Community

At my church, I am currently going through a study called “Redeeming Recovery Step Study.” It is the traditional 12-step program broken down, sifted in with Scripture and put back together. But it isn’t just for people with outwardly addictive behaviors- it’s for anyone that has sin in their life and doesn’t know how to deal with it. The sin, no matter how big or small, how out in the open or how hidden it is, affects everyone and needs to be dealt with in order to achieve that life that God purposed us to live.

Community is something that I personally feel is an important aspect of the body of believers that we, in the present age, neglect. Why do I think this? Humans were created to be in community with each other and with God. You can look at Genesis 2 and see this. God made Adam a helper, Eve, because God saw that it wasn’t good that he was alone. Even though Adam lived in perfect harmony with God in Eden, it still wasn’t good, as everything else had been thus far that God had created. Throughout the New Testament, we are constantly commanded to love others, honor others, serve others, and put others above ourselves. The community I believe we are called to live in should be described as real and authentic, and a place where truth can be spoken in love. When this is the case in the body of believers, we don’t have to feel like we have to put on the “every thing’s fine” face every time we go to church- instead, we can admit that we aren’t okay and it’s okay because it is a safe place. We can quit acting like everything in our life is perfect and be encouraged, rebuked, and helped in this community.

Satan tries to keep us from living in this kind of community. He wants to make us believe that we have to keep all of our junk to ourselves. He wants us to believe that no one cares or wants to deal with our junk. He wants us to keep everything in the dark; but God calls us to live in the light, to confess those things so that they can be forgiven. Not confessing them to others keeps us focused on ourselves and not on God, in an endless loop of self condemnation, and undealt with and this is not how we are called, as Christians to live.