Christian community is the living organism that conveys the Gospel message. Like Jesus, Paul endeavored to change culture, not just send people to heaven. If Christ’s universal message doesn’t take form in a concrete group of people then it is an unbelievable message. An independent Christian is as impossible as an independent arm or leg, it will never work.
Believers exist as parts of one whole, the Body of Christ. Our very existence is love. When Paul says, “without love I am nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:2), he implies that he is within and part of another Being which is Love.
The “communion of saints” is alive, real, and operative in this world, and “salvation” is something we participate in right here and now. When Paul addresses his letters to “the saints,” he is clearly not speaking of our later Roman idea of canonized saints. He is speaking of the people who make up the living community and who participate in the shared life of love in this world.
Paul does not make heroes of individuals, but as members of the Body, they “shine like stars” as “perfect children of God in a world full of crooked and perverse people.” (Philippians 2:15). As Jesus intended, our community must embody and enliven love in order for us to be the “leaven” by which God eventually changes the whole corrupted world.
Acts 2:46-47 “They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity – all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved.”
