This list and following comments were part of my message on community given at Epic (9/18/2011). I got feedback that people wanted the list, so here it is:
What's the point of church? One argument is that we can’t live out the Scriptures, particularly the New Testament, without a community.
Speak truth in love (Eph 4:15)
Bring things into the light (Eph 5:8)
Submit to one another (Eph 5:21)
Build one another up (Eph 5: 29)
Carry each other’s burdens (Gal 6:2)
Resolve conflict with one another (Matt 18:15)
Discern and make decisions together (Matt 18:18)
Eat together and partake of the Lord’s Supper (1 Cor 11:33)
Confess our sins to one another and pray for each other (James 5:16)
Encourage one another (Heb 10:24)
Love one another (Heb 13:1)
Extend hospitality (Heb 13:2)
Forgive one another (Eph 4:32)
The ethical invitation to live in the kingdom of God assumes gathering, relationship, that we know one another, that we are in each others lives. We can believe the right things, but we cannot actually follow Jesus without belonging to a distinct, real, visible, community. It is impossible to truly live as a Christian or function as the church outlined in the New Testament without a deep commitment to the body of Christ.
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