Like Jesus | In Community
About this series:
Jesus calls each of us to become more like him - by being with him, learning from him and imitating him. This is sometimes known as the process of spiritual formation or the process of sanctification, where we progressively leave a self-focussed life and adopt a Jesus-focussed lifestyle. That’s because, just as he called his first disciples, he calls us to “Come, follow me” (Matthew 4:19), a journey John Mark Comer describes as being with Jesus, becoming like him and doing as he did (see Practicing The Way).
And deep within every true Christian is a desire, put there by God, to change in a Christ-like direction. In the new covenant we are transformed into people who want to be with him and want to become like him - “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts” (Jeremiah 31:33); “I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws” (Ezekiel 36:27).
But this process of transformation is not only the work of the Holy Spirit within us. In partnership with God, it is the fruit of us aligning ourselves with his plan to transform us to be like Jesus. How this all works and how we are changed to become more like Jesus will be explored through this series.
About this talk:
The Christian life is personal but not private. We are saved into a family of brothers and sisters and it is in that context that we will become more like Jesus. He didn’t merely have private meetings with his disciples, but called them to follow him together, with all the joys and challenges that entailed. For us this means more than attending corporate gatherings, but being involved in one another’s lives so that we can fully engage with God’s design for our transformation, which, as Michael Plant said, is ‘a community project.’
We may not live in the interconnected, family-oriented, community world of Bible times. And we cannot pretend to recreate it. However, we have to reckon with the fact that the entire Bible presents us with a community who live out their trust in God together. Which is not by coincidence; it is God’s design. This is his best for us as he works to make us more like Jesus.
In Hebrews 10 the writer explains how Christ “offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, [and then] he sat down at the right hand of God,” inaugurating the new covenant. Therefore we can confidently “draw near to God” and hold fast to our hope in Jesus. But we should not only do this individually. We should also:
“Consider how we may spur one another on towards love and good deeds”
“Not give up meeting together”
“Encourag[e] one another”
As we see everywhere in the New Testament, faith in God is inextricably connected to how we then relate to one another. In fact the genuineness of our love for God is, in a significant part, shown in how we relate to one another, as demonstrated in the very many “one another”commands in the New Testament. ‘It is easy to fool oneself about loving God. But it is not too easy to fool oneself about loving people. One might think one is loving God; the real test is whether it leads to a love of people’ (Michael Eaton).
The New Testament letters are written to communities (though we often tend to read them individualistically). It is in community that we will be stimulated to grow in the Christlike qualities of love, joy, peace, patience, etc. And it is through other people that we see more of what God is like and have opportunities to be the hands and feet that bring his grace to challenging situations.
And we are united in Christ and united to one another, both for our collective good and for God’s glory.
For our good because, though relationships are challenging at times, we need one another if we are to be encouraged to grow in our walk with God and because it is often through relationships that we are challenged to grow in love, joy, peace, patience, etc.
For God’s glory because in community we reflect the triune God who is perfect community and because there is something of God that a watching world can only see as Christians relate together in a healthy way.
What true community looks like for disciples of Jesus will vary from culture to culture, but Hebrews 10:19-25 and many other parts of the New Testament give us clear principles to govern our church family life.
Audio only
