THURSDAY
Today, we begin to discuss how we in the church need one another. Yesterday we looked at John 15. Today, let’s back up a couple of chapters to chapter 13. This is still in the Farewell Discourse, Jesus’ last meal and conversation with his disciples before he goes to the cross.
John 13:34–35 34 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. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
The entire ethic of the Christian life boils down to this command of Jesus and the command to love God with all of ourselves. The newness of this command is not that we are to love one another. This was prescribed in the Old Testament (Lev. 19:18). The newness of this command is that it is now defined by Jesus and how he has loved his people. He gave up his life on the cross to redeem his people. Jesus is now the paradigm and definition of love.
Jesus spoke this command to his disciples, so as we apply this text to our lives today I think it’s fair to apply this command to all of the people of God, all those who are genuine believers in Christ. So if we are to love the people of God as Jesus has told us to we need one another in the church. Without the church community we cannot obey this command of Jesus.
Amidst all of the problems the community of believers experienced in the first few decades after Jesus, there is no hint of the Apostles suggesting they give up on the church communities. Instead the sentiment is always to fulfill this imperative of Christ together in community. Living in close community with one another may be more difficult than going it solo but it’s always worth it because, in part, we simply need one another. I once heard Greg Thompson say that we should view the church as a school of love. We need one another in the community of faith so that we can learn how to love one another like Jesus loves us.
In Galatians Paul tells the Galatian church to, “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” (Gal. 6:2) Here he is referring to helping one another with the burden of sin and so fulfill Christ’s imperative to love one another. So often in community we are convicted by the words in a sermon, challenged by the exhortation of a close friend or mentor, encouraged by the story of someone in our small group, lifted by the congregational singing, when we sin against someone we must recognize our sin and lack of love, confess, repent and ask forgiveness. This is all helping one another bear the burden of our sin and helping each of us to grow in love. This burden of sin is too heavy a lift to carry on one’s own. We need one another.
In the book of Acts we see the church also caring for one another’s needs. They were even selling some of their property to help meet one another’s needs (Acts 2:45; 4:32-37). The Apostles appoint seven deacons to care for the widows of the church and be sure that they were getting an even distribution of food (Acts 6:1-7). When famine strikes in Jerusalem, Paul travels around collecting money from the other churches to help meet their needs (Acts 11:27-30). After the Jerusalem council in Acts 15 Paul is told to remember the poor in their ministry to the Gentiles (Gal. 2:10).
Caring for the needs of the poor in the church is an essential element of church. This is a beautiful part of church community and a means by which Christ’s love is clearly displayed. In this we find that both the givers and the recipients of gifts need one another. When someone falls on hard times they obviously need someone to come alongside them and help them. On the other hand, those who have resources are often looking for opportunities to be generous and help those in need but often don’t know where to start. In the church is where these two should converge.
At LifeBridge we try to connect those with needs to those with resources to meet those needs through the Impact Profile. If you would like to help those in need when the need arises please fill out your impact profile. If you have any needs that the church can help you meet please reach out to me (john@lifebridge.church) or to Tia Alexander (tia@lifebridge.church)
Reflection
Do you appreciate the value of the church community as a school of love? We most often grow the most in love when we are the most uncomfortable in our church experience—someone has offended us or we have offended them, we are feeling challenged by Scripture, we have to give up our time with which we could be doing something else in order to be at church, we face a situation where we can give up our rights and privileges for the benefit of another, we learn to love someone who disagrees with us on other important topics like politics.
Sadly, we so often make comfort the criteria for church participation. Church should feel comfortable in that it feels like home. But home doesn’t mean the absence of conflict. When I was a kid I had constant conflict with my siblings. We think that if we aren’t comfortable, there’s conflict something must be wrong. Perhaps. You need to seek the Lord to discern. But it could also be the case that God has provided you an opportunity to grow in love. If you don’t persevere, you will fail to take advantage of this opportunity to grow in love.