Community and Resilience

By Robin Fleming

Our conversation this month is about how living in community (versus independence or isolation) promotes resilience when times are hard financially. What I propose here is that this is not only a healthy idea, it comes from God’s heart, is His design, and is His expectation for those who name His name and are disciples of His Son. Let’s take a look at what Scripture says.

1. God’s heart for His people from the beginning – community support, justice, advocacy, and interdependence.

In giving Israel comprehensive laws, God made it clear that He expected thoughtful and compassionate dealings with the poor. If a poor man gave his cloak in pledge of loan repayment, the lender was to return the cloak for the night so the man could sleep in it. Employers were to pay poor workers immediately for the day’s labor so they could meet their needs. Farmers were to leave neglected sheaves of grain in the fields and allow the ends of olive and grape harvests to remain on the trees and vines so that sojourners, fatherless families, and widows could glean (Deut. 24:10-22, ESV).

• God expects His people to be mindful of those who are in need and to conduct their work accordingly, ensuring that the disadvantaged are able to provide for themselves.

Early in the writings of Isaiah, God expresses disgust for, and rejection of, regular religious sacrifices while injustice is perpetrated and ignored, instead instructing worshipers to “learn to do good, seek justice, correct oppression, bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause” (Isaiah 1:12-17, ESV). God again blasts His people in 58:1-12 for their hypocrisy in seeking Him daily and fasting while simultaneously oppressing their workers. He then promises that if His people will expend themselves in caring for those in need, He will bless them abundantly.

• God accepts only worship that comes from lives invested in justice, advocacy, and care for the oppressed and needy among His people.

In one well-known Old Testament verse, the heart of God for His followers, the essence of all He has asked of them, is stated succinctly: “…what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8, ESV).

• God’s kingdom is a community of justice, kindness, and humility before Him.

2. Jesus’ and His apostles’ teaching – mercy, sacrifice, generosity, and interdependence.

Not surprisingly, Jesus’ teachings reverberate with the same messages. In Luke’s account of Jesus’ well-known parable about the “good Samaritan,” Jesus confirms that love for God and neighbor is the road to real life. Then, through story, He defines love for one’s neighbor as merciful, sacrificial, generous care for those in need, no matter who they are (Luke 10:25-37, ESV). Rather than offering a narrow, easy-to-follow rule, He makes this clear:

• The life of God is found in mercy, sacrifice, and generous care for whomever we encounter.

In both Matthew 23:23-24 and 25:31-46, Jesus emphasizes His priority of justice, mercy, and active meeting of physical needs. Time spent with these passages reveals that the “weightier matters” are not law-keeping and religiosity, but care for others that moves beyond platitudes to behaviors such as providing food, water, and clothes and offering hospitality and presence.

• The kingdom of God looks like coming alongside people in their needs.

Followers of Jesus continued teaching as He did and loving others as He did. In Acts 2:42-47; 4:32-37; 6:1-6; and 11:27-30, we find multiple examples of mutual care, where the early Christians actively provided for others’ needs in their own communities and far away, so that no one remained in need. During his ministry, Paul challenged and commended believers concerning generous meeting of needs (see 1 Cor. 16:1-4; 2 Cor. 8:1-15). James questioned the validity of a faith that sees need but makes no move to meet it (James 2:14-17).

Life as a Christ follower inherently looks like eyes open to the needs of those around us, efforts to see that those needs are met, and doing so at the expense of our own resources.