Not all of us have experienced the joy of Psalm 133.
“How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!” (Ps.133:1, NIV)
There is no more powerful community than a group of believers who live in unity. Nothing levels the playing field like Jesus when we genuinely follow Him.
In Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians he offered the benefits of honest community. “And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all.” (1 Thessalonians 5:14)
Interesting that the challenges from Paul are listed from easiest to hardest. I can admonish the idle all day long. I am pretty good about encouraging the fainthearted. On my good days I help the weak. But be patient with them all? Come on Paul. Do you know these people?
But that is the beauty of community. It is messy and beautiful. Frustrating and fulfilling. It is life. And it is best lived together with other messy, beautiful, frustrating and fulfilling saints who still are quite capable of sinning.
And that tees up the biggest need for community as found in Galatians.
Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself. Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ. If you think you are too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself. You are not that important. (Galatians 6:1-3)
That seems like such an important passage in this culture as I contemplate the devastating and heartbreaking toll of sin. I know. That word will get you canceled by many today. But there is no other word that describes what I am seeing today. Sin says that there is more that you must get in any way you can. Sin says that you deserve to be happier. Sin says that God does not really have your best interest at heart. I hate those lies from Satan that we continue to believe.
People are desperate to find community and belonging and they often find it in the wrong places. I see precious men and women (sometimes boys and girls) lose their lives because they found identity in groups that promised family and acceptance but delivered heartbreak and abuse. These souls likely had found that dynamic of acceptance nowhere else in their experience. All of us want to find someone who will accept us for who we are. These lonely souls found identity in a group that provided provisional acceptance but not safety.
Lest we jump to judgement (as we are so skilled at doing) we should wonder what leads these men and women to pursue a group that can ultimately lead to depression, sadness, and even death.
I am sad that we have too often failed to create a community that does not flinch at inappropriate language, clothing, and behavior. Do you think Jesus would look at an inappropriate t-shirt slogan or at the heart? Would He hear the ugly words of a hurting person or the desperate tone of their need? Would He condemn the sinner or embrace them and whisper gently in their ear that there is a better way? Of course there are consequences to sin. Is that ever more clear than when we turn on the news every day? But the truth is that all of us are sinners.
I spent 40 years in live television. It is a high energy world of edgy emotions and honest language. That was my work community and I loved them. It was not always a safe place for the easily offended. But it was a real place with real people willing to hear your story when you didn’t step back in self-righteous offense.
Jesus put no requirements on being with Him. We are ones who have often not communicated the liberating joy of the Gospel. We attach the strings instead of shouting that all we need to bring to Him for salvation is our sin and need. Jesus has done the rest.
I am a flawless child of God. Not because of anything I have done, am doing, or will ever do. It is because of what Jesus did for me on the Cross. Paul makes it pretty simple.
If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.(Romans 10:9, NLT)
We must begin to concentrate on that message of what Jesus has done for us. Whether your sin inventory fills multiple volumes or a post-it note is irrelevant. We all need the Cross. Only the finished work of Jesus makes us flawless.
