At 15, Charles Spurgeon was driven by a snowstorm into a small chapel. There, he heard the good news about Jesus and gave his life to Christ.
By his 19th birthday, he had become a preacher at New Park Street Baptist. Seven years later, the congregation moved to the 5,000-seat Metropolitan Tabernacle. Four years after that, in 1865, he began publishing a monthly magazine that would help thousands process the truth.
Spurgeon connected deeply with God, but he was also a profoundly community-minded man. He believed faith was meant to be public—to shape lives, institutions, and cities.
Community-Mindedness and Moral Excellence
Community-mindedness is the beating heart of virtue. Virtue is not private. There is no season of “working on yourself” first and then developing communal virtue later. The two must grow together. Virtue is communal. Period.
This is really what the ancients meant (and more) when they talked about “justice” as a cardinal virtue. Doing good isn’t just about ourselves. It is about our community. That’s why I’ve described it as community-mindedness. “Justice” can seem too transactional, as if we only have to care about our neighbor when some wrong is committed and needs to be corrected in court. The concept is much broader: thinking of the community all the time.
The Bible reflects this view of moral excellence and virtue. Peter explains that we are to add to our faith virtue, and that this virtue leads us to mutual affection for one another and to a general love that reaches out to all people (2 Peter 1:7). Moral excellence inevitably moves outward.
The Apostle Paul described this same posture in his letter to the Roman church. Addressing differences within the body, he wrote, “We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves” (Romans 15:1). He then grounded this in a larger principle: “Each of us should please our neighbors for their good, to build them up” (Rom. 15:2). This is community-mindedness. We do not simply think about what is good for ourselves. We consider what is good for everyone.
This is the pattern Jesus Himself showed. “For Christ did not please Himself . . .” (Rom. 15:3). His life was consistently oriented toward the needs of others, toward the good of the community—not His own comfort or ease.
What does this look like in practice?
What does it actually look like to think and live this way?
Here are a few concrete expressions: Continue reading “The Cardinal Virtues for the Christian Life, Part 2: Community-Mindedness (Justice)”