Isaiah 64:8 O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, and you are the potter. We all are formed by your hand. Acts 2:42 All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer. Why is it so crucial that we stay engaged in community with other believers? 1. NOT BEING CONNECTED COMES WITH SERIOUS RISKS Sin demands to have a man by himself. It withdraws him from the community. The more isolated a person is, the more destructive will be the power of sin over him. —Dietrich Bonhoeffer HEBREWS 10:24-25 Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near. 2. WE ALL NEED REAL LOVE 1 John 3:16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 1 John 4:9-10 God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. 3. LOVING OTHERS IS A LITMUS TEST OF OUR FAITH 1 John 4:11-12 Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us. 1 John 4:20-21 If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a fellow believer, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see? And he has given us this command: Those who love God must also love their fellow believers. John 13:34-35 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”