Different Views of Community - Essay Example

Different Views of Community: 1st Corinthians Epistle and Mark’s Gospel The aspect of community is something that has been emphasized quite a lot in the Bible. Various definitionshave been advanced on the meaning of the word ‘community’. However, all these definitions point to the same thing. It can be defined as a social unit, in which people or other organisms live together in the same area. A closer definition is provided by the Oxford University Press (2014), which defines community as “A feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals.”The context in which the concept of community has been addressed in Paul’s epistle of 1st Corinthian has similarities with that addressed by mark in his gospel. However, a disparity occurs in the context in which the two address the issue of community. This essay puts into perspective the views taken by both Paul and Mark in addressing how people should relate with one another. While there is a variation in the context of community between 1st Corinthian and the Gospel of Mark, there is a common emphasis on the need to live in community while advancing the same spirit.Although the two scriptures seems like they are written for different purposes, Paul and Mark present similar core views on the significance of community in leading a better Christian life. Paul and Mark in the context of community have addressed divergent aspects. When an internal discord started to develop within the Church of the Corinth, Paul wrote an extensive letter to them not to force them back into an ideal form of how the church must function, but to guide them on track of the true Christian values. Despite admonishing them to build community, he does not seem to be so hard on them. Mark, on the other hand, does not specify a set audience for his Gospel as opposed to Paul’s letter, Mark’s writing is in a narrative form portraying the chronicles of Jesus’ life in his adulthood from his baptism to crucifixion and his resurrection. In addressing the people of Corinth Paul seems to be concerned about some evils in the community. He specifically addresses the issue of proud culture that made some to depart from the Christian community. Other issues addressed include immorality and the divisions that occurred in the church that threatened the community. On the other hand, the gospel of Mark presents the aspect of community through the life of Jesus Christ who encouraged people to live in in love. He particularly focusses on the deeds of Jesus Christ, which helped promote the community among the believers while the non-believers getting to join the community. Though He talks about evil, he is appreciative of the fact that not every Corinth did evil. In contrast, through the chronicles, the Jewish community has been presented as very adamant to change and highly cultural. However, there re those that very flexible to change and were very willing and ready to build the community of believers, these include the disciples of Jesus Christ. The main emphasis by both Paul and Mark is the aspect of true and genuine spirituality among the community of Christians. The accounts of Jesus as presented by Mark admonishes Christians to embrace the live a life like that of Christ. This is a very important aspect in building of community of those that belief. He specifically places into context the aspects of the Jewish culture thatare meant to build a community that is based on Christianity. In addition, Mark seems to have a good command of the local geography and is seen to demonstrate the various community interactions of Jesus with the local community; for example, in Mark 6: 30-42, he fed over five thousand people while in Mark 8: 1-13 he fed another crowd of four thousand people. While Mark has extensively argued about genuineness, a number of teachings of lack of genuinesse especially among the Jewish community have been highlighted. Focusing on Paul’s epistle, we find that he did not use empty words in the name of wooing people into the Christian community. In chapter one, verse 10, he Paul admonishes the Corinth Christians to unite and avoid divisions between them, he asks them, “one of you says, I follow Paul, another, I follow Apollos, another, I follow Cephas… is Christ divided?”(Chapter 1, verse 12-13). Paul goes ahead to encourage brethren to live in harmony and avoid lawsuits one against the other in order to build a united community (Chapter 6). Contrary to the views of building a community, Paul talks tough about immorality, he sates in chapter five that an immoral brother should be expelled from the community of believers. Though Paul talked tough to the Corinth community, in some instances he taught them on how they should behave. In this case, he used very compelling language. The intentions that are expressed by Paul and Mark are not self-fulfilling but are geared towards the wellbeing of the community. Paul did not write in the intention of forcing them into his own ideology of how a Church should function, but rather to guide the individual members into understanding the true Christian righteous values that will help build the community of believers. The actions of Jesus according to mark were for the interest and wellbeing of the community. Mark present a myriad of miracles that Jesus did, not in an attempt to show himself but to make people God and adopt Christian living. He drove evil spirits, healed paralytic, made friends with sinners, healed demon-possessed among other aspects. All these were in an attempt to reconcile humanity to God. On the other hand, people is seen as devout apostle that is committed to following up on what has been happening to the Church in Corinth. He endeavors to see a united community of Christians that shuns evil and embraces Christlikeness. Through differing methodology, as pioneers of the Christian movement, both Paul and Mark intended to write these texts to convey the unique Christian meaning of true love to the readers. The ultimate goal of Christians is to enter the Kingdom of God. One can enter the Kingdom of God only by understanding and pursuing the life dedicated to selfless Christian love to God. However, love on Earth also encompasses the act of caring for others, meaning loving is only made possible when people have other people to interact within a community. Therefore, it can be said that even though the method of communication is different, both Paul and Mark share the same core views on the significance of community in leading a good Christian life, in which people must devote to idea of loving others in the process of loving God. Paul, in the effort to restore the fragmented bond of the Corinthian Church members, expresses the significance of love through his letters and Mark presents the importance of selfless love, through the actions of Jesus Christ, both within the community and to God for one to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Both Paul and Mark’s writings deal with the incapacities of human flesh and how effectively they can be dealt with. As sinful beings caged in flesh, it is the common tendency for humans to fall in the trap of having skewed priorities due to physical desires. For this reason, in the imperfect physical world, inequality in power and abusive use of power among people is inevitable. Paul and Mark, using different analogies, present the same solution to this challenge to the readers as a member of community. The answer that the two writers give is not to simply isolate oneself from other people in an attempt to avoid the problem but rather to remain in the community and care for those who are weaker. For example, in Corinthians 11, Paul orders that there should be propriety in the family just like it should be the case among the believers where Christ is the head of the church. Likewise, the husband is mentioned to be the head of the family. In both scripture, it is clearly elucidated that though the community was weakened by the human desires that presented weaknesses, Jesus Christ provided the ultimate solution. In conclusion, both Paul and Mark have placed a lot of emphasis on the essence of community through their messages. However, the two have taken different approaches of communicating the need for community. While Paul admonishes the Corinthians to have a Christian community that lives united and practices Christian deeds, Mark describes the actions of Jesus Christian to demonstrate how the community should be developed and maintained. Despite the varied approaches, the message sent by the two seems to be founded on love for God and others as the basis of building true and lasting communities. References The Bible.1stCorithians The Bible. Mark. Read More