Christianity, community, friendship, and relationships
score:1
According to Scripture, we are "surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses." Heb 12:1. And, we are all one Body in Christ Jesus, though many members. 1 Cor 12:27. There are other verses, too, but these both would seem to imply that community is important in the Christian life.
Now, if what your friend means when he or she says "everyone dies alone" is that everyone faces particular judgement for his or her own sins, and that God sends people to their eternal reward (whichever that may be) on an individual basis, that is true. However, I don't believe that your friend's statement expresses this concept very well. If what your friend means is that community is not important to the Christian life, Scripture itself seems to contradict this, as does tradition. Very few saints lived isolated lives, and these had charisms in the Early Church for living as hermits. Most of our great saints were part of religious communities, that is, communities focused on loving and serving God together, and helping one another grow in virtue. This is also one of the main purposes of marriage; husband and wife are supposed to temper one another and help one another grow in virtue, so that both can enter heaven.
Not everyone dies surrounded by their loved ones in a strict sense. Some people might physically die alone, in their house, on a mountain trail, whathaveyou. However, every Christian undeniably dies surrounded by the great cloud of witnesses mentioned in Hebrews, and only goes to heaven if they die as a part of the Body of Christ. Put another way, they must be grafted onto the Vine John 15. Even the words of Christ show us we are called to live together with our Christian brethren. One would be hard pressed to find Scripture that states we ought to live cut off from other Christians.
More post
- 📝 What is the Authenticity of Bible?
- 📝 What is the origin of "Jesus H Christ"?
- 📝 Isaiah 34:11 translation of animal names
- 📝 What is reason behind Christianity most popular religious as of now?
- 📝 How do the reformed view the "Left Behind" series?
- 📝 How do Protestants interpret "covers a multitude of sins" (James 5:19)?
- 📝 Do any Christian groups regularly practice the "lifting up of holy hands" during prayer?
- 📝 Is there a Christology that states that Jesus inherited divinity?
- 📝 Christ in the context of Predestination
- 📝 Does Christianity teach the circumcision of the breath?
- 📝 In Western communion services, when was the origin of the practice of consistently offering only the bread to the laity?
- 📝 Why go to Church?
- 📝 All the references where Jesus is offered worship
- 📝 Is 1 Corinthians 7:26–40 not the 'Word of God'?
- 📝 Who is the great prophet in Luke 7:16?
- 📝 Are Catholic priests expert in exorcism?
- 📝 Why do some Christians bowdlerise words like "God", writing "G-d" instead?
- 📝 Was Jesus opposed to h*m*sexual activity?
- 📝 To what extent can you be forgiven?
- 📝 Does the delayed burial of Jesus attest to the fact that he had no close relatives other than his mother?
- 📝 How do Bible scholars reconcile the differences between Greek and Aramaic in John 21:15-17?
- 📝 What are the classics/giants in Systematic Theology?
- 📝 How do we know we aren't worshipping the same God?
- 📝 Did the early Church fathers believe the Law of Moses was never able to justify?
- 📝 Jehovah's Witnesses claim Jerusalem was destroyed in 607 BCE. What is the evidence?
- 📝 Is a Catholic dogma that Moses (as the Exodus prophet) actually existed?
- 📝 What is the specific meaning of "die" in Genesis 2?
- 📝 What is Jehovah's Witnesses view on a baptized member owning machine guns?
- 📝 What is the scriptural basis for the idea that salvation can still be obtained after death?
- 📝 Why do the SDA abstain from pork?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Can somebody summarize the different "branches" of Christianity to me, and explain why they exist in the first place?
- 📝 At what point did Judaism and Christianity diverge?
- 📝 Does Christianity allow eating pork and horse meat, which even though it is prohibited by the Jewish Law?
- 📝 What are the major differences between evangelical Christianity and Mormonism?
- 📝 Did this phrase "love the sinner but hate the sin" in this form originate in Christianity and who is credited to have first used it?
- 📝 Relationships between God the Father, Mary and the two natures of Jesus Christ
- 📝 What is the basis for the belief that Christianity and Islam worship different gods?
- 📝 Trinitarian Christianity and Numbers 23:19 - Was Jesus a man?
- 📝 Christianity and extreme, seizure-like bodily shaking
- 📝 Which groups of Christians hold signs about Jesus or Christianity in public, and why?
- 📝 Christianity certainty and other religions certainty
- 📝 According to Catholic doctrine, do our fallen, finite nature and our relationship with God set us up for abusive relationships in this life?
- 📝 Communion of Saints and Our Relationships in Heaven
- 📝 How can apologists argue that if Jesus did not rise again then Christianity and the Church would not have lasted, when other religions have?
- 📝 Is Christianity just a belief system, or is it also a system for organizing and governing society?
- 📝 Christianity and Fatalism
- 📝 Perfect relationship between Trinity and other relationships in heaven - Catholic
- 📝 Mere Christianity Book I Chapters 1 and 2: How would Lewis explain morality being inherently known but also taught?
- 📝 How do human rights and Christianity relate to each other?
- 📝 Is Christianity the sum of the actions and beliefs of its adherents or a set of actions and beliefs defined by the Bible?
- 📝 Does Christianity allow allegorical readings of creation and the deluge?
- 📝 Christianity and Usury from a Historical perspective
- 📝 What Biblical basis supports the idea that questions and answers about Christianity could be sinful?
- 📝 Does Christianity as described in the Bible support dualism of the mind and body?
- 📝 Is there a need for Christians to believe in Christianity at all, if they don't believe in Resurrection and Salvation through Christ alone?
- 📝 Why is there a modern misconception about Christianity and Science?
- 📝 What are the relationships of the Gifts of the Holy Ghost to the beatitudes and virtues?
- 📝 For those who believe there was no historical Adam and Eve, how does Christianity make sense?
- 📝 Are good and evil in Christianity ultimately based on maximizing wellbeing and minimizing suffering?
- 📝 Virgin birth in other religions and relevance to Christianity