The primacy of following Jesus creates relationships with others who follow Jesus.
Following Jesus informs shared ethical and moral frameworks as we live in community with other believers.
It is following Jesus that gives rise to our ethical and moral frameworks and our desire to live them.
Those who do not follow Jesus will not have the same ethical and moral framework, and will not have the same reason for living according to that pattern.
Christian community will be distinctive in this regard, and will not be understood by other communities.
Christian community, life in the colony, is not primarily about togetherness. It is about the way of Jesus Christ with those whom he calls to himself. It is about disciplining our wants and needs in congruence with a true story, which gives us the resources to lead truthful lives. In living out the story together, togetherness happens, but only as a by-product of the main project of trying to be faithful to Jesus.
Stanley Hauerwas and William H. Willimon, Resident Aliens (Expanded 25th Anniversary Edition), Abingdon, 2014, pg. 78.
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