What Comes From Community

Simplicity is meaningful only inasmuch as it is grounded in love, authentic relationships and interdependence. Redistribution then springs naturally out of our rebirth, from a vision of family that is larger than biology or nationalism…. So it’s important to understand that redistribution comes from community, not before community.

Redistribution is a description of what happens when people fall in love with each other across class lines. When the Bible tells the story of the early church in the book of Acts, it does not say that they were of one heart and mind because they sold everything. Rather, they held all in common precisely because they were of one heart and mind, as rich and poor found themselves born again into a family in which some had extra and others were desperately in need. Redistribution was not systematically regimented but flowed naturally out of a love for God and neighbor.

Shane Claiborne: The Irresistible Revolution

via: inward outward