The Importance of Gospel CommunitySample

I know that this might age me just a little, but my paternal grandma was born in 1901. She often shared stories about trading recipes with her girlfriends, borrowing a cup of sugar from a neighbor, and going to a friend for parenting advice. And every single Saturday night, she and my grandpa would have friends over for ice cream sundaes. I have to admit that I’m a little bit jealous of her generation of women. In the past, I think that women just valued face-to-face community more than we do today.

If we need a recipe now, we go to Pinterest. We can order a cup of sugar from Instacart. We need baby advice? Google. And general social connection, we can find on Facebook or Instagram.

Those subtle changes have made it even easier for us to shift toward autonomy instead of the community God calls us to.

In Hebrews 10:24-25, we are reminded: “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”

Did you catch that? Don’t give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing. It’s easy for people to fall into the habit of doing life alone, and the enemy is so wise to this. He would love nothing more than for us to stay isolated and alone.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve met some amazing people on social media. But since then, I’ve had a chance to meet them in the flesh and hug their sweet necks in person, and there’s just nothing like it. No virtual webinar or FaceTime chat can do what meeting in “real” life can do!

I love what John Mark Comer has to say about the importance of being in community:

“We need community to thrive. The devil is just as aware of our need for community as we are, if not more so, and he uses that awareness to gain the upper hand in the fight, doing all he can to cut us off from community with God’s people and from God himself.”

As we continue reading in the next verse, the writer says we are to encourage one another, “all the more as you see the Day approaching.” Because we know the Lord is going to return, and every day we are one day closer to seeing Him face to face, we should be even more motivated to spur one another on towards love and good deeds.

Let’s not give the enemy the upper hand by doing life alone. Let’s reach out, and when we do, let’s remind one another to reach up.

Dear God, thank You for creating us for fellowship. Please show us creative ways to connect with others this week so that we may offer them encouragement. Help us to make time in our schedule to build others up so that they may be drawn closer to You. We love You and praise You. Amen.