5 Reasons Why it's Better to Do Life Together

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If you stick around church long enough, they’re going to ask you to get more involved. It’s inevitable. Once a week sitting in a pew doesn’t cut it for most churches. They want you involved in a small group. They want you to find a place of service. Why is that? Are they simply trying to add more numbers? Are they simply trying to validate their programs, or is there something more?

Culture is not trending towards more church involvement; in fact, the opposite is true. Part of it may be the busyness of life (there’s always another practice to take the kids to). Part of it may be that you don’t find churches inspiring anymore (too many churches focus on the rules rather than the grandeur of God). And part of it is that our culture is moving away from traditional Christian values as a whole (look at the recent Supreme Court rulings).

However you slice it, for you to intentionally do life together with other Christians, you’re going to have to go against the grain of society and overcome the gravitational pull that draws people away from church. Is it all worth it? Absolutely! Here are five reasons why it’s better to do life together with other Christians.

Together is Always Better than Alone

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When you choose to do life together with other people, you fulfill the original purpose that God had for man. If you go all the way back to the Creation story in Genesis 1-2, you’ll see the same statement over and over again, “It was good.” God created the sun, the moon, the plants, the animals, and “it was good.” Yet in Genesis 2:18 we see the first recorded instance of God declaring that something was “not good.” It’s when the first man Adam was all alone. God declared that this isolation was “not good.” When you choose to do life in isolation from others, you are breaking from the purpose God has for you.

You Transform Together

In Mark 2:1-12, we read the familiar story of four friends who brought their paralyzed friend to Jesus by digging through a roof. While many can gain inspiration from the determination of the friends, one of the most telling moments in the story is when Jesus heals the paralyzed man based on the faith of the friends, not his individual faith. “When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven” (Mark 2:5). Your faith can transform someone else’s life, but it’s only possible when you choose to do life together.

You are where you are in life not just because of your individual efforts but because of the collective influence of everyone in your life. Their influence changed you, transformed you. When we realize the transforming power of together, it gives us he motivation we need to lean into the relationships around us. Through together, we transform ourselves and those we do life with.

You Transcend Together

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If you look at one individual Lego piece, you will walk away unimpressed. Yet if you go to a Lego store and see life size replicas of amazing buildings created by hundreds of thousands of Legos together, you’ll walk away mesmerized. A single block of stone is unassuming. If you put enough of them together, you can build the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris.

Everyone wants to be a part of something bigger than themselves. We want to feel like our life has meaning and purpose. That happens when we do life together. In Ephesians, the apostle Paul plays off of the powerful imagery of the Old Testament temple when he says, “And in [Jesus] you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit” (Ephesians 2:22). Paul doesn’t make that promise to believers individually, but believers collectively. When we do life together with other believers, God creates something in and among us that far transcends anything we could achieve or experience on our own. You want your life to matter? Do life together.

You Fight Together

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If you go to the African savannah and watch lions hunt, they will approach a herd of wildebeests or kudu in search of food. Now, as long as the herd stays together, the lion cannot overpower them. That’s why the lion will never attack the herd directly. He will always skirt around the edges, trying to pick off one solitary animal, the slow, the lame, the old. One on one, the wildebeest or kudu doesn’t stand a chance. The animals’ only chance for survival comes when they stay together.

In Ephesians 6, Paul calls upon the church to put on the spiritual armor of God. What may not be evident in the English translations is that the command is plural. He’s telling the church to fight together. Why? “Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). In isolation, our enemy will pick us of and destroy everything good in our lives. Do you want to fight the enemy and win? You must fight together.