We need one another if we are to make it to the top. The shared experience of the sacraments, baptism, and the Lord's Supper, and the regular hearing together of the exposition of the Word of God are the means of grace which God has provided to help us along the way. Small groups where, in honesty but in love, members can share with each other their successes and failures, their fears and hopes in the effort to walk with God - these are an important part of growth in the Lord. They are a part that has fallen into sad neglect, with the result that the church in the West has frequently lost its first love and became lukewarm. So far, so good, but the relationship which is most common in today's culture is that of employer-employee.
Most people have to work for a living.
In the first century this relation was most commonly one between slaves and masters. Accustomed as we in America are to personal freedom, it is almost impossible to imagine what it would have been like to be reduced, by the fortunes of war or the devastation of debt, to the status of a slave. Yet Paul told Christian slaves that they were to serve their masters as if they were serving Christ, even if the master was unkind. And masters were warned to treat their slaves with respect, knowing that there is no favoritism with God. Today that means that the workplace is not a secular wasteland but a place of service to God through service to the boss.