The Discerner: Creating A Culture Of Wisdom And FaithExemplo

Walking in Community

We have already begun to see how walking in community with other believers is an essential aspect of a spiritual safe place as we grow together and continue Jesus’s ministry on earth. The body of Christ is God’s “building,” still a work in progress but useful to Him:

For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building. By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. (1 Corinthians 3:9–10)

We are being “built together” as a habitation for God’s Spirit: “And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit” (Ephesians 2:22). And that means that we are being built together as people of faith who operate within a culture of faith: 

Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude. (Colossians 2:6–7 NASB)

Together, as the body of Christ, we have been authorized to do the works of Jesus in the world today. (See Mark 16:17–18, James 4:7, and many other New Testament passages.) No evil power can overpower us—when we live together in love and faith.

I think of the prophet Daniel, who was captured by the Babylonians when he was a young man and exiled to the courts of King Nebuchadnezzar and succeeding kings for the rest of his long life. Daniel was in exile, but he was not alone; he had his three friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, with him. Together, they created a culture of wisdom and faith that withstood many intimidations, including death threats. Together, they took shelter under the protective wings of God. The biblical account of their courageous acts provides a graphic glimpse of what a corporate safe place looks like. (See the book of Daniel.) Walking in community, they illustrated the truth of this verse: “This is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith” (1 John 5:4 NASB).