'Beings-in-fellowship'
One of the harsh realities I’m having to deal with as I ‘adult’ is the fact that I can’t do life alone. I can try, as I do every other day when I lock myself up in my room and pretend I’m on another planet, but sooner or later, I’m gonna have to step out and deal with the fact that life aint ‘livable’ all by yourself. And it’s not because I’m weak or dependent (I’m definitely not the latter), but it’s because that’s just the way we’re built up. We’re made to exist and flourish in a relationship or community context.
When God created mankind, he made them male and female from on start. Sure the one came before the other when it came to their formation, but point is, we were aware when Adam was formed that there was one missing. And it’s good that Adam came first. Besides getting the garden in order and figuring out how to do life there, he would learn to appreciate the other when she came because he would know there were things he just couldn’t do without her (I hope the brothers are listening). There are all kinds of theories and estimations of exactly how long Adam lived without Eve, I don’t care much about that, what matters is that he lived alone and something of his purpose was incomplete.
“The Lord God said: “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” Genesis 2:18
For the first time, before sin, we hear God say ‘it is not good’. All along as He created things, He would commend Himself and the work of His hands by declaring that it was good. What made God to say so? It wasn’t because Adam was bored or lonely, we don’t have evidence that Adam noticed that something was amiss. It was because Adam couldn’t fulfill all aspects of his purpose and calling all by himself because they were linked to another. He couldn’t exactly be fruitful and increase in number all by himself. That’s what wasn’t good in God’s eyes: him not being able to live up to his purpose. And this is what isn’t good with our lives if we are doing everything else but the one thing we were called for.
So relationships aren’t just for pleasure (and pleasure is a major part of any relationship, because they’re meant to bring joy, not misery, as they enhance your living experience) but relationships are meant to enable me to live in accordance with the purpose of my existence. Think about it, everything we’re called for in our different sectors ‘ministers’ to and centres around others, and if there are no people, we fail in our calling. A doctor who has no patients can’t exactly fulfill his purpose, so is a contractor who’s building a road…he has no course to build one if there will be no people using it. Our lives revolve around people, and because of this, we need to respect and appreciate the people in our lives, just like Adam did. He was so taken up by appreciation for his wife when they met that he turned into a prophetic poet for a few minutes.
By why is this? Why are we built up this way? I came across a beautiful explanation while I was doing an assignment (which I should be doing right now, but hey, purpose before books, haha.) Side note: I must say, I’m really enjoying the module I’m busy with. This is what school should have been like from the very beginning, intriguing and sense-making. I don’t get it why we have to wait twelve years (struggling and barley making it through with subjects we’ll never use) before we get to choose what we’d like to study. Anyway, back to that fantastic explanation.
“It is not surprising that ultimately the image of God should focus on ‘community’. As the doctrine of the Trinity asserts, throughout all eternity God is ‘community’, namely, the fellowship of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit who comprise the triune God. The creation of humankind in the divine image, therefore, can mean nothing less than that humans express the relational dynamic of God whose representation we are called to be. Consequently, each person can be related to the image of God only within the context of life in community with others. In the final analysis, then, the ‘image of God’ is a community concept, it refers to humans as beings-in-fellowship.” Stanley Grenz
Amazeballs right? We’re built up this way because we’re built like God. And when we do life with people and do it well (hard as it may be at times), we please our Maker because then we perfectly reflect Him.
When God created mankind, he made them male and female from on start. Sure the one came before the other when it came to their formation, but point is, we were aware when Adam was formed that there was one missing. And it’s good that Adam came first. Besides getting the garden in order and figuring out how to do life there, he would learn to appreciate the other when she came because he would know there were things he just couldn’t do without her (I hope the brothers are listening). There are all kinds of theories and estimations of exactly how long Adam lived without Eve, I don’t care much about that, what matters is that he lived alone and something of his purpose was incomplete.
“The Lord God said: “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” Genesis 2:18
For the first time, before sin, we hear God say ‘it is not good’. All along as He created things, He would commend Himself and the work of His hands by declaring that it was good. What made God to say so? It wasn’t because Adam was bored or lonely, we don’t have evidence that Adam noticed that something was amiss. It was because Adam couldn’t fulfill all aspects of his purpose and calling all by himself because they were linked to another. He couldn’t exactly be fruitful and increase in number all by himself. That’s what wasn’t good in God’s eyes: him not being able to live up to his purpose. And this is what isn’t good with our lives if we are doing everything else but the one thing we were called for.
So relationships aren’t just for pleasure (and pleasure is a major part of any relationship, because they’re meant to bring joy, not misery, as they enhance your living experience) but relationships are meant to enable me to live in accordance with the purpose of my existence. Think about it, everything we’re called for in our different sectors ‘ministers’ to and centres around others, and if there are no people, we fail in our calling. A doctor who has no patients can’t exactly fulfill his purpose, so is a contractor who’s building a road…he has no course to build one if there will be no people using it. Our lives revolve around people, and because of this, we need to respect and appreciate the people in our lives, just like Adam did. He was so taken up by appreciation for his wife when they met that he turned into a prophetic poet for a few minutes.
By why is this? Why are we built up this way? I came across a beautiful explanation while I was doing an assignment (which I should be doing right now, but hey, purpose before books, haha.) Side note: I must say, I’m really enjoying the module I’m busy with. This is what school should have been like from the very beginning, intriguing and sense-making. I don’t get it why we have to wait twelve years (struggling and barley making it through with subjects we’ll never use) before we get to choose what we’d like to study. Anyway, back to that fantastic explanation.
“It is not surprising that ultimately the image of God should focus on ‘community’. As the doctrine of the Trinity asserts, throughout all eternity God is ‘community’, namely, the fellowship of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit who comprise the triune God. The creation of humankind in the divine image, therefore, can mean nothing less than that humans express the relational dynamic of God whose representation we are called to be. Consequently, each person can be related to the image of God only within the context of life in community with others. In the final analysis, then, the ‘image of God’ is a community concept, it refers to humans as beings-in-fellowship.” Stanley Grenz
Amazeballs right? We’re built up this way because we’re built like God. And when we do life with people and do it well (hard as it may be at times), we please our Maker because then we perfectly reflect Him.
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