Individualism and Community

March 9, 2013

             Beginning at the founding of our great nation, independence and individualism have been moral values that are at the heart of our cultural, ethical, and religious foundations. Americans treasure our independence and individualism, fight vehemently to protect these values, and pray to God with great confidence in our independence and individualism believing they are God’s sacred gifts to humanity.

            Truly, these are virtuous values to uphold and celebrate—to a point. Like any good gift, when taken to extreme, the gift becomes a curse. When individualism and independence compromise the sanctity of community they cease to be positive values. Rather, they become sinful distortions of God’s loving plan for humanity.

            It is important that we distinguish the fundamental difference. God created us in the Divine Image and called us very good. As our loving Creator, God personally and individually relates to every one of us as individuals. Truly, our individual relationship with God is vitally important. Yet, we were also created to be in community. Nowhere in Scripture does it call for God’s children to live as a bunch of self-focused individuals living out life in absolute independence from one another.

            The Ten Commandments primarily focus on two essential realities of fundamental human need. The first four commandments are intended to focus our relationship with God. The remaining six focus on what is necessary for us to live in community with one another.

            The 6th chapter of Galatians is a powerful Christian statement on the importance and validity of upholding the qualities of community. Paul’s loving commands in Galatians 6 are to bear one another’s burdens and uphold one another in love. In contrast, Paul also says that if we give attention to our selfishness, literally sowing to the flesh, we will experience only destruction.

            In the upper room on the final night of Jesus’ earthly life, he offered a beautiful prayer remembered in John 17. In this prayer, Jesus called for unity among believers. The language Jesus uses in this prophetic and powerful prayer is addressed to community, not individuals.

            Recalling the events of the Upper Room, Paul reminds the church of Corinth of the importance of upholding and maintaining the integrity of community in 1 Corinthians 11. In this context, he condemns the abuses of the Lord’s Supper to serve petty, selfish, and individualistic desires at the expense of the community.

            The temptations are real and frequently very powerful. Every day people with the power and means to choose between selfish and communal gain have the opportunity to use their power, control, or authority to impact the world—or their small part of the world. In spite of the strong passions that may drive you and I to make seemingly worthwhile and beneficial decisions for ourselves and the ones we love, there is a stronger and more meaningful question we must ask: “ Will this gain serve only my needs or will it improve the community?”

            There is no simple answer to this question and, quite frankly, it is often one that must be discovered through prayer, study, and the loving guidance of the Holy Spirit. It is a prayerful decision that individuals, families, churches, businesses, and organizations must make every day. Fundamentally, however, when Christians sacrifice the integrity of community for personal gain we violate the Gospel and disgrace God’s love. 

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