Daily Encouragement: Day 363

Adapted from Handbook to Spiritual Growth

THE KEY TO BIBLICAL COMMUNITY

The solace of sweet surrender and self-denial in Christ is the key to biblical community. As we make our dwelling place in Jesus, we discover the truth of Augustine’s words: “Lord, Your best servants are those who wish to shape their life on Your answers rather than shape Your answers on their wishes.”

True community in Christ is not created by attempts to make it happen; instead, it is a byproduct of other-centeredness, and this, in turn, is a byproduct of finding our lives by losing them for Jesus’ sake (Matthew 16:25).

If the leading enemy of corporate spirituality is selfishness, the leading contributor to community is the servanthood that issues out of self-denial. While the world values celebrities, the Word values servants. When Jesus became a servant to His disciples by kneeling down with a towel and a basin (John 13:3–17), He showed that greatness in the kingdom of God does not look like greatness in the eyes of the world.