I believe that community is the incubator for true discipleship. Scripture indicates over and over that the Christian life is not meant to be lived or nurtured alone. I’ve been thinking about what a real biblical community might look like – should look like – and I’ve written down some interesting ideas. I thought they might be helpful to you. Maybe it can help you gauge the life and value of the community that you have chosen to be a part of.
Biblical Community Begins With One Question:
How does a group of believers move from merely a collection of disconnected people to a true, biblical community?
When I think of biblical community, I think of Acts 2:42-47 and Acts 4:32-35. Looking at these verses, we get such a great view of the fledgling Church. Through their example, we can see and begin to duplicate the amazing potential we have for nurturing a real, living biblical community.
Community Involves a Desire To Follow Jesus
In a true Biblical Community, there has to be the desire and the commitment to grow as a follower of Jesus. As we think about community, it all starts with a commitment to grow in the knowledge of God. From the application of this knowledge spiritual growth with naturally begin to bloom.
The Acts of the Apostles:
- 2:42 says, “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching.”
- 2:46 says, “Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts.”
- 4:33 says, “With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.”
A desire to grow spiritually must be present in the group as a starting point of growing a biblical community. Without it, you’re just hanging out like any other group of people that gather.
Community Fosters Fellowship
Fellowship, hanging out, doing life, whatever you want to call it is at the heart of true biblical community. It’s family being family.
Acts 2:42 says the believers were “devoted to fellowship.” Acts 2:46 says the believers met “every day.”
Looking at these passages from Acts, you can see that fellowship has two aspects: proximity (literally being together) and frequency (being together often). Fellowship doesn’t happen unless we’re hanging out, doing life together and doing it frequently. I hate to say it, but those hippies in the 60’s and 70’s living on the communes were far closer to real biblical community than we are today.
Are your gatherings fostering fellowship?
It isn’t enough to just meet with people formally once a week. You don’t see your family just once a week and above all else, Christians are supposed to be family! You need to meet often and informally.
Community Involves Accountability, Transparency, & Generosity
Three main areas of a real, living biblical community are: transparency, accountability and generosity. Acts 2:44-45 says, “All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.” There is great transparency here! They weren’t concerned about their image, they didn’t hesitate to bring their needs to the group, and they knew they could trust one another.
There’s generosity here as well. These believers put others’ needs above their own. James 5:16 says, “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.”
Accountability can’t be forced. It is a two-way street that grows out of community. Share on X
The only way I overcome my sin nature and talk to you about them is if we are “one in heart and mind.” We have to have a history of fellowship, friendship and trust. I have to trust you and know that you have to have my best interests in mind.
Community Nurtures Compassion
The glue that holds all of these things together is compassion. Transparency, accountability and generosity are all contrary to our human nature. Too many of us choose to sit in judgment of each other when we are transparent or being held accountable. Compassion must rule our hearts! The best manifestation of this is in Galatians 6:2-3:
“Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.”
If there’s no compassion, there can be no honest and true transparency, accountability or generosity. And ultimately, there can be no fellowship.
The Ultimate Goal
The ultimate goal of any community is to grow together towards Christ-likeness. Share on X
Ephesians 4:13 says, “until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a full grown man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;”
Like everything else in life, I have learned that the point of the journey is not the destination so much as it is learning and experiencing the journey. If we place our focus on our ultimate goal, we will miss all of the moments where we learn from one another what it means to be growing together in Christ-likeness.
One important point I need to make is that unity is not uniformity. God is not seeking a bunch of automatons who all act, sound and look alike. No, He’s seeking the coat of many colors and the living stones who are fit together to create the Church He is building. He is seeking harmony in the mind of Christ. Many beautiful and diverse expressions of Christ’s spirit in the Earth moving and working together to compose the heavenly music God wishes to spread to all the world.
Have you experience Real Biblical Community. I’d love to hear about it. Drop me a line here…
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