Being in Godly Community

Community is a big deal to God. Full stop. There’s no way around it. It is absolutely imperative that as Christians we learn to love one another as God loves us. It is not optional.

We can not love God and not love our brother. Because God is in our brother. We were all formed in His image.

How can you say you love God and hate your brother, for if a man says this, he is a liar (1 John 4:20).

For more emphasis, IT IS NOT A SUGGESTION! IT IS A COMMAND. LOVE ONE ANOTHER.

This is the will of God.

And the ugly truth here is, love is not always pleasant. Nor does love always agree. But love is consistent (1 Corinthians 13:8). 

Jesus prayed, “I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me (John 17:21).”

Y’all! It is God’s will that we are so intimate with one another that we are inseparable even as Jesus and the Father are inseparable. Now of course, realistically, we ain’t finna go everywhere with each other 24/7. However, I believe this speaks more of where we stand in the spirit. That we are so interconnected with one another in the spirit, that we rejoice when the spirit of another rejoices, and will weep when the spirit of another weeps and suffers.

"Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep (Romans 12:15)"

We were not created to do this walk alone. EVEN IN THE GARDEN. EVEN WHEN MAN WAS IN PERFECT, UNBROKEN COMMUNION WITH GOD, GOD STILL SAID IT IS NOT GOOD FOR MAN TO BE ALONE.

So there goes the whole “I don’t need people, I just need God” foolishness. Stop it. You need people.

But I do want to treat this topic with delicacy because it is with both wisdom and experience that I understand why people adopt the notion that goes against community. And I do say adopt, because as humans, no one is born with the innate desire to be alone. Babies thrive with skin to skin contact the minute they leave the womb. It is our design to form relationship. But when we experience varying levels of trauma at the hands of individuals or collective groups of people, it is a self-protective reflex to shun all people and all types of community that resemble those that hurt us.

But please hear me on this, you are hurt in community and you must heal in community, holy community.

Going back to the Garden, at the point in which God created Eve for Adam and introduced community is the point at which community became susceptible to sin. One of the dangers of community is that it introduces the ability to sin against God and against one another. Why did God not intervene before Eve gave the fruit to Adam so that Eve would fall and Adam would be preserved? Perhaps it is because God recognized the importance of community in the fact that they are one? Perhaps this is symbolic to the point that community would be a source of destruction, and prophetically speaking, would later on be a source of redemption?

I want to parallel this scripture to one in 1 Corinthians.

"If any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever, and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him. For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy (1 Corinthians 7:13-14)."

This directly opposes what took place in Genesis. The wife became unholy and sinned, introduced sin to her husband who then also became unholy, and as a result, all of their offspring (man) was thereby made unholy. I believe this was done intentionally to point to the salvation by way of the Seed that God promised would crush the head of the serpent forever.

I also want to acknowledge the fact that it is by community that disciples are made. Not only did Jesus demonstrate to us throughout His earthly ministry what community built around discipleship looks like, but He also gave us the mandate to the do the same, upon the foundation of Him as Rock (Matthew 16:18). Upon leaving the earth in bodily form, Jesus instructed His disciples to go and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything [He] commanded (Matthew 28:20).

May I submit to you that one of the reasons why God presses it so strongly upon us to form strong community surrounded upon the revelation of Jesus Christ as Lord is because other communities understand and will capitalize upon the human need for community and a sense of belonging, but do so upon the foundation of the doctrine of demons. 

This is especially the case for groups of people that capitalize on trauma. Trauma is a shared experience, yes. But so is victory. How much sense does it make to form a community on the basis of trauma, thereby keeping you attached to that trauma? What Jesus presents to us is exactly the opposite. Jesus presents to us the opportunity to form community based on revelation, truth, and victory. It is much easier to retreat to people who will coddle your weaknesses into comfortability, as opposed to people who will challenge and heal you. We as the body of Christ, are called to be those who introduce the Healer into people's weak and traumatized places and allow each other to do the same for us. In order to achieve this, we must learn the balance of gentleness and strength. We can't be so gentle, that we neglect the authority God has given us to take the wicked one captive. But we also can't be so brash that we forego the importance of tending to the delicate souls of God's people. We can't all embody this at the same time, but we can be the Body at the same time. We must be on one accord to be effective.

Paul says it best, "So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind (Philippians 2:1-2)"

We all want to belong. Jesus knew this. God knew this. So He sent us a Savior that walks through life with us, step by step, instructing us on how to do the same. So I beseech you, let's do this life together the way that Jesus showed us, because what a glorious day it is when we reign together (Revelation 5:10).