Contemporary culture often promotes individualism and self-reliance as virtues to cultivate, whereas the Bible teaches that we were created for community. Christianity was never intended to be lived in a vacuum; it is meant to be shared in loving fellowship and unity with others, and to spread to those outside our faith community. God did not create us to be isolated beings who do life on our own.
God Himself is revealed to us in Scripture as a perfect triune community—one divine being with three distinct persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who exist eternally in a loving interpersonal relationship. He created human beings in His image and likeness as relational beings (Genesis 1:26). After God created Adam, the first human being, He said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him” (Genesis 2:18).
From the beginning, God’s intent was for human beings to be in relationship with others and with Him. When Adam and Eve disobeyed God, the fellowship they had with Him was broken, resulting in the consequent fall of humankind. (See Genesis 3.) But God made a way to restore humanity’s fellowship with Him through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. Following Christ’s death, resurrection, and ascension, the church was formed as a community of believers, referred to in the Bible as the body of Christ. “Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it” (1 Corinthians 12:27).
We are not meant to do life alone. As author Paul Tripp expressed it, “We weren’t created to be independent, autonomous, or self-sufficient. We were made to live in a humble, worshipful, and loving dependency upon God and in a loving and humble interdependency with others. Our lives were designed to be community projects.”
The very nature of being in community with others, working, interacting and partnering with personalities different than our own, giving of ourselves and learning to relate to others, compels us to exercise the type of qualities that Jesus wants us to hone. Our interactions with others help us to grow in Christlikeness, and better equip us to reach out to others and to effectively share and be a living reflection of God’s love to the larger community around us.
God wants us to be in relationship with other people, which is how He designed us. Jesus taught that to love our neighbors was second only to loving God (Matthew 22:39). Our family, friends, co-workers, neighbors, and community have been placed in our lives by God so that we may love them and show God’s care for them. As John Ortberg points out:
Every day, everyone you know faces life with eternity on the line, and life has a way of beating people down. Every life needs a cheering section. Every life needs a shoulder to lean on once in a while. Every life needs a prayer to lift them up to God. Every life needs a hugger to wrap some arms around them sometimes. Every life needs to hear a voice saying, “Don’t give up.”
Christian fellowship
God wants us to love all humankind and to be examples of His attributes to those we meet and interact with on a daily basis. He’s also concerned that we show love for our fellow Christians. This is the kind of love that Jesus was speaking of when He said: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34–35).
Just hours before He was arrested, Jesus prayed to His Father that the disciples—both those who were with Him right then and all who would follow—would be in unity as He and His Father are in unity “so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me” (John 17:20–23). Jesus prayed that all His disciples would be one: one body, knit together in love; one in belief, one in mission, one in Christ-mindedness.
When we are united and gathered together in Him, He is there with us. “Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20 NKJV). Having Christ in our midst helps us to experience His presence, and the joy and love draw each one close to Him and to one another. When Christians get together to fellowship, it empowers them. Praying, worshiping, celebrating communion, having deep conversations, enjoying each other’s company, all create a wonderful atmosphere which strengthens and uplifts those participating.
The word used in the New Testament to describe the nature of our relationships with other Christians is koinonia, a Greek word translated variously with words such as communion, fellowship, close relationship, and participation. As members of His church, the body of Christ (Colossians 1:24), we have communion with Christ and participate in His life and mission; we also have communion with one another and participate in life and mission together.
We are not meant to be islands. We are dependent on others. Only God knows how many times the great things that have been done by men and women of God throughout the centuries were made possible by another believer who had the ministry of encouragement and prayer. As Rick Warren wrote, “We are created for community, fashioned for fellowship, and formed for a family, and none of us can fulfill God’s purposes by ourselves.”
While participation in Christian community includes gathering together with other Christians, it also includes our participation in sharing the gospel, working in some way in the furtherance of Christian mission. It’s partnering with God and others in the Great Commission of sharing the good news with everyone and bringing others to a saving knowledge of Christ and helping them to grow in their discipleship (Matthew 28:18–20). When taken in the overall context of the meaning of the original Greek, Christian fellowship can be understood as participation in the entire system of faith. It includes our interaction with God and with other Christians and our joint efforts to live out the Great Commission and to be salt and light to the world around us and the culture of our time.
Building community
In the modern world where our work life and communications with others are often mediated through technology and social media, it can take time and effort to forge meaningful in-person relationships. We may have to seek out new ways to do community if we are at a stage in life where we need to develop new networks. There are many sources for Christian fellowship and friendship-building that can be explored, such as joining a local church or prayer group, or participating in a charitable initiative or friendship group.
Another venue for community-building is volunteering, which can be a means for forging friendship bonds with others as you join forces around a shared cause. We can participate in local community initiatives and reach out to our neighbors. We can build relationships through joining a club or group of people who share a common interest, which in turn can open the door for sharing the good news of the gospel.
As Christians, we have the privilege and responsibility to manifest the Lord’s love to the people in our community. We are to show love to all humankind, and especially to those of the community of faith (Galatians 6:10). So as we seek to build relationships with others and to foster a sense of belonging and camaraderie, we do so for and by and with the love of Christ which compels us (2 Corinthians 5:14 NKJV). In living this way, we are His church, the body of believers—His community.