Community
SCRIPTURE: Acts 20:2-3a, Romans 1:1-17 
Read the passage
BIO: My name is Vance Kite. I’m currently in my second year as a high school science teacher at Pine Castle Christian Academy. I’ve been involved with the LIFE community TURBO groups for just over a year and am looking forward to the beginning of LIFE community at FPCO in January.
KEY VERSE: Romans 1:11-12 "For I long to visit you so I can share a spiritual blessing with you that will help you grow strong in the Lord. I’m eager to encourage you in your faith, but I also want to be encouraged by yours. In this way, each of us will be a blessing to the other."
CENTRAL TRUTH: Paul understood that he was not independent, that he needed community.
DEVOTIONAL: This passage gives rare insight into the ideal of true community. The apostle Paul is often viewed as a daring missionary striking out across the new frontier of evangelism. Working within this narrative, one might conclude that Paul’s faith was strong, independent, and with no need of spiritual interaction with others.
In this passage, however, we see something quite different. Paul longs to be with others who believe so that he might receive blessing and encouragement from them. The independent, Western mind has difficulty grasping the benefit of community. It has been conditioned to view those who need other people as being weak or incomplete. American faith, in part, has become about the “self-made Christian.” As a society we value individualism so highly that we often miss out on the blessings that arise from being in community with one another.
God designed the Church (his body on Earth) to be a cohesive unit that works together and lives together. Just as a body needs all of its parts to function properly, so we need other believers in order to live properly. The greatest action that a believer can ever take on behalf of their relationship with Christ is to recognize the need for others who can teach, admonish, encourage, and walk with them.
On the other hand, Paul also realized that he had a blessing to pass along. Each of us is built with gifts that we were given specifically for the benefit of those around us. It is our duty to use those gifts to bring the Kingdom of Heaven to Earth, beginning with our immediate surroundings. The metaphor of the body requires both give and take in order to realize proper function and completion.
May we begin to understand that God did not build his body out of “self-made” men and women. Rather He designed a unified system that functions most optimally when each component is giving AND receiving simultaneously for the benefit of one another and the body as a whole.
QUESTION 1: Are you truly aware of your need for others in your life?
QUESTION 2: Are you currently involved with others who have permission to speak truth to you?
QUESTION 3: What steps can you take this week to move deeper into community?
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