I want to begin by talking about community.  Community seems to be a buzzword in the church today.  Every church pursues it.  Every church spends thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours trying to create it.  Starbucks has taken over the world by offering a counterfeit picture of it.  But what exactly is Biblical community and how can we achieve it?

 

A good place to start in answering the question by stating what Biblical community is not.

 

First of all, Biblical community is not a choice.  I can’t tell you how many people I talk to in my church that have excuses for not living life together in Biblical community.  “I don’t have time.  It’s not convenient for me.  I haven’t found a group of people I connect with yet.”  You’ve heard them all before.  But I realized something this week.  To “do life” together like the New Testament church is not a suggestion of God but a command of scripture.  Hebrews 10:25 says “do not forsake the assembling together, which is the habit of some but encouraging one another as you see the day drawing near.” 

 

If you’re anything like me you have always interpreted that scripture to mean that you shouldn’t skip church.  It does mean that, but the meaning of the text has much further reaching implications.  The key to understanding what the writer of Hebrews is talking about is in the word “forsake”.  It is a much stronger greek verb than to simply “miss out”.  It means to abandon.  The writer of Hebrews is saying, “Don’t quit being the Body!  Don’t quit living in community together.”  Don’t abandon one another.

 

The realization that hit me, is that when our church members just come to the worship service…hear good preaching….sing to God…..go out to eat with their buds….but it never goes beyond that, they are not just missing out on God’s best….but they are sinning.  A life apart from deep, Biblical community is a life in open rebellion against the Lord.  Those are pretty tough words, but true nonetheless.

 

Biblical community is hard to achieve.  It takes time.  It’s dirty and it’s bloody.  It’s hard to look your friend in the eyes and tell him that you haven’t felt close to God in three weeks and you don’t have a clue how to reconcile with your wife.  More than that it’s hard to carry your friends baggage and problems when you have enough of your own. 

 

But regardless, it is God’s plan….and more importantly….it is God’s best.