by Pastor Douglas Brauner

Our Need for Community

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

“As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens the wits of another.”
Proverbs 27:17 God’s Word Translation

Even in Colorado Springs where the economic situation is good, you find businesses that fail for one reason or another. It might have happened because of a lack of paying customers or of being over leveraged. The business might have failed as a result of health issues with which the owner struggled. Seeing a foreclosure sign is a sad sight.

Yet I also wonder how many businesses fail because of isolation from the rest of the community.

Solomon reminds us that iron is made sharp when it comes into contact with another piece of iron. Without this contact, a knife or sword will eventually become dull and ineffective. God created us for community, not isolation.

Granted, some of us need more people in our lives than other people do, but we can learn a lesson from Jesus. The One through whom all of creation was made, chose to live in community. He chose to surround himself with twelve men as his closest disciples. Women were constantly numbered among his followers.

There were times when Jesus withdrew from his friends, but he never lost contact with community, especially the community of his Father. When Jesus removed himself from people, it was for the purpose of celebrating his community with the One who sent him to redeem the world. He never lost contact with community.

We might shy away from community because of being hurt. However, when we remove ourselves from others in the body of Christ we run the risk of becoming dull in our Christian walk.

I need you and you need me so that we stay sharp, so that we impact the world for Christ. Staying in contact with other Christians can be painful. It might hurt to hear things that we don’t want to hear about ourselves, yet God works in this community as iron sharpens iron. In community we experience the transforming work of God in Christ who is the ultimate sharpener.

Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado