People want to have community, family, friends, and feel loved and feel safe. But too many people today don’t know who they can trust – even family isn’t as caring as it ought to be for many people. And good neighbours and good friends are very hard to come by. But at a wider level, we need community, not just isolated friends. While there are many great communities, there is no community that is perfect. In fact, most communities are so imperfect that we want to find authentic community. For the Apostle Paul, this can only be found in Christian community. Not imperfect, still sinning, Christians – but Christian community when it is living as it ought to before God. While we can can know this community life to some extent here and now, we must wait until we go to be with the Lord to experience it perfectly, in the world to come. Considering what life should be like within Christian community, Paul encourages believers to live as they ought to before God in Romans 12:9-16. He exhorts his readers, and us, to a high moral standard of living, giving very practical commands how to do this. But when we sin, we still have the forgiveness of the Lord Jesus, and the sure knowledge that we are reconciled with the Father. That is, if we are truly believers, who persevere in holiness…