What Does the Bible Say About Community?
The Bible teaches that true Christian community is costly, active, and essential to faith — not optional. In Luke 5, four friends carry a paralyzed man to Jesus, and when they can’t get through the crowd, they tear open a roof to lower him down. Scripture says Jesus forgave and healed the man because he saw their faith — the faith of the friends, not just the man on the mat. Real Christian community isn’t a comfortable add-on to personal faith; it’s one of the ways God brings people to Himself.
Why Do We Need Other People to Grow in Faith?
It’s tempting to think faith is a private matter — just you and God. But Luke 5:17-26 pushes back on that idea directly. The paralyzed man couldn’t get to Jesus on his own. He needed friends who were willing to carry him, get creative when the door was blocked, and literally open a roof to make room. Jesus “saw their faith” — plural — before He spoke a word of forgiveness over the man on the mat.
The lie of radical individualism tells us we can have a relationship with God without meaningfully belonging to other believers. Scripture tells a different story. The friends’ persistence became the very thing God used. Community isn’t a nice supplement to your walk with Jesus — for many people, it’s the vehicle He uses to bring them to Him in the first place.
What Kind of Friends Actually Help Us Grow?
Not every friendship points us toward Christ. Some friendships — even good, fun, long-standing ones — quietly shape us in the opposite direction. The early church father Augustine wrote candidly about this in his Confessions: as a teenager, he and a group of friends stole pears from a neighbor’s tree, not because they were hungry, but simply because of who he was with. He later reflected that he wouldn’t have done it alone; it was the companionship of the group itself that he loved, even in the wrongdoing.
That’s worth sitting with. The people closest to us shape what feels normal, acceptable, even exciting — for better or worse. C.S. Lewis captured the flip side of this beautifully: he described friendship being born the moment one person says to another, “What! You too? I thought I was the only one.” The question worth asking is simple: what is the “you too” at the center of your closest friendships? Is it a shared pursuit of Jesus, or something else entirely?
The friends in Luke 5 are a picture of the better option. They were willing to look foolish, do hard physical labor, and disrupt a crowded room — all to get one man in front of Jesus. That’s the kind of friendship Scripture holds up: not friendship that keeps us comfortable, but friendship that carries us toward Christ.
Is Christian Community Supposed to Be Easy?
No — and that’s actually the point. Theologian and pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer warned against loving an idealized dream of Christian community more than the real, imperfect people God actually places in our lives. When we expect community to be easy or frictionless, we end up disappointed and disillusioned the moment real people show real flaws.
Scripture doesn’t promise a perfect church this side of eternity. The New Testament itself is full of conflict — deception in the early church, favoritism among the apostles, moral failure in the Corinthian church that Paul had to address directly. And yet God still works powerfully through that community. The call isn’t to find a flawless church; it’s to stay, forgive, and keep showing up — what Bonhoeffer described as living together in the forgiveness of sins, forgiving each other daily from the heart.
Hard-fought community — the kind that stays through disagreement, repairs after hurt, and keeps choosing togetherness — is far more valuable than easy community that dissolves at the first sign of friction.
What Does This Look Like Practically?
A few things stand out from the story in Luke 5:
Look for friends who are different from you. The paralyzed man’s friends weren’t necessarily struggling with the same things he was — they were simply willing to carry him. Community built only around shared brokenness can keep people stuck rather than moving them toward healing.
Notice who is near you but far from Jesus. A family member, coworker, or neighbor may be closer to needing someone to “carry” them to Christ than you realize.
Take care of your own soul first. You can’t pour into others while you’re drowning yourself. Growth in community starts with making sure you’re anchored to Jesus personally before you try to bring others along.
FAQ: Christian Community and Friendship
Q: What does Luke 5:17-26 teach about community?
A: It shows that faith is often communal, not just individual — Jesus responded to the faith of the paralyzed man’s friends, not his faith alone, highlighting how God uses community to bring people to Himself.
Q: How do I know if my friendships are helping or hurting my faith?
A: Ask what your friendships are actually built around. Friendships centered on shared pursuit of Christ tend to challenge and encourage growth; friendships centered only on shared struggles or habits can quietly reinforce the status quo.
Q: Why does Christian community feel hard sometimes?
A: Because it involves real, imperfect people. Scripture calls believers to stay and extend forgiveness rather than leave for “easier” relationships — that ongoing commitment is what makes community formative rather than superficial.
Find Your Community at Christ’s Family Church
If this raises the question of who’s in your corner — or who you might need to help carry toward Jesus — we’d love to help you find your people. Christ’s Family Church in Davenport, Iowa, serves the whole Quad Cities area (Davenport, Bettendorf, Moline, and Rock Island), and our Family Groups exist for exactly this: real, hard-fought, Christ-centered community.
Join us this Sunday (08.30.2026) at 9:30a* for worship and community. Click below to find a Family Group where you can practice Christian community.
*Two services (9:00 & 10:40a) begin September 13th, 2026.