Christian community
The concept of community needs to be seen in a larger context. Throughout most of the history of the world "community" was your family. People seldom died more than 10 miles from where they were born. Your neighbors were you aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.
The religious wars of Europe in the 1600s gave birth to the ironically named "enlightenment" period where it can be said that the idea of the nation state was born. In the 1700s "educated" (meaning godless) people started to consider how society could be managed for the benefit of all. This gave rise to philosophies of democracy and even communism and other devised means for the management of people.
Just as with the tower of Babel, people were able to accomplish more as they collectivized. This produced prosperity and the peace which allowed for the development of technology. Sounds like heaven on earth doesn't it.
There was a dark side to this burgeoning state of utopia. Families were being systematically dismantled. Even as early as the late 1700s one can observe declining fertility rates. This is a demographic term rather than a biological term. As people began to view their existence in terms of comfort and prosperity, those things that impinge (such as children) begin to decrease in occurrence.
As the technology for transportation developed people where less inclined to live where they were born and took advantage of the opportunity to locate themselves in densely populated areas to further enhance the possibility of increasing comfort and prosperity.
At the time when the few children being born were becoming even more of an inconvenience, public education was brought on the scene to free mothers of their "burdens" so that they were now available to swell the collective work force.
We now live in the socialist and communist utopia where every adult is free to work for the benefit of the state. A 30% income tax, 10% state tax, 5% sales tax, 15% SSI (where your treasure is there your heart is) indicates that we now relate more to the government than anything else. 2/3 of what we make goes to support the government.
We live in a world where the state has replaced family. People still marry and live together, but almost as roommates as interests and activities take everyone in their own directions. Marx called religion the "opiate" of the masses. A more correct assessment might identify TV as the soporific that makes tolerable our "Brave New World".
The world now talks of "community" as if a contrived arrangement of people with similar interests can sooth the soul's hunger for family. It is almost as if as the final stages of our enslavement to the state (in preparation for Satan's attempt to rule the world) bring a sub-conscious alarm that even the most advanced distractions cannot completely quell.
If we take a look at the first Christian community (in Jerusalem) we find not even the powerful works of the Holy Spirit could overcome favoritism and pretense. This first community held everything in common not because this is the ideal state but because they were almost refugees in their own home town. Consider what economic opportunities there were for those thrown out of the synagogue and ordered shunned by the religious authorities. The first church in Jerusalem was held together by pressure from the outside. They lived off their pooled resources until they were depleted and then off the donations of other churches.
Christians are told to love one another so often not because we are so lovable, but just the opposite. Unless we surrender our selfishness in our surrender to Christ, we cannot hope to even get along with each other.
Peter writes to Christians that are about to undergo persecution that they should be ready to give a reason for the hope that is within them. As long as most "Christians" go along with the world, there will be no persecution. However, as the mainline churches are taken further and further from the Lord, real Christians will start to separate themselves and begin to look for others for fellowship and support.
The Bible mentions a time of apostasy. If this describes the period into which we are entering, those "Christians" who continue after the world we are well rid of. We want to hold high the light of truth in an ever darkening world for those who the Lord brings to still seek it. However, the darkness will bring real Christians together for fellowship, then support, and then survival.
"Community" is a word from the world which means collective and organization. It functions as a machine and can never fully serve the needs of Christians. Family is a word that better serves Christians. Our unity is in Christ where we can finally be called a "body". It is unfortunate that it is often persecution that drives us to the unity we need to act as the "body" of Christ.
As churches increasingly follow after the world, real Christians will find themselves abandoned by that in which they formerly trusted. While uncomfortable, we need to understand that we should have been seeking after our Lord all along rather than lulled into a type of Christian "sleep walking" by a denomination or "community".
The recently roused Christian may need to be guided as to how to walk by the Spirit and grow into the full measure of Christ. It is then we learn the true riches to be found in the family and body of Christ. The life in Christ is not scripted or proceduralized. Each one of us is to be led by the Lord. This might entail one Christian asking another for help or even moving in with another Christian. However, the idea of "community" has more in common with the collective than it does with the family.
It teaches us to share and to die to self. We have to give up our rights and love people, even when it becomes difficult. God taught me a lot during those times.
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