In Winthrop’s legendary sermon “A Model of Christian Charity” he famously presents his views towards how life should be lived in the colonies. The Puritans were going off into a new world, where they could easily lose touch to their faith, so Winthrop emphasized that salvation was achieved by “doing justly, loving mercy, and walking with God.”

Winthrop encourages his fellow Puritans to embody a few characteristics as they reach their new home. The first of these being that the people should “account themselves knit in their bond of love” and embrace that bond in their lives to help each other and themselves. The second being that the needs of the public must be sought before any private issue in aims to establish a healthy relationship between church and state. Thirdly, we should strive to improve our lives so that we can better serve our Lord and resultantly improve oneself through serving the Lord. Finally, Winthrop encouraged the Puritans to do the amount of good deeds they had or would have done in England in their new home to keep their brotherhood and share their faith.

Winthrop envisions that the community will have a strong collective belief in God and that their shared belief will contribute to a positive lifestyle where members of the community help each other when they can. As Micah 6:8 states; “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” Winthrop hopes that the group will follow scriptures like this so that they can live a humble life and avoid corruption. If the people live life according to God’s will, they will be collectively living good, loving, generous lives.

The following passage had a strong influence on Winthrop’s perception of the role of the new community; “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.  In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:14-16) Through passages like these Winthrop was able to conclude that the role of the new community was to be a religious beacon in the new world.

If I were a Puritan who was going to leave England and heard Winthrop’s speech, I would be deeply inspired. Leaving my home and everything I know would be such a scary thing to do, but Winthrop’s claims that we could all be alright if we stuck to each other and kept faith during this crazy time would give me something to hold to. My mentality towards the situation would shift from being terrified to confident as I accept that the only way to survive this sinking ship is to work together, and to love one another through a bond in faith.

Winthrop encourages his fellow Puritans to embody their duty of mercy which he said to be “exercised in the kinds: giving, lending and forgiving of debt.” (59).  He goes on to give the definition of love through scripture which is “love is the bond of perfection” meaning that love isn’t perfect but perfection makes love (perfection being Christ). Love isn’t just one being but many beings knitted together with Christ who is perfection which then makes love. All the pieces of this body are different sizes and are just different in every way but when they are put together through Christ it becomes the most well made and beautiful body there is. Winthrop hopes to have this theme of love implemented into their new community by: professing themselves members of Christ, dual form of government (civil and ecclesiastical), do more service, love one another no matter what.

Winthrop sees the relationship between the community and God as a love relationship but more of a tough love. If one was to ignore the four articles of the community and instead they cared about their own self they would feel God’s wrath. So they have to follow the articles very strictly because that is what God expects from them. The curse of God can be avoided only be following the counsel of Micah: “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God”(Micah 6:8). Simply saying to take the image of being knitted together with Christ seriously. One should never go through anything alone and should not rise above his brother but instead give something up when he is in need.

Winthrop’s view on the new community directly relates to how Matthew describes it: “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”(Matthew 5:14-16). This meaning that everyone has the opportunity to be the light or guide for someone else and influence them to do good. By being good and living by the articles set in place for the community you are able to be seen and appreciated by your fellow followers of Christ. These good deeds are to not be hidden but to be shown to all and help others to rise up and be apart of the body.

I feel as though if I were to be in the situation where I was leaving England and going off to start a new life in a new community I would rely on what Winthrop is saying in his speech. Even now these sound like good and valid guidelines to live ones life. Also, coming from a place like England at the time and then being told that I am stitched together with this community by God would be very empowering in my opinion. I think having that outlook that in a way we are all literally made with God from God and I always have Him and I am connected with my peers through him would feel comforting during this big transition.

Winthrop encourages his fellow Puritans to remain a community defined by the beliefs of the people despite distance between them. They must find comfort in living in a community bonded together by love and the common goal of living for and in the teachings of Christ, and therefore keep each other accountable. Explaining to them that they must improve their life and the lives of others by doing the service of God. Not only does it help lead to your salvation, but more importantly benefits those of your community which you love and look after. The definition of love is explained as “love is a bond of perfection. First it is a bond or a ligament. Secondly, it makes the work perfect. There is no body but consists of parts and that which knits these parts together, gives the body perfection”. Love is the caring and helping of other people. It seems as if Winthrop wants to encourage the mentality of putting the concerns and well-being of others before yourself. In this, there is a bond that is created and through these bond, the community becomes function by abiding by the laws of the religion and the land, but also of God. Each individual is inherently good or has the potential to be good alone, but by creating a community, perfection can be met. The visual that is created is that of a scarf or any other item that is knitted. The yarn has been produced by someone or some factory in order for someone to make something of it. Therefore, like people, all yarn has the potential to be made into something greater, like a scarf. A few stitches are good because they are the beginning of something else, but when all the stitches come together, there is a completely different product.

The relationship with God in which Winthrop has envisioned for the community is one that will be admired by others and the standard in which others will try to abide by. God will be “delight[ed] to dwell with us” meaning that the community properly fulfills the will of God and so God is proud to call them his children. He advises the group to not fail under God’s curse by living truthfully and transparently. By living under falsehoods and ulterior motives, the work and will of God done by the people will be tainted. This in turn will cause the community to not be the example of a perfect community that God is delighted to dwell in. However, a life in which one conforms to God’s will will bring peace from God and God will ratify the covenant.

This passage in Matthew 5:14-16 influences Winthrop’s understanding of the role the new community will play in the world by verbalizing a reward for living properly under God. Matthew describes a city on a hill in which people light candlesticks to see all that are present in the house. Usually, when people are placed physically above others, it is representative of their superiority and in this case saying that they are superior in following God’s will. Almost as if those in the city on the hill are the golden children that God is most proud of. By saying that people will light candlesticks to see all that are present in the house, this insinuates that the totality of the town will be good and perfect and therefore be the example by which others will base their communities and own lives on. Mostly because not only is it rare to have such open support of God, but to have everyone perfect with not even one person to mess things up is unheard of. (Also it is actually the definition of perfect.)

Winthrop’s speech would have great effect on me as I take a huge leap of faith by leaving everything I know and love behind in order to participate in a new socio-religious experiment. This would confirm that my decision was a good one, especially if my community would be so highly regarded that it would be the example for all other communities.