Live Planted in Community
You can develop a healthy, robust community that lives right with God and enjoy its results only if you do the hard work of getting along with each other, treating each other with dignity and honor.
James 3:18 (MSG)
God created us for community. While our world is more connected technologically than ever, we’re also dealing with more loneliness, fatigue, defeat, and despair than ever before. According to the Bible, God’s answer to these struggles is community.
Relationships require a lot of work, but we need them. Many of us have bought into the myth that the key to happiness is independence, but true happiness, according to God’s Word, is interdependence.
Four reasons why we need to live planted in community:
1. I need others to walk with me.
We are called to walk with God and with others. The early church met in the synagogue, ate together, prayed together, and went from house to house to one another. For us to be a vibrant spiritual community, we must have relationships with one another and not retreat into only walking with people who look like us, talk like us, and think like us, thereby missing out on the blessing of diversity. The diverse backgrounds, experiences, and gifts among us are meant to strengthen us, but we must be committed to learning from each other, as the early church modeled.
2. I need others to work with me.
God created us with gifts, talents, and abilities and planned good works for us to do. However, us trying to live out all of God’s callings for us on our own leads to fatigue. We need others to work with us. Jesus modeled this principle by inviting His disciples to work with Him. If Jesus needed others to work with Him, so do we.
3. I need others to watch out for me.
Satan often attacks us through others - for example, through relational hurts we hold on to, resentments we refuse to let go of, and relationships that break our hearts. Out of our unresolved pain, we may develop fears and insecurities that lead us to remain isolated. We need others to watch out for us so that the devil’s schemes don’t lead us down a path of defeat. While the world encourages us to take on an “I’m not my brother’s keeper” mentality, Scripture exhorts us to look out for each other and be attentive to the needs of others.
4. I need others to witness with me.
According to John 13:35, our love for one another proves to the world that we are disciples of Jesus. We should exemplify God’s definition of love, which is patient, kind, honorable, selfless, and full of grace. We are called to show the world what it truly looks like to love one another and how God has loved us. By living planted in a community, we learn how to love God’s way and become witnesses to others who have not experienced God’s love. Our calling to walk with others does not just apply on Sunday inside a church building, but every day of the week and everywhere we go.
Who do you have in your life walking with you, working with you, watching out for you, and witnessing with you?