We are Made for Community
I lived in several different states before moving back to Pittsburgh almost 2 years ago. When I started what I call my career advancement journey, I always moved to a new city, where I did not know anyone. Each move was all about a greater career opportunity. While preparing for my first move, I never considered how I would meet people or build new Christian relationships; my primary concern was how to prepare myself for the challenges of the new job. Once I started this new journey, most of my waking hours were spent in an office or on a plane.
After my first couple of moves I started to get weary of only considering the type of work environment I’d be in. I’d always managed to find a church to attend on the weekends, but I started to think I needed deeper connections. I started to ask questions like, is there a BSF class offered in this city, how many plane rides would I have to take to get to be with people I had a deep connection with? I was beginning to long to spend time with a community of believers. What was happening to me? Why was I having those feelings?
The bible answers that question by explaining that we are created in the image of God. God created us for community.
The Trinity means that God himself is community: one God, three persons. “Before all worlds”—before any sort of human community existed—there was God, dwelling in perfect, loving harmony in his threefold being.
In the biblical account of creation, this Triune God says: “Let us make man in our image” (Genesis 1:26). Human beings are made in the image of God, to reflect his likeness. That’s why our longing for community seems so deep. It’s how we’re made as God’s image bearers.
If that is how God wired us to be, in community, what was wrong with me?
My only thought when I moved was to focus on working. The bottom line, I was extremely self-absorbed. My selfishness is really evidence of what the Bible calls “sin.” When we hear the word sin, we tend to think of bad behavior. I certainly did not see my actions as sin or bad behavior, just because I wanted to be left alone. The Bible often talks about sin in terms of unbelief. In other words, rather than believing what is true, we believe lies, which obviously lead to bad behavior and negative emotions.
Unbelief was at the root of the first sin. Eve believed the Serpent’s lie about God and his intentions toward them: “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it [the forbidden fruit] your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God” (Genesis 3:4-5). Unbelief is a failure to see and believe what’s true about God, the world, and ourselves. I believed that opening up to others would only lead to reopening some dark and difficult wounds, and I did not want that to happen, I was protecting myself. I knew Jesus was my Savior, and I did not need to have other people in my life to know that was true for me. It was just me and Jesus. That bad behavior or sin had turned me inward and warped my relationship with others.
The longing for community grew more intense, yes; the Lord was dealing with me and my bad behavior. Once I moved to Chicago, I felt the Holy Spirit leading me to join a women’s study group, in my church. While I knew the Lord was leading me to this group, I cringed when I saw on the class outline that I had to share my story. It was being in that group that I was able to be reminded, yet again, in a fresh new way about the good news of Jesus Christ. I was mired in self-absorption, and I was failing to acknowledge that Christ’s death on the cross had set me free. I had accepted Christ as my personal Savior many years ago, so why had I been “mis- behaving” or sinning? The reason, Sin is ever present, even though Jesus has delivered us from the penalty and rule of sin, he has not yet eradicated sin from the world.
That’s why the Bible encourages us not just to receive the gospel, but to “stand” in it (1 Corinthians 15:1) and to “continue” in it (Colossians 1:23).
Being in that community of believers helped me to receive the healing and liberating truths of the gospel in ways that allowed those truths to soak deep into the core of my being. My ongoing work of transformation was taking place in community.
Every one of us is a saint in isolation! It’s in community that our real weaknesses, flaws, and sins are exposed. No wonder I did not see myself as sinning, I was evaluating myself. That’s why community is essential—not optional—for transformation. We can’t become the people God wants us to become outside of community.
Here are some of the “one another” statements in the Bible: “Love one another with brotherly affection; outdo one another in showing honor” (Romans 12:10). “Comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace” (2 Corinthians 13:11). “Do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another” (Galatians 5:13). If you think we can do all these things perfectly, you’re mistaken. I knew these scriptures, when I was “misbehaving”, it was obvious that I was not doing them perfectly.
We need each other, we need to trust, rely on, and depend upon other believers. God gave us each other to walk alongside, encourage, and spur one another on in faith. Now I still enjoy my alone time, but I know that I cannot fulfill God’s plan without being part of a community of believers. What about you, are you plugged in to a community of believers?
