All over the world, people endeavor to live lives worthy of the name. There is competition to be sure, but there is also cooperation and collaboration. People sometimes realize that they cannot do things on their own and so they get into groups in order to do it together. There is joy in doing things together as a community. The songwriter exclaims in Psalm 133:1: “How good it is for siblings to dwell together in unity!” This post will explore five advantages of living in community as opposed to living on your own. In a world like ours that is progressively becoming individualistic, this sort of elucidation is apt.
The first advantage of community living is emotional support. We are social individuals. We cannot live all by ourselves. There is a popular saying to the effect that no one can be an island unto oneself. We all need to collaborate with one another, first of all for the emotional gratification it affords. Living in community in other words is like food for the heart, for the soul. We learn in community to laugh and cry with others. We learn to belong and to derive succor and consolation from those with whom we live in groups.
The second is division of labor. We live in communities because we realize very early on that we cannot do anything all by ourselves. Just think. Is there anything you use that you made from scratch all by yourself? Hardly. Even if say, you woke up in the morning, went to the fridge to fix yourself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, you have to know that you did not make it all by yourself. The bread you dress with jelly and peanut butter was once flour, eggs and milk. The baker made it, and sold it to the grocery owner, from whom you likely bought it. Or, even if you made the bread yourself, you probably didn’t make the flour. Or, even if you made the four yourself, you probably did not grow the wheat; or even if you grew the wheat yourself, you probably did not make the fertilizer, and on and on and on. We need people to share our work.
Adam Smith was an eminent philosopher and economist in his day. He espoused the concept of division of labor. He said that the efficiency of productivity was underpinned by different individuals doing what they were best suited to do, on behalf of the larger working community, in such a fashion that a concert of efforts and roles pooled together would result in the efficient use of time and resources in the production process. And he was right. This was the start of the industrial age. It was the start of the greatness of nations.
Living in community thirdly helps us to wait for the coming of Christ. In other words, there is a faith component to living in community. Faith is a personal journey, but theologians would enthuse that it is not a private one. We worship God in community and share our belief in God as a group. The communion that we jointly participate in justifies our coming together to bless the God that collects us into communities with himself, his son and his spirit. As children of God, we are siblings to one another and we owe everyone a debt of charity as a result of this. God our father that gave us his son to die for us on the cross of Calvary is our eternal guard and guide, and he shows us how to live in community with our brothers and sisters in Christ.
A fourth advantage of living in community is that it gives us an identity. We spoke about participatory frameworks in a previous post. Participatory frameworks are the means by which we relate to the spheres of human relationships that collect about us, such as family, community and nation. We derive our identities from participatory frameworks. Through our family we relate to our communities, and through our communities we relate with the nation at large. We live in community in order to obtain an identity.
A fifth and last reason why we stay in communities is so as to be inspired. Within communities there are models that we can be inspired by. We observe them and are full of admiration for how they conduct themselves, and we wish to be like them, and so emulate them. We are happy to be around them because they rob off on us, and we imbibe some of their spirit. This opportunity, to be like the models we admire, comes about because we live in community with them. This is a true advantage of living in community with others. All in all, it is good to live with all the people we meet in harmony, peace and love.
The first advantage of community living is emotional support. We are social individuals. We cannot live all by ourselves. There is a popular saying to the effect that no one can be an island unto oneself. We all need to collaborate with one another, first of all for the emotional gratification it affords. Living in community in other words is like food for the heart, for the soul. We learn in community to laugh and cry with others. We learn to belong and to derive succor and consolation from those with whom we live in groups.
The second is division of labor. We live in communities because we realize very early on that we cannot do anything all by ourselves. Just think. Is there anything you use that you made from scratch all by yourself? Hardly. Even if say, you woke up in the morning, went to the fridge to fix yourself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, you have to know that you did not make it all by yourself. The bread you dress with jelly and peanut butter was once flour, eggs and milk. The baker made it, and sold it to the grocery owner, from whom you likely bought it. Or, even if you made the bread yourself, you probably didn’t make the flour. Or, even if you made the four yourself, you probably did not grow the wheat; or even if you grew the wheat yourself, you probably did not make the fertilizer, and on and on and on. We need people to share our work.
Adam Smith was an eminent philosopher and economist in his day. He espoused the concept of division of labor. He said that the efficiency of productivity was underpinned by different individuals doing what they were best suited to do, on behalf of the larger working community, in such a fashion that a concert of efforts and roles pooled together would result in the efficient use of time and resources in the production process. And he was right. This was the start of the industrial age. It was the start of the greatness of nations.
Living in community thirdly helps us to wait for the coming of Christ. In other words, there is a faith component to living in community. Faith is a personal journey, but theologians would enthuse that it is not a private one. We worship God in community and share our belief in God as a group. The communion that we jointly participate in justifies our coming together to bless the God that collects us into communities with himself, his son and his spirit. As children of God, we are siblings to one another and we owe everyone a debt of charity as a result of this. God our father that gave us his son to die for us on the cross of Calvary is our eternal guard and guide, and he shows us how to live in community with our brothers and sisters in Christ.
A fourth advantage of living in community is that it gives us an identity. We spoke about participatory frameworks in a previous post. Participatory frameworks are the means by which we relate to the spheres of human relationships that collect about us, such as family, community and nation. We derive our identities from participatory frameworks. Through our family we relate to our communities, and through our communities we relate with the nation at large. We live in community in order to obtain an identity.
A fifth and last reason why we stay in communities is so as to be inspired. Within communities there are models that we can be inspired by. We observe them and are full of admiration for how they conduct themselves, and we wish to be like them, and so emulate them. We are happy to be around them because they rob off on us, and we imbibe some of their spirit. This opportunity, to be like the models we admire, comes about because we live in community with them. This is a true advantage of living in community with others. All in all, it is good to live with all the people we meet in harmony, peace and love.
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