One thing I am learning from our time here in Germany (and from our time in the military) is the importance of reaching out to others in the community where we have been planted for this season. "Community" seems to be sprouting up in several different areas of our life, so much so that on Tuesday, I will be sharing a devotional about our need for true community with the ladies of PWOC.
Here are some sneak-peak excerpts:Over Labor Day weekend, we traveled to the other side of Germany … to the Mecca Exchange on Ramstein AFB. My mother was with us, and so as our little community of eight tumbled out of the vehicle near the outskirts of the vast parking lot, we recognized the need to have a plan [we're not in Hohenfels anymore]. Once we entered that enormous shopping arena, we knew that it would be very easy to become separated from each other as everyone had varied items on their wish list. We were not united in this area at this time. So we divided ourselves into proper groups (paying close attention to adult-child ratios) and determined a specific meeting time and locale. Had we not taken proper precautions, our small, usually close-knit community (AKA “family”) would have been swallowed up by the much larger, sometimes distracting (bright-lights-big-city) community.
Community –
Dictionary.com defines it as:
1) a social, religious, occupational, or other group sharing common characteristics or interests and perceived or perceiving itself as distinct in some respect from the larger society within which it exists
2) Ecclesiastical. a group of men or women leading a common life according to a rule.
We all are a part of communities … the Military Community; the Army Community; the Christian community; and FRGs, church, small groups, family, to name a few. Let's go back to The Beginning:
"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth," then when He creates man, He says, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” Catch the pronouns there? US, OUR – the first community was God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit – the Trinity. Perfect community; perfect fellowship; perfect love.
Then in the New Testament, Jesus builds His Church, His Community. In Acts 2:42-47 we see the early church in action,
"And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved."
That sounds pretty radical ~ most would even say “impossible” in today's world. And yet those in the early church were simply responding to the command given them before Christ ascended. At the end of each gospel account, there is a commissioning => Go and make disciples … go and love your neighbor.
These people were living out the One Another commands we see in Paul's epistles. For instance, Colossians 3:12-14 states: "Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony."
In the commentary section of our study Bible, I found further descriptions of these key terms:
compassion – an emotional, caring relationship with those whose lives are hurt and broken
kindness – a readiness to do good, even when it may be undeserved
humility – a posture of lowliness and servanthood
meekness – gentleness in offering help; a non-coercive approach to encouraging change in others' lives
patience – a willingness to take the long view in the face of human frailty
And ABOVE ALL … PUT ON Love – what does Love do? Binds everything together in perfect harmony.
The exhortation by Paul to “Put On” demonstrates the need to be intentional. We will not just fall into perfect harmony with one another. It will take work … it involves reminding ourselves that the Lord has been merciful and gracious to us … how can we not also be merciful and gracious to our brothers and sisters in Christ? Let us PUT ON Love and live in Community.
