I recently spoke to a young mom who said she doesn’t need to be in a church or small group. “I don’t need it,” she said. “I talk to God all by myself.” Sadly, she’s trying to grow her faith alone.
You can try going it alone, but in the end, you’ll end up lonely and spiritually stunted. That’s not what God intended.
If you’re going to grow spiritually, you need godly community.
Jesus said we should do two great things with our lives: love God and love people. (Matthew 22:37) You’ll notice, being alone wasn’t one of them. We need God, and we need community if we’re going to grow.
Did you know that there are over fifty “One Another” verses in the Bible that can’t be fulfilled if you’re not in community? Here are just ten.
- Love one another (John 13:34)
- Live in harmony with one another (Romans 12:16)
- Build up one another (Romans 14:19; 1 Thessalonians 5:11)
- Accept one another (Romans 15:7)
- Care for one another (1 Corinthians 12:25)
- Serve one another (Galatians 5:13)
- Bear one another’s burdens (Galatians 6:2)
- Show hospitality to one another (1 Peter 4:9)
- Speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs (Ephesians 5:19)
- Submit to one another (Ephesians 5:21, 1 Peter 5:5)
How could you possibly do these without godly community? You can’t! If you try to go it alone, you’ll miss out on many amazing things God can do in your life.
Not only that, but you’ll also miss out on the amazing things God wants to use you to do in the lives of others.
The Bible tells us that each of us are part of the body of Christ. And “the body is not made up of one part but of many… there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.” (1 Corinthians 12)
When we reject godly community like God’s house and small groups, we’re saying we don’t care about the other parts of the body of Christ. When, in fact, we desperately need them to grow.
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