No Man Is An Island; The Gospel and Christian Community

Consider the poetry of John Donne.

No man is an island entire of itself; every man 
is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; 
if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe 
is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as 
well as any manner of thy friends or of thine 
own were; any man's death diminishes me, 
because I am involved in mankind. 
And therefore never send to know for whom 
the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

We might not be familiar with this work in it’s entirety, but we’ve all certainly heard and used the phrase “no man is an island”. In general, we use it positively to mean that people are designed to thrive in community, not alone.

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