Community
We are definitely better together as a community!
Community defined - a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals.
Feeling – Fellowship – Sharing
We could say, then that a community is a group of people who share a sense of togetherness – or sameness.
The Body of Christ is defined in the same terms, adding the influence of God through Christ and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. According to Hebrews 10:12-25… Community in Christ shares “sameness”.
We all have the same
(“sanctification”).
12“But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God,…14For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. (Those who are continually being cleansed.)
Together we share the same
within us.
15“And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after [the resurrection] saying, 16‘This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,’ 17then he adds, ‘I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.’” 18“Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.
Together we share the same
.
22let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
Jesus said, “The things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. For out of the heart come evil thoughts…”
Matthew 15:18-19a
Together we can hold tightly to our
.
23Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.
Together we can – and should -
Christ-like behavior
24And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”
Christians are to spur one another to “love”.
This is the term for a love that is not self-seeking, a love whose modeled example is the Cross of Christ (1 John 4:10).
This is a most important Christian obligation, and believers are to help one another attain it. (1 Thessalonians 2:7-8)
It is interesting that this kind of love is, in a similar way, a product of community activity.
Love is a virtue that requires others for its exercise. One may practice faith or hope alone, but not love.
The readers of the Hebrew letter are to urge (even exacerbate) one another to “good deeds” as well as to love.
We have to “come together” to be completely Biblical.
We were never meant to be
.
We need spiritual
We need spiritual voices of
We need spiritual tools of
We need spiritual
We need a
(1 Peter 4:10-11)
God’s community has no
.
Matthew 28:19
Acts 2:38-39, 41
Colossians 2:2-5
2 Chronicles 31:18
Romans 10:9-10
To join the community of the Body of Christ is to take the right steps in making peace with God through Jesus, His only Son.
This is my commitment to increase our community of Faith: