Why do we REALLY need each other as disciples of Jesus?
The call and invitation by God is to create a community of unconditional love powered by Jesus’ unconditional love. The word community is thrown around a lot in life. The vision God gives is towards deeper meaning and purpose in community. I see people in community through playing pickleball. They are living out God’s design by simply being social with each other. And studies show they will live longer as a result. When people find community through church, they are also living out God’s design simply by being social with each other. Yet, God meant for the community of God’s people to be distinguishable in meaning and purpose from a pickleball club. The depth of layers of meaning and purpose God wants for us is so much deeper. And that is a basic question we all have to ask ourselves, “Do we want more? With God and with God’s people.”
Here are some specific ways we need each other as disciples of Jesus:
We can comfort and strengthen each other in our faith. There are so many ways to express love - to comfort and strengthen one another. We can look at all the “one another’ verses in the New Testament and see the power of a Spirit-filled community in our lives.
We can challenge one another. “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” (Prov. 27:17) Sanctification in the Lord requires community with others. When we observe godliness in other disciples of Jesus, it can spur us on to greater godliness. When we are in relationship with other disciples of Jesus, they can reflect back to us our struggles and weaknesses. Or we can notice ourselves how we have fallen short of God’s call to love one another and to holiness. And so, we turn in repentance and faith to Jesus for forgiveness, love, and power.
We can do theology in community which enables us to know God’s truth more deeply. If we are just left to ourselves to interpret Scripture then we might be more likely to miss our errors, our wrong emphases, or our prideful posture. And it’s not that someone has to point it out in us. As we listen to other people talk about their beliefs, their errors, their pet topics, their postures, we are given the opportunity to self-evaluate or for the Holy Spirit to bring conviction. Paul says in Colossians 3:16, “Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.” And the church demonstrated the practice of doing theology in community when they gathered the early church at the Jerusalem Council. They wrestled with the question of whether non-Jewish Christians should be circumcised (Acts 15:1-35) that would powerfully impact the future of the good news of Jesus spreading far and wide. The Holy Spirit can mold our beliefs and the posture of our beliefs through community with other disciples of Jesus.
We are one body many parts. When Paul describes mutuality in the body of Christ, he is expressing how we don’t have all the gifts we need in life within ourselves. “Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.” (1 Cor. 12:7) We can’t afford to pay for all the benefits of all the gifts found in the body. Even if we could afford it, the ability to pay for everything you need or want can warp your soul. And in reality, some of those gifts cannot be purchased with money. We might need a therapist to address mental health issues. We can also dismiss our therapists when we don’t like what they say. We pay them and we can just as easily stop paying them. We might also need a fellow disciple of Jesus to walk with in life. We might need the advice and encouragement of parents a few years ahead of us in the journey of parenting. We might need an elder or pastor who knows us to shepherd us in our hour of need. It is beautiful when the body is at work!
There is a formational power in our persons through loving one another.
There is a formational power in our persons through serving others and needing others.
The meaningfulness of being on mission for God together. God called His disciples out of darkness into the light to be His holy, set apart, people. This set-apart people have a purpose. That purpose is to shine the light of Christ in the darkness. Our purpose together is to bring hope to those without hope; to bring love to those without love; to bring joy to those without joy; to bring peace to those without peace. If you have experienced the hope, love, joy, peace of our Lord Jesus Christ then together we are called to share that hope, love, joy, and peace with anyone and everyone willing to hear about the reasons for our faith in Christ.
