Living as Community
0 Amens
I) Intro
Last week saw that the call to followers of Jesus was to no longer walk as the world does. That God has given us regenerate hearts, and that we are to be renewed in our minds, in the context of community, so that we can have restored walks.
Today we’re going to finish looking at what Paul says in this passage and just try to glean some things from it that will help us be the kind of community God wants us to be.
II) Call to Community
We’ve talked some about community before, and we’ve said that the call to us as the church is to live as a radically counter-cultural community (Colossians – “Subverting the Empire”). We’re called to live in a manner of radical, other-centered love that would show the world what it’s not, and call it to what it could be.
Let me just start out by asking us a diagnostic question. This will just help us take our temperature.
Considering what we’ve said about community in the past, and our teaching from last week that we’re to no longer walk as the world does, what is radically different about your life? What is radically different about your life? If we’re talking about community, a better question is, “what is radically different about our lives, together?” When the world looks into the church windows what do they see that would look radically different?
You may be venturing some guesses, but let me go ahead and give you the answer – from the world’s perspective. Based on some recent polls, here are the three most prominent perceptions of Christians, held by non-Christians, today: anti-gay (91%), judgmental (87%) and hypocritical (85%). (Love Is an Orientation, Andrew Marin - p.100). Apparently the world does perceive the church as being radically different from itself – but not at all in a good way.
I read a book a few years ago about a group of Christians in
There is a quote from that book that has stuck with me and I want us to think about it:
“If you ask most people what Christians believe, they can tell you, ‘Christians believe that Jesus is God’s Son and that Jesus rose from the dead.’ But if you ask the average person how Christians live, they are struck silent. We have not shown the world another way of doing life. Christians pretty much live like everybody else; they just sprinkle a little Jesus in along the way. And doctrine is not very attractive, even if it’s true. Few people are interested in a religion that has nothing to say t the world and offers them only life after death, when what people are really wondering is whether there is life before death.” (Irresistible Revolution – Shane Claiborne p.117)
Here’s the question for us: are we, as the church body, as the people of God, as a community of Christ followers, living together in such a way that the world sees us and says, “wow, those people are alive – and they are alive in a way that I don’t really understand and haven’t ever experienced! Their community is radically different than anything I’ve known, in a good way!”
The call to us as a church is to live as a radically counter-cultural community. We’re called to live in a manner of radical, other-centered love that would show the world what it’s not, and call it to what it could be. I think this is happening in pockets, but by and large – if the polls are accurate – it’s not happening enough.
One reason I think that we have given the world a skewed image of what community should be is because we have a skewed idea of what community is for.
“He who loves his dream of a community more than the Christian community itself, becomes a destroyer of the latter…” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together p.27)
What is your dream of community? What does your dream of community look like? For some of us it’s like the show Friends, where we’ve always got someone entertaining to drink coffee with. For some of us it’s like the musical RENT, where we’ve got a group of friends who really understand us and love us. For some of us it’s like the Cosby Show, where we’ve got a big, tight-knit family with lots of holiday get-togethers and funny dances and nice moral to be learned at the end of each half hour.
I think that a lot of us have a mistaken understanding that the purpose of community is so that we won’t be lonely. The purpose of community is not for you to avoid loneliness. That is a product of community, but it’s not the purpose of community. If our idea is that community has to do primarily with us, then we’re holding a man-centered view of life. A God-centered view of life would say that the purpose of all things, including community, has to do with God’s glory – his renown, his reputation, his image.
Some of you think that because you’re not lonely and you spend most of your time with friends from church that you’ve found great Christian community, when in fact the community you’re experiencing is no different than the community the world experiences. Others of you think that because you’ve been here a while and you’re still feeling lonely that community must not be happening here.
Our feelings of loneliness are not the primary gauge for measuring the health of community.
Everyone needs community, right. This goes without saying. We have an innate longing for it, a God given desire for it. But why does anybody need Christian community, why does anybody need the church, if the church is just a group of people who are against a long list of things, judgmental and hypocritical? Why does anyone need that? Can’t you find better community than that almost anywhere in the city?
In other words, what is radically different about Christian community, or what I’ll call Gospel community?
III) Purpose of Community
The radical difference of Christian community is found in the purpose of community. So what is the purpose of community? What does God want to accomplish through community? The purpose of community is that we would look more like Jesus.
Look back in
Last week we called this process of becoming more like Jesus “sanctification”.
The purpose of community is sanctification. The difference between the community that the world experiences and Christian community, or gospel community, is that gospel community recognizes as it’s goal sanctification – that the members of the community are to look increasingly like Jesus.
And when the people of God are being sanctified, becoming more like Jesus, then what happens is we actually put the gospel on constant display by the way we live with each other, the kinds of things we do together, and the kind of words we speak to each other. True Christian community is actually a living demonstration of the gospel for the world to see.
The other thing that makes Christian community radically different than the world’s community is that it’s utterly others-centered.
We’re going to see in our passage here, that Paul is going to really drive home the reality that Christ-centered community is utterly others-centered.
So let’s look at the passage and see some of what gospel community is to look like. This passage doesn’t cover everything it’s to look like, but it will give us some great starting principles.
IV) What kind of community will we be? What does gospel community look like?
#1 A Community of Honesty (v. 25-27)
Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. 26Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27and give no opportunity to the devil.
The Bible says that God cannot lie (Heb
This goes beyond just not telling lies, but actually means to live in a truthful, honest, transparent way.
Our old orientation and sinful inclination that we talked about last week would say that we need to all be very careful about what we reveal to one another. That we need to put on a front – hiding our faults and broadcasting our virtues so that we’ll be liked, accepted, admired and loved. And so we pretend to be not quite as jacked up as we are.
But in gospel community there is freedom to live with a great deal of vulnerability because the understanding is that we are all jacked up – we’re all sinners in need of and saved by grace. [ACCOUNTABILITY GROUP]
In Christian community we live in the truth of the gospel, which says to us that our identity isn’t based in what we do, but who we are in Christ. Remember last week we said that those of us in Christ are no longer defined by our old orientations and sinful habits, but rather who we are in Christ.
What you do isn’t who you are; but who you are needs to be what you do. In other words, your actions and behaviors don’t define your identity – Christ does. At the same time, because your identity is now in Christ, your actions and behaviors need to reflect that. So because Jesus is true in all he is and does, we need to reflect that with honest lives.
Then in v. 26, interestingly, as people who speak truthfully, we’re commanded to “be angry”. This phrase is an injunctive, an imperative statement, an instruction. We’re actually commanded to be angry. So is it wrong for a Christian to be angry? No, in fact, there is something wrong if we’re not angry sometimes. We are instructed to get angry about the things that God gets angry about. JR talked about this when we discussed the “Angry Side of Jesus”.
So when God’s law is violated and his people are harmed, he is angry – and so should we be. But, we’re also instructed not to sin in our anger. Not to let its expression become self righteous, violent, or vengeful. But when sin is present in the community, we need to speak honestly about it. If we don’t, then 1) we’re not loving our brother by helping protect them from sin, and 2) by letting it languish and persist, Satan actually gains a foothold in the Church and can begin to destroy community. So we’re to be angry about sin, confront it lovingly and truthfully and not tolerate it.
[AMBER BAKER STORY]
In living as a community of honesty, we actually display the gospel. Jesus, being in very nature truth, always speaks truthfully to us – and always in love. And so we, in truth, continue to affirm the gospel to one another, admonishing one another, confessing to one another, and reminding one another of the grace of God in Jesus. And as we live this way amongst each other, the world has no choice but to see the gospel!
#2 A Community of Generosity (v28)
28Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.
Our old orientation says that the purpose of work is to be self-sufficient people, able to not only meet our needs, but build a little kingdom for ourselves. The most comfortable, convenient, safe and entertaining kingdom that we’re able to. The world tells us to work hard and achieve so that we can increase our security, prominence and luxury.
What Paul says in this verse is perhaps the most countercultural thing in the entire passage. He says that the reason we work is actually so that we can provide for others who are in need. Not just that we would share our leftovers, but that we would actually produce and earn a living so that we are able to share. Having something to be generous with is the motivation.
In Acts chapters 2 and 4 we see the early church providing for one another so well, and so sacrificially, that no one among them was any longer in need. Later in church history, around 360 CE, the Roman Emperor Julian writes, “these [Christians] care not only for their own poor, but for ours as well.” They had a reputation for generosity.
Almost every early hospital and school that was built, was built by the church. There have been, throughout the church’s history, some amazing examples of radical generosity. And that’s actually still our call today – to be a people of radical generosity. We’re in
This is why we’re so committed to serving the poor and marginalized in our city and so committed to spending our resources on behalf of the oppressed and enslaved around the world. That’s what a community of radical generosity does.
Who around you right now has a need that you could meet? Are you even aware of needs around you? If you are aware, do you have any desire to meet it? Are you wiling to meet it?
As we live as a community of radical generosity, we actually display the gospel for the world to see. “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich , yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich. (2 Cor 8:9)” That’s the gospel, and when we live that out amongst one another, the world has no choice but to see it!
#3 A Community of Encouragement (v. 29)
29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.
This word corrupt here, is the same word for corrupt that we talked about last week. Remember we said that our old orientation deceives us by sin and leads us into corruption (v. 22) The Greek word for corruption here is the one you would use to describe rotting fruits or vegetables. So the word picture we used was the old bag of salad sitting at the bottom of your fridge that has turned into half liquefied puddle of veggie goo. The image here is that in speaking acerbic, corrosive, hateful, unkind or slanderous things about each other, it’s like spewing rotted veggie goo onto another person. It’s like the scene from The Exorcist where the girl’s head spins around and then she projects split pea soup into the priest’s face. (MORE SUBLTE EXAMPLES – JUICE DRIBBLING OUT OF MOUTH CORNERS)
The world tells us that if others are getting ahead of us, then we need to level the playing field so that they don’t win. So what we should do is use our words to pull them down in order to elevate ourselves.
ILLUS: Campaigning at Work
But the gospel community says, we’re actually going to use words to encourage others – to literally put courage into them. Because of what Jesus has done for us, our identity and future is secure in him, so we are free to desire others’ good and actually consider them better than ourselves. We are free to hope for their good and press them up instead of tearing them down. And as we do that amongst one another, we’re actually living out a picture of the gospel and the world has not choice but to see it!
#4 A Community of Forgiveness (v.30-32)
30And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
The world says, if we’re wronged, offended, transgressed, slighted, or hurt, the appropriate response is to hold a grudge, display bitterness, become vengeful, and even end the relationship. I know someone that has virtually disowned his father, refusing to speak with him, because of a decision his father made to give ownership of a vacation house to one of his siblings instead of him. Because the lake house was sold to the wrong sibling, this father has now been cut off from relationship with his son. And in the world, that’s not uncommon.
But the gospel community says, you’re a sinner just like me, saved by grace just like me. Because God, in Jesus, forgives me, then I in Jesus can forgive you. We won’t keep records of wrongs on each other, we won’t build cases against one another, we won’t harbor resentment towards one another. Because of God’s tremendous forgiveness towards us, we’re able to extend tremendous forgiveness towards others.
And as we live this out amongst one another, forgiving each other with extreme tenderheartedness and kindness, in a way that really defies reason and logic, we’re actually living out a picture of the gospel – and the world has no choice but to see it! They may even say it’s foolish, but it’s the right kind of foolish.
Like Jesus (v 5:1-2)
1Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 2And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
This whole way of living as a gospel community is summed up like this: Christian community should increasingly look like Jesus. We’re actually helping one another look more like Jesus. As we honestly encourage each other and hold one another accountable, as we display generosity to one another, as we forgive one another, we’re actually living out the life of Jesus amongst one another and fulfilling the purpose of community.
The purpose of community is sanctification which puts the gospel on display for the world and is marked by its utter other-centeredness.
There’s one thing about gospel community that I don’t want us to miss. In Luke 10, we see Jesus take 72 of his disciples and tell them to split up into teams of two and go into every town that he would eventually visit, telling them, “The Kingdom of God has come near you”. In other words, go to them proclaiming the gospel.
Gospel community is always open, always inviting, and always growing. True gospel community is never closed, never exclusive, never cliquey, and never comfortable with only those currently present. The word we use for this is MISSIONAL. Gospel community is MISSIONAL.
God’s plan isn’t that just those of us who are currently worshipping him would live in a community of radical honesty, generosity, encouragement and forgiveness. And thank God that’s the case! If any generation before us had been content to just hunker down together and enjoy one-another in a closed community, we would have never heard the gospel!
So let me ask you this, who isn’t sitting next to you right now that should be? Who isn’t sitting next to you right now that should be? Who has God placed in your life that he has predestined, that he has chosen from before time, who he entirely desires as much – if not more than – you, who is still living outside of the glorious love and forgiveness of Jesus. Here’s the key to that answer – you don’t know who he’s chosen, so you assume that it’s everyone in your life. The church doesn’t grow magically. God doesn’t often reveal himself to people in dreams – generally he reveals himself to people through other people. Through you and me. Gospel community is missional. Remember what we said – the mission isn’t community, we’re a community on mission. Community isn’t about you avoiding loneliness, it’s about becoming more like Jesus.
V) Closing
There may be some of you that aren’t Christians and you’re saying, “I don’t need Christian community. I guarantee you that my life looks more like Jesus than a lot of the people in this room right now who are Christians.” And as far as you and I can tell, you might be exactly right.
But here’s the thing. God doesn’t extend forgiveness to people who look somewhat like Jesus, or even people who look a lot like Jesus. He extends forgiveness only to people who look exactly like Jesus. And since none of us have the ability to look exactly like Jesus, since none of us can live completely sinless and entirely righteous lives like Jesus, our only hope is that God would look on Jesus himself instead of us.
And that’s what we mean by the gospel. That because there is no way that a Holy God, who is too pure to even look upon sin, could uphold his justice while letting us sinners go unpunished. And the Bible says that the punishment for sin is death. So, out of his unfathomable love for us, he decided to come to earth himself, live the life we couldn’t live, die the death we should have died, and actually take the punishment on himself – in Jesus Christ.
That’s why you need Jesus today. Without him God sees your life, even with your best efforts at being good, and you fall terribly short of perfection. You’re only hope is for God to look upon Jesus in your place and credit to you his life and righteousness. And he promises to do that for everyone who calls upon the name of Jesus in faith. (Rom 10:9-13)
So what is it that is missing from the world’s version of community? Jesus. Even though, by God’s common grace, the whole world has access to deep friendships and loving relationships apart from Christian community, what it doesn’t have is Jesus. And Jesus, ultimately, is all that we need and all that will suffice.
That’s why we need him. And he says that we can’t truly love him without loving his church – and so we need his church too. As imperfect and jacked up as we are, he’s actually making us look more like him – and it’s happening in community. This is what gospel community is and this is who we are becoming : an honest, generous, encouraging, forgiving community that puts the gospel on display by the way we live our lives, which are marked by utter others-centeredness.
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