Home > Work > Called to Community: The Life Jesus Wants for His People
1 " Outdo one another in showing honor (Rom. 12:10) Live in harmony with one another (Rom. 12:16) Admonish one another (Rom. 15:14) Greet one another with a holy kiss (Rom. 16:16) Wait for one another (1 Cor. 11:33) Have the same care for one another (1 Cor. 12:25) Be servants of one another (Gal. 5:13) Bear one another’s burdens (Gal. 6:2) Comfort one another (1 Thess. 5:11) Build one another up (1 Thess. 5:11) Be at peace with one another (1 Thess. 5:13) Do good to one another (1 Thess. 5:15) Put up with one another in love (Eph. 4:2) Be kind and compassionate to one another (Eph. 4:32) Submit to one another (Eph. 5:21) Forgive one another (Col. 3:13) Confess your sins to one another (James 5:16) Pray for one another (James 5:16) Love one another from the heart (1 Pet. 1:22) Be hospitable to one another (1 Pet. 4:9) Meet one another with humility (1 Pet. 5:5) "
― Eberhard Arnold , Called to Community: The Life Jesus Wants for His People
2 " Let him who cannot be alone beware of community...Let him who is not in community beware of being alone...Each by itself has profound pitfalls and perils. One who wants fellowship without solitude plunges into the void of words and feelings, and one who seeks solitude without fellowship perishes in the abyss of vanity, self-infatuation, and despair. "
3 " Community is a nice idea, but are we are ready to do the work it takes to forge a common, committed life with others on a daily basis, specially if it costs us? If we're honest, we'll recognize that we have been groomed to believe that our lives are ours to do so as we please and that our independence is more important than our involvement in whatever groups we happen to participate in, including the church. But forming community will never happen if we keep hanging onto our independence. Neither will happen if our schedules only allow us to meet together a couple of hours per week. We will have to form new lifestyle habits and dispense with old patterns of living and thinking. We will have to sacrifice convenience and give up private spaces and personal preferences. We will have to make concerted choices to forgo some of our personal freedom so that others can more naturally be in, and not just around, our lives. It will take work. "
4 " Redemption from the life of self-from wanting to be in the right, from imposing our own ways, from our unfitness for community, from this deadly disease that will be our ruin-can only come through a cause that exists completely outside of ourselves. God's cause is a cause for which we are not needed. We are not indispensable. It is not just tha I am unimportant' I am an obstacle. I am an adversary of the cause. Redemption cannot begin until we each recognize this and ee ourselves thus in the light of the cause-as adversaries, especially in our piety. Until that happens we are deluding ourselves with our own cramped efforts. "
