Skip to main content

The Image of God as Community

The last two weeks we have examined two different views on what it means that we are made in the Image of God. The first was the functional view, that it means our vocation and calling in the world. The second is the structural view, that it means our very design as both physical and spiritual beings. This week we will look at the communal view, which holds that what it means to be made in God's Image is the fact that we were made for community.

First we must remember that God is Trinity. God is an eternal community of self-giving love between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. There was never a time when this was not true, nor will there ever be one. The fundamental truth about God is the Trinity.

This view takes this into consideration and views the Image of God as meaning communal. After all, God himself declared that it "was not good for man to be alone" in Genesis 2:18. Since God is community and we are made in his Image, then we too must be made for community. We see this throughout scripture as community is a foundational aspect of God's plan for humanity.

We were made to love and be loved by others, to know and be known. We naturally group ourselves into family units, tribes, nations, and friend groups. It is this unique communal nature of human beings, communion by choice and pleasure and not merely necessity, that makes us made in the Image of God. God himself is the author of families, nations, and of course the Church.

Even those who live out lives of celibacy and singleness (something viewed very highly in scripture) are called to do so for the sake of a larger community. We see this most clearly in Jesus, the perfect Image of God. In him we see most clearly a life lived selflessly for others and for God. Sinning, then, is a violation of community and a failure to truly consider others ahead of ourselves.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

We Need More Images

What is your favorite way to describe God? Is there a particular name of God in scripture that you are drawn to? What images and pictures come to mind when you think of God? These are questions I don't think we ask often enough. We all have an image of God in our heads that we work with. It may not be a literal picture, though it might be, but ideas and concepts we tend to associate with who God is. Some of those images and associations may come from the Bible, but some may not. These things are influenced by our upbringing, Bible reading habits, personalities, relationships, culture, and more. The way we picture God has a dramatic impact on the way we live our lives. For example, if the primary idea you have of God is "Healer," when you hear or read that you are made in God's image you will likely feel called to heal, be it physical ailments or spiritual wounds. But, if your primary image of God is "Judge," that changes things. You very likely might tend to...
Post a Comment
Read more

Thankful

Today is Thanksgiving, the day that we are supposed to celebrate all the things we are thankful for. It is a time of family reunions, football, and turkey eating. I sincerely pray that each and every one of you has a good day today. I'll admit that being thankful has not been easy for me this year. As pretty much all of you know, my mother passed away December of last year. Though she had been in the hospital for months, we were not expecting it. In fact I was sure she would be finally able to come home within a matter of weeks. Instead she peacefully passed on into the arms of Jesus, whom she loved more dearly than anyone else. As you can imagine, the entire family was heart broken. After what can easily be described as the worst Christmas ever, I returned to home to Illinois. It was here that I finally broke down. I spent the next months doing everything except being thankful. I cursed God, wept, screamed, begged to have her back, and was generally not the nicest person to be...
3 comments
Read more

The Early Middle Ages: Historical Friday

The next segment of history that we are going to overview is the Early Middle Ages. This dates roughly from AD 450 to AD 1100. This is intended to be a very general overview. There are probably historians that would classify some other time period as the "Early Middle Ages" or a more specific time period. For our purposes this will cover the aforementioned time period. This was a very influential period in the history of Christianity. It saw the formation of what we now call the Roman Catholic Church and its separation from what we would now call the Eastern Orthodox Church. Before this time there was only ONE church. There weren't different denominations or groups. It is hard for us to think about in our modern context, but there was a time when Christianity was visibly unified. Brief History The first major thing to happen during this time period is the remaining three ecumenical councils. We discussed the first four several weeks ago. These councils discussed va...
Post a Comment
Read more