Community
The Bible can be viewed as a record of God’s efforts
to create a people who would serve as living advertisements for Him instead of
for themselves. In Genesis 11:1–4, the builders of the tower formed a community
with the sole intention of self-exaltation. In fact, their comments sound unnervingly
similar to the language Lucifer (Satan) and the worst character of history such
as Hitler and Stalin. “Let us build
ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make
a name for ourselves.”
Genesis 12:1-3 captures the birth of a community
of an entirely different order. God calls out Abraham and promises, “I will
make you into a great nation and I will bless you.” (Verse 2, NIV) To that
wonderful promise, God adds, “I will make your name great.” Notice God’s
ultimate objective in making of Abraham a great nation: “All peoples on the
earth will be blessed through you” (Verse.
3). God-created communities of faith are always
designed to bless the world.
Here’s something to consider. Christians have
preached for centuries that the reason God did not destroy Satan to begin with
was because to do so would have created a government of fear. True, certainly.
However, what if the deeper reason is that God does not govern in order to lift Himself up, and so does not
use violence to further His authority?
There are two kinds of community: The one that
exists for “Number One,” or, at best, follows “enlightened self interest,”
recognizing that what is good for the group may sometimes be ultimately best
for the Almighty Me, and therefore should be pursued. And there is the
community that exists for the purpose of blessing others. Which do we really,
at heart, want to belong to?
When God began His new community by calling
Abraham, He stated clearly that it would be the latter. However, it didn’t take
long for Israel to lean most on its “favored status” as “chosen ones,” and use
that to exclude instead of bless. The Old Testament begins from that time to be
a record of God trying to create a community that would be faithful to Him and His
principles of unselfish compassion and justice, and of the people’s insistence on
being the other kind of community instead. But God did not give up. There were always
the faithful few who did “get it,” who spent their lives in the effort to build
this different kind of community, which would praise God and bless all who came
within its reach.
“In the fullness of time,” He fulfilled the
promise made at the gates of the Garden of Eden, to send a Redeemer. This
Redeemer, God’s one and only Son, came as Jesus Christ of Nazareth to show instead of tell what God meant His
community to be like.
Lo and behold, although Jesus’ followers did
have problems with continuing to live as if they were part of a community that
served itself, His ways began to work. Slowly but surely, a group of people who
went all out for God and His lost grew. The faith of this fragile new entity
was severely tested when its Leader was murdered. They first fled and hid out
(watching out for Number One) but they gathered their courage to wait and watch
for the Holy Spirit, and the miracle happened.
It’s worth noting what made these few unlikely
souls able to wait and watch for this miracle. They were together. We cannot fully know until
we get to heaven what the first days were like. Were they united right away, or
did they argue first? Did John blame Peter for running away? Did Thomas say, “I
told Him so! I said he should stay away from Jerusalem!”? (John 11:16) Did the
rest all scold Thomas for not believing?
No matter how they began, they stuck together,
and here’s how they ended: “And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they
were all with one accord in one place.” (Acts 2:1, KJV) The Spirit arrived in
full force, and a new thing was born on the earth.
This new community, while not perfect, supported
each other through thick and thin, through persecution and famine and argument
over procedure, and “were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his
possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had.” (Acts 4:32)
What was this community’s foundation? “’Upon
this rock,’ said Jesus, ‘I will build My church.’ In the presence of God, and
all the heavenly intelligences, in the presence of the unseen army of hell,
Christ founded His church upon the living Rock. That Rock is Himself,—His own
body, for us broken and bruised. Against the church built upon this
foundation, the gates of hell shall not prevail.”
(White 1898, p. 413)
That’s a community worth belonging to! But it
isn’t easy. With the privileges, just like any other area of life, come
responsibilities.
