When you become a follower of Jesus, you become part of a community with God (John 14:23). … God exists in a community. We call it the Trinity. Since before the world existed, God was living in community and has modeled that for us.
When you become a follower of Jesus, you also become part of a community with other believers (John 17:21-22). … Jesus could have prayed many things for us in the Garden of Gethsemane but He prayed that we would “be one,” a united community. … This isn’t just the global church that we should be part of. It is also important to be involved with a local church, a local group of believers. The word “church” is used over 100 times in the New Testament. Only eighteen of those times are referring to the global church. The rest are about local churches. Local churches are important.
What is life in this community supposed to look like?
The New Testament uses the phrase “one another” fifty times in reference to Christian community.
Love one another (John 13:34-35; Romans 12:10). … We are to love one another. We won’t love everyone in the same away. You love your spouse different than anyone else. There’s a different love for for your kids than for others. We are to have a brotherly love for each other where we are devoted to one another despite differences.
Accept one another (Romans 15:7; 14:13; 12:16). … There are a few boundaries that may make it where we can’t accept certain people, such as belief in the resurrection, but in general we should accept each other’s differences. It’s good to be in a group with people like you; that’s what our connection groups do. It’s also good to cross-train and be involved with more diverse groups of believers so that we can learn to accept them.
Encourage one another (Hebrews 10:24-25; 3:13). … Encouragement is important. Some people really need the encouragement to keep their faith strong and others don’t. For those who feel they don’t need it, it’s not all about you. Perhaps God will use you to encourage ones who do need it.
Submit to one another (Ephesians 5:21; 1 Peter 5:5). … We submit to each other by allowing ourselves to be held accountable by each other.
Forgive one another (Colossians 3:13). … Everyone makes mistake. We cet committed to the church and are all excited, then someone says something that hurts our feelings and we withdraw ourselves. When we allow little things to keep us from God’s work then we are letting the Devil win. We are called to forgive as Jesus forgives us. We are to show that the power of God is stronger than the power of the Devil, that forgiveness and love are stronger than the pain.