It Takes a Community

11 Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. 12 No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.

13 And God has given us his Spirit as proof that we live in him and he in us. 14 Furthermore, we have seen with our own eyes and now testify that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 All who declare that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God. 16 We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love.

God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. 17 And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world.

18 Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love.

On the cross God showed us his love in a powerful way. But the fact is that we didn’t see that demonstration of love with our own eyes. We have to rely on the eyewitness testimony of those who were there that day. It is through the centuries- old community of faith that we know about the power of the cross.

And in that community we come to believe in God’s love, because it takes the love of fellow believers to give us a real- life experience of God’s love. “No one has ever seen God,” says John, except when God is present in the flesh. He did that in Christ, of course. And God also becomes present when he “lives in us,” Christ’s body, the church. God does this through his Spirit in us.

Indeed, “if we love one another, God lives in us.” This means we can experience God fully only in community. Of course, we can also have solitary moments of God-consciousness. But it is in community where we grow to know the fullness of God’s love. “If we love one another … his love is made complete in us.”

In the context of a loving church community we can change and become like Christ, because that is where the full power of the cross is experienced.

Are you part of a church community?

O Lord, we must confess that our churches are not always the communities of love they should be. Help us to love one another as you have loved us. Amen.