“Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” — 1 John 4:11
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While watching the summer Olympics several months ago, I stumbled upon a comment made by one of the African marathon runners. He was talking about the tightly-knit professional running community in his nation – how they train together, eat together and live together, helping and encouraging each other in their respective distances and disciplines. He spoke of how, if they didn’t have one another and the camaraderie that exists between them all (male and female), they would be so much more alone and find their professional journeys difficult. But then he made a remark that has stuck with me: “A community is a group of people who agree to grow together…”
A community is a group of people who agree to grow together.
Immediately, I thought of that scripture that says, “Do two walk together unless they have agreed to do so?” (Amos 3:3). Agreement must be a necessary part of journeying with other people long-term. Without that commitment factor of mutually consenting to the same goals, vision, values, and general direction, that communal relationship is bound to fail at some point. Scientific studies are showing a tremendous connection crisis in the United States especially. When other countries have managed to still keep a sense of cultural togetherness, our focus on independence has become a relational hazard to us, leaving us more alone than ever.
One dive into the Bible and we can see so many verses that talk about various aspects of community and why it matters. Community is for “spurring one another on toward love and good deeds” (Hebrews 10:24-25), for “carrying each other’s burdens” (Galatians 6:2), for rejoicing and suffering together (1 Corinthians 12:25-27), for serving one another (Philippians 2:3-16), for practicing forgiveness (Colossians 3:13), for demonstrating God’s love (1 John 4:11), for hospitality (1 Peter 4:9), for ensuring nobody journeys alone (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12), and so much more. The list is lengthy!
God Himself, through the example of the Trinity, demonstrates for us that He is a relational God who desires for us to be unified with Him and with others who share our faith. Yet the danger of our modern age is that because we are more informed and connected digitally than ever before, it can lull us into a false sense of community. We’re informed about people but not actually doing real life with them. The enemy hates community because he knows the more unified and together people of faith are, the harder it is for him to do his thing. So he will do everything in his power to separate people so they are weaker on their own.
But everybody has to buy in. Everyone has to agree to this because community takes work. It takes time. All involved must commit to growing together, even if it’s sometimes awkward and painful. Author Jennie Allen states in her book Find Your People, “We are called to be a community of people, on a mission, delighting in God, delighting in each other, redeemed and reconciling the world, bringing them and inviting them into this family.” Jesus wants it this way because He is all about togetherness and relationship, and we need to do a better job of exemplifying this to a fragmented culture. He said ultimately that the world would know we are His disciples by our love for one another (John 13:35). If the church does this well, it will be our biggest testimony to the One we follow.
— Katherine Singer
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