Created for Community
Scripture:
All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer. … They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity—all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved.
—Acts 2:42, 46–47 (NLT)
From the beginning, Scripture is clear about this. We were never meant to do life alone. When God created Adam He looked at him and said it is not good for the man to be alone. That truth echoes through the entire biblical story. We need a relationship with God, but we also need one another. Community is not a convenience or an optional add-on to the Christian life. It is a calling woven into the fabric of who we are and how God designed us to live.
In Acts 2 we get a glimpse of what that calling looks like when it is actually lived out. The early believers were devoted, not casually connected but deeply committed to each other’s lives. They gathered in the temple. They broke bread in each other’s homes. They shared what they had with anyone who had need. They prayed together. And the result was a community marked by joy, generosity, and unity so compelling that the watching world took notice and the Lord added to their number daily. This was not a program. It was a people who had been transformed by the same Spirit and were learning to live like it.
“We are members of a body, not only when we choose to be, but in our whole existence. Every member serves the whole body, either to its health or to its detriment.”¹ — Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together
Bonhoeffer names what Paul also makes clear in 1 Corinthians 12. You are not a spectator in the body of Christ. You are a member, whether you feel like one or not. Your presence matters. Your gifts matter. Your encouragement, your prayer, your willingness to open your home and your life to others — all of it is either building the body up or allowing it to weaken.
The early church understood this. They did not treat hospitality as a burden. They practiced it as a natural expression of love. And because they did, the community they built became one of the most powerful witnesses the world has ever seen. That same possibility exists in every local church today. Including yours.
Reflection:
- Are you truly devoted to your spiritual community, or have you settled into isolation or occasional participation?
- What would it look like for you to practice intentional hospitality this week?
- How are you using your God-given gifts to bless and build up the body of Christ?
Prayer:
Ask God to move you from isolation into deeper, Christ-centered community. Pray for genuine relationships to flourish in your church, and ask for a willing heart to participate, give, and welcome others in.
Footnote:
¹ Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together, trans. John W. Doberstein (New York: Harper & Row, 1954), 89.