that the Pharisees recognize to validate His own truth to the Pharisees. Then Jesus goes one step further and follows the commandment to love God with a commandment to love one another. This statement references these same books but also places love for others in high importance. First we see that we are to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind. That’s not a task that is easy! It involves putting aside ourselves and devoting everything to God. Then right after that, we are called to love our neighbors as ourselves. These are the two greatest commandments from Christ. As I reflect on these, they really are a tough pill to swallow. First we are to set aside all our own wants, needs, and desires and dedicate them to God. Then we are to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. Now I do not know about you, but I love myself a lot, and throughout Scripture, we can see that mankind has a great love for themselves and their own preservation. Do I love my neighbors like this? So as we look at this commandment in the context of community and sharing the Gospel with others, we realize we are to go out and love others just as we love ourselves. This command becomes more difficult when we look at the fact that we will probably not receive that same kind of love back. However, this is not the point. We are not to look for something in return; that is the whole point. We are not focusing on our wants or needs; we are focusing on doing what God has commanded us to do regarding our responsibility to the communities we live in. Jesus put the command to love others directly after the command to love God. I see this as an emphatic way of highlighting the importance of loving others. This is the example that Christ was for us and that we are to be to everyone we meet every day. This may seem like an overwhelming task, but if we are truly obeying the first command and loving God with all of our hearts, minds, and souls, then loving others as ourselves should come naturally. This is because we indeed love and want the best for ourselves. We want ourselves to have the best of everything, and that desire should carry on to those who do not know Christ. If we have experienced the love and community Jesus offers, then we should not be able to hold back from going out and showing the same love to others so they may also come to know Christ. This is our responsibility to the community that we live and work in! That is what we should deeply desire to do. We should not be able to hold back from going out into the world and showing God’s love so they may in turn have a relationship with Him.
Take Away
It should now be obvious that we have several different responsibilities when it comes to community. First, we have a responsibility to our community of fellow believers. This is essential so we can remain focused on Christ and His calling for us and strengthen each other in that calling. Then we also have a calling to go out among our secular community and spread the love and compassion of Jesus Christ so all may have the opportunity to become a part of the first community. Without the first community and the balances and checks it provides, then we will not be able to help the second form of community and add to our biblical community. God gave us each other, and Jesus commanded us to meet for a reason. We have example after example in Scripture of why it is important to have community and remain focused on God. We are selfish and doubtful creatures by nature, and if left alone, we will return to things that satisfy our own needs. If we allow ourselves to do this, then we will not be able to go out and complete our responsibilities to our communities and spread the love and hope of Jesus Christ. This command is not just for our benefit, but for the benefit of those who do not yet know Him, and it applies for every follower of Jesus Christ. Community is essential to believers and non- believers alike, and that makes it a beautiful and perfect model. Christ in His wisdom provided something essential that we can understand and relate to.