"The gospel is never for individuals but always for a people. Sin fragments us, separates us, and sentences us to solitary confinement. Gospel restores us, unites us, and sets us in community. The life of faith revealed and nurtured in the biblical narratives is highly personal but never merely individual: always there is a family, a tribe, a nation--church . . . A believing community is the context for the life of faith . . . Love cannot exist in isolation: away from others, love bloats into pride. Grace cannot be received privately: cut off from others, it is perverted into greed. Hope cannot develop in solitude: separated from the community, it goes to seed in the form of fantasies."
Outdo one another in showing honor (Rom. 12.10)
Live in harmony with one another (Rom. 12.16)
Welcome one another (Rom. 15.7)
Admonish one another (Rom. 15.14)
Greet one another with a holy kiss (Rom. 16.16)
Wait for one another (1 Cor. 11.33)
Have the same care for one another (1 Cor. 12.25)
Be servants of one another (Gal. 5.13)
Bear one another's burdens (Gal. 6.2)
Comfort one another (1 Thess. 5.11)
Build one another up (1 Thess. 5.11)
Be at peace with one another (1 Thess. 5.13)
Do good to one another (1 Thess. 5.15)
Bear with one another lovingly (Eph. 5.2)
Be kind and compassionate to one another (Eph. 4.32)
Be subject to one another (Eph. 5.21)
Forgive one another (Col. 3.13)
Confess your sins to one another (James 5.16)
Pray for one another (James 5.16)
Love one another from the heart (1 Pet. 1.22)
Be hospitable to one another (1 Pet. 4.9)
Meet one another with humility (1 Pet. 5.5)
Have fellowship with one another (1 John 1.7)
(List take from Lohfink's, Jesus and Community, 101)
Need I say more?
Peace.
3 comments:
We should be clear though, to be specific about salvation, that it is a personal and individual act. Salvation is a "personal" experience, between Christ and each single individual, one on one. Not a communal experience, not "collective salvation". Ones salvation does not depend upon the community but on the individual experience with Christ alone. Paul explains this in Romans 10:9 "That if YOU confess with YOUR mouth, "Jesus is Lord", and believe in YOUR heart that God raised him from the dead, YOU will be saved. For it is with YOUR heart that YOU believe and are justified, and it is with YOUR mouth that YOU confess and are saved". Can we all say Amen to this!
Amen!
Sometimes (more often than not) we put the cart before the horse.
It is changed individuals (living stones) who make the building material of Gods House (community).
The builder is God, Christ is the head and Chief Corner Stone. He is the foundation who places each life in the right place and for the right purpose.
The Holy Spirit is the power binding force that holds and makes possible this house of stones to come alive and thrive and grow as a community being one in God. Living and working in the power and purpose and will making sweet praise, honor, glory to the Father!
For illustration consider a bee hive.
David, I really like those "one another" reference examples. In each example there is Spirit guided action and life and work...resulting in honey for the food, energy, growth, maturity of the body of Christ.
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