“The Value of Spiritual Community”

“…teaching and admonishing one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs…” Colossians 3:16

 It’s no secret that community, especially the “spiritual” kind, is near and dear to our hearts. It’s who we are, our identity; it’s what we do, our purpose for being together; it’s what we are becoming, as we seek to emulate the kind of community that exists in the Godhead of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (the ultimate community).

Before we examine more earnestly why spiritual community is valuable, we should consider the following realities: first, there are no less that 21 “One Another” statements/commands in the New Testament. Beginning with Jesus through several of the subsequent authors of scripture, we are faced with the reality that the spiritual journey was intended to be in concert with fellow like-minded travelers. The wide range of “topics” these commands address reminds us that they are intended to be experienced in every aspect of life. Second, a majority of the instructions/commands given in the New Testament are given in the plural rather than singular. Western mindset thinks “me first” while the Eastern mindset (remember that the context of both the Old and New Testaments was Middle East or Asia Minor) thinks in terms of “us first.” Thus, as we come across the pronoun “you” in our reading, we should realize its likely a “y’all” not “me” individually.

Now let’s examine why spiritual community is valuable for us. First, it is the place where we can practice love. It is no secret that Jesus described the greatest expression of devotion to God and one another in the simplest of ways—love. Now any fair-minded individual will immediately realize that while the word “love” may be simple, carrying it our can have its difficulty. There is no better lab to practice Matthew 22:37 and John 13:34-35 than in our gatherings together. When we love God completely and one another fully, we demonstrate to the watching world that we are indeed followers of Christ.

Second, we find inspiration and encouragement for the journey (Hebrews 10:23-25). The unidentified writer of this letter builds a compelling case for how faith is supposed to lived in the real world, a world that is at odds with Christ and His mission. The temptation for those early believers, and to some extent for us too, was to isolate, sensing, perhaps, that they were safer when cloistered. Our author here says we should impress on one another all the more the necessity of gathering together so that we may inspire and encourage each other “out there.”

Third, community is a place to experience joy (Philippians 4:1-4). The predominant theme of Paul’s letter to the Philippian congregation was joy. Joy is, in reality, a key marker for the believer—Jesus giving us His joy and longing for our joy to be the most complete possible. The context of the community provides us with a joy matrix, where joy begets joy, where we purpose to “rejoice in the Lord always” as the means of experiencing the fullness of the life Christ alone offers, and where joy becomes a complete feature in our lives.

Finally, community is the only place where we can reach our full potential (Ephesians 4:11-16). Paul tells us in this passage that without the necessary ingredients found in spiritual community we remain “immature” and “vulnerable to the wild waves” of a fallen world. We have set our sights on becoming individually and collectively completely mature, where the community is thoroughly equipped for its mission, built up in Christ, perfectly fitted together like a puzzle so that each person is realizing their God-given potential.

We are encouraged to “consider” these things. In fact, we are to do so in increasing measure as we contemplate the reality that we are one day closer to Christ’s return. We trust you will dive in with both feet and be a part of all that God is doing here.

 

Blessings on the Journey,  Pastor Dewayne