Christians are nothing more than beggars in a back alley, who’ve heard about a five-star restaurant down the street where the chef slips his best dishes out the back door every night.

Plate after plate of epic food. It’s amazing! And there’s enough for everyone! But there’s only one place to get this amazing food, so we keep seeing the same people over and over again. We start talking to each other, forming relationships.

Pretty soon, we’re looking out for each other. If one guy’s too sick to make it over to the restaurant, then one of us takes an extra plate and brings it over to that guy’s tent. And then we realize there’s just too much food coming out that back door every night. Just sitting there.

We can’t eat it all ourselves, and we can’t stand the thought of this incredible food going to waste, so we start going out and finding more beggars to come share it with us. We just can’t help ourselves. We’re drawn together by this chef.

That’s the picture the Bible paints of our relationship to Christ and each other. We are drawn together by the incredible grace of Jesus, as he prayed the night before he was crucified:

I pray not only for these, but also for those who believe in me through their word. May they all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us, so that the world may believe you sent me. I have given them the glory you have given me, so that they may be one as we are one. I am in them and you are in me, so that they may be made completely one, that the world may know you have sent me and have loved them as you have loved me. (John 17:20-23)

The problem is that we start to forget about the grace we’ve received and the community of the Trinity we’ve been welcomed into. We start showing favoritism toward people. We stop showing compassion toward people. We start spreading rumors about people. 

That’s why Jesus’ brother James wrote his book. He saw how quickly the community of Christ can fall apart, so he wrote to help us remember the grace of Jesus that draws us together. He also gave us very practical tips to create and sustain Christian community – in our families, friendships, community groups, and ministry teams.

We’re launching a study of the book of James this Sunday. If you’ve been searching for community, come join us! (Then join a community group).