Community and Fellowship: Basil the Great on Why Community Is Necessary

Basil the Great (d. 379) argued powerfully that solitary Christianity is a contradiction in terms. In "The Long Rules," he asked: "Whose feet will you wash? Who will you care for? How can you be last of all if you are alone?" He reasoned that most of Christ's commands -- love one another, bear one another's burdens, forgive one another -- require other people.

Basil also argued that community provides the correction that solitary individuals lack: "Living alone, we cannot recognize our faults, since we have no one to correct us. The solitary has no one by whom to measure himself." Community is the mirror in which we see ourselves clearly and the workshop in which character is formed.

Practical application: Identify one relationship in your church or community where friction exists. Instead of avoiding it, lean into it this week with humility and openness. Basil teaches that the person who irritates us most may be the one God is using most to shape our character. Community is not comfortable, but it is necessary.