COMMUNITY!

On the front it said “University of Aberdeen.” On the back, “Will Preach for Food”! That’s the T-shirt that these dear folks gave me last Christmas. (In addition to JIF, that is!). I loved it!

(I can imagine wearing that whimsical garment to one of my meetings with Prof. Watson. He probably wouldn’t say anything; at most, a single scandalized eyebrow might raise itself in typical British disdain!)

That epigram on that piece of apparel was the brainchild of the people of Lake Pointe Church, in Rockwall, TX, specifically the Saturday evening Adult Bible Fellowship (pictured), led by Timothy Warren (my teacher, colleague, friend, and brother in Christ).

This weekend, it was a delight and a privilege to see this group and the Sunday morning ABF as well (both under Dr. Warren’s leadership).

Faithful in prayer, generous in support, diligent in emailing, solicitous in concern, affectionate in heart, … this particular community of God’s people has been a blessing to me the last several years—both when I’ve been in town and now when I’m not.

Indeed, God’s people that I’ve had the privilege to know and love in the past couple of decades have always been faithful, generous, diligent, solicitous, affectionate ….

Allow me to name them individually:

• Faith Bible E-Free Church (TX)
• Houston Int'l Christian Fellowship (TX)
• Watertown Evangelical Church (MA)
• Plano Bible Chapel (TX)
• Sherman Bible Church (TX) and
• Lake Pointe Church (TX)
  

I have been richly blessed by God through these saints in communities where 1 John 4:12 is fleshed out daily.

If we love one another,
God abides in us,
And His love is perfected in us.

No wonder the letter to the Hebrews exhorts believers not to forsake assembling together, for this is where love is seen, felt, touched, and demonstrated.

Let us consider
how to stimulate one another
to love and good deeds,
not forsaking
our own assembling together ….

Hebrews 10:24–25

There can be no Christianity without Christian community. Indeed, a “solitary Christian” is a concept foreign to the Scriptures, perhaps even an oxymoron. On a personal note, I remind myself often that the kind of singleness that I “espouse” is not the ascetic, eremitic sort—secluded and insular. I want to be “single in community,” embedded in, working for, and sustained by the people along with whom I call God, Father. Where would I be without the body of Christ? What would I do without the gifts of the Spirit that minister to me?

The call of God to love one another in community is serious business, displaying as it does, God’s own love for us. Self-negating love. Other-centering love. A ready-to-die kind of love. And He requires that of us as well ….

We know love by this,
that He laid down His life for us;
and we ought to lay down
our lives for the brethren.

1 John 3:16

May God give us the grace to do so. To work hard at loving. To love with abandon. To love sacrificially. To love as God loved us. To love till we die!

For God so loved the world ….