Jess hit on something we don’t usually think about – God is a community of three. He values community because He is one – God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Three yet one is more than we can possibly fathom but that’s the mystery of the Godhead.
God values relationships and we know it because He is a community. We also know it because he valued a relationship with us so much that Christ gave himself as a sinless sacrifice to reconcile us back into community relationship with Himself.
At salvation, I Corinthians 12:13 tells us that we were baptized into the body of Christ – into the universal community of believers. We are not in this alone. We are actually defined by being in this community. Romans 12:4-6 from The Message tells us “In this way we are like the various parts of a human body. Each part gets its meaning from the body as a whole, not the other way around. The body we're talking about is Christ's body of chosen people. Each of us finds our meaning and function as a part of his body.”
Think about the ramifications of being in community with God and other believers. Who we are and what we do affects others. The choices we make affect the whole community. If the community of the Godhead does not relate in self-centered, selfish love but self-giving, sacrificial love then that is the pattern for us.
We were more important to Christ than his comfort. He laid down his glory to come to earth to live as the son of man to pay our debt. He is our example of seeing and making others more important than ourselves – sacrificial community love.
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