I think it’s safe to say over the last year or two we have seen how important community is. Now, I’m not talking about the kind of community where you get together every week to discuss how work is going over a meal for a few hours and then pack up, say goodbyes and go home. No, I’m talking about genuine community; or what I would call “doing life” together. Now I’m not saying that talking about work over a meal is wrong, what I am saying is don’t mistake casual community with gospel community. Don’t make the common mistake in tricking your mind that just because you have some people in your life that you talk with at the ball field or at work it means you have community, those are merely acquaintances or at best, friends. What we are in desperate need of is community, true, genuine, godly, community where we can’t hide behind the score of a ball game.
As God was creating the world there wasn’t a single day that He didn’t look upon His creation without seeing that it was good. That is, until He finished and He created the Garden of Eden where He placed Adam in to work and keep it. This is where for the first time we see He is not pleased with what He sees. In Genesis 2:18 it says “Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.’” (ESV) Here in the second chapter of the book of Genesis we see the first picture of community. We have to realize before we go any further that God is an all-powerful, all-sovereign, all-sufficient God. He in Himself is enough for Himself (I know that might sound confusing) so God doesn’t need us for anything. He didn’t have to create us in the first place, let alone create a “helper fit for us”. So understanding God creating others to come alongside to help us helps us understand how much He desires for us to surround ourselves with community.
Why community? 2 reasons.
1: We are weak.
We have to be honest. We will never be strong enough to conquer the giants that we will face in our lifetime. Ecclesiastes chapter 4 talks on the need for community in verses 9-12.
“Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him — a threefold cord is not quickly broken.”
Now we have to understand that the most important person we can have community is, is with God Himself. In fact I would say that our community with others is directly affected by our community with Him. If our community with God is failing or to be quite honest, non-existent, odds are that our community with those around us will be the same. But it is community with God that will make community with other broken people possible. See, when two broken people get together without God to discuss their brokenness there is no one to supply the grace that is needed to see past the mistakes and brokenness therefore causing a multitude of issues and ultimately a demise of community. But, with God at the center of community the grace we receive in community with Him we then can share it with those who we are in community with. Again, our community with God is the foundation of our community with others because only God can give us the things that are a necessity for community with other broken people to survive. Without God we simply cannot give grace, mercy, and forgiveness (all of which are needed in community). Why, because none of those come from us; only God. And without the foundational community between us and God to receive it we cannot offer it.
2: We aren’t meant to go at it alone.
Too often either by circumstances or by our own ignorance we find ourselves thinking we need to do things alone. Have you ever been watching a movie where something has happened and one of the characters looks at his or her friend and says “I need to do this myself”? We don’t want to admit it but we are all guilty of this. Whether we have actually said those words out loud or not we are all guilty of living it out. Living a life of “doing it on my own” leads to a life of isolation and isolation really is just Godless reliance. It’s a pride check. More times than not the reason we find ourselves doing everything alone is because we think we have it under control. It’s the “it’s okay, I have everything under control” mindset all the while we are being crushed under the weight of life. And this goes back to the other point where our community with God is a necessary part of life but we need others around us as well. It’s a two tier pillar. First, God changes our heart from “I can do it on my own” to “God, help me because I am helpless apart from you” and He then sends us people to do life with. Because without the change of heart our broken heart will still be the loudest voice in our life and it will always tell you that you’ve got this, you don’t need them. Again, it only took two chapters in the bible for God to give us a companion. Someone to help point us back to God, someone to point us back to His promises. And that is why in the very beginning I drew the line between casual community and gospel community. Because too often we get the pat on the back and a “you got this” as we are leaving and we fool ourselves into thinking that we have this amazing community when true community will pat us on the back and say “remember that you can’t do this, but remember who can”. Casual community makes much of you, while gospel community makes much of Christ, make sure you are in the latter.
