TOWARD COMMUNITY: A BIBLICAL THEOLOGY
PRESENTED TO DR. SHEETS, Ph.D.
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS
FOR BTHB 529: FOUNDATION OF BIBLICAL THEOLOGY
INTRODUCTION
Throughout Scripture a theme emerges that has direct and indirect implications for man’s pursuit of God. In recent years “community” has become a buzzword among church leaders, and communion theology has been discussed and debated throughout the evangelical world.
[1] The advent of the Emerging Church movement has given rise to this theme, and demonstrated in a growing number of postmodern churches a hunger for authentic community. Is community just a desire of postmodernists? Is it just an outgrowth of pop philosophy, deconstructing the church’s hierarchy and traditions?
Community concerns itself with relationship; relating in an open and authentic way of knowing and being known. The Greek term for community is ekklesia. It is used throughout the New Testament and in the LXX to refer to the gathering of the people of God. But its implications are greater than the limitation of locus. Instead, it describes the community whether they are assembled or not, because the emphasis is on relationship not the assembly.
A biblical theology of community may be seen from beginning to end. Millar wrote, “In one sense, to write about the people of God is to attempt to encapsulate the whole of biblical theology. The entire Bible speaks of God’s plan to create his people, in his place, under his rule. He commits himself to work with one people, and follows this commitment through to the end, though he extends the scope infinitely through the work of Christ.”
[2] This essay will track the theme of community from God, Himself, through the consummation of the Kingdom when man is finally in communion the way God intended. This will serve as a theological perspective with which to answer the questions posed earlier in this introduction and those asked by people seeking genuine community.
GOD
God is infinite, and as such is not within man’s ability to fully comprehend. I do not mean to be supercilious in regard to my analysis; however there is biblical detail that can help us in understanding God in relation to community. Trinitarians believe that we serve one God
[3], but that there are three persons of the Trinity
[4], namely Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Each of these persons has specific roles that they play in relationship to the others.
God the Father is the exalted head. Jesus Christ, the son of God, exalted Him, yet He also claimed oneness with the Father
[5]. The Holy Spirit is part of the Godhead, but functions in glorifying the Son
[6]. Three-in-one theology has attempted to explain the Trinity; that is not the point of this essay. Suffice to show that among the godhead there are communal aspects that show intimate, authentic relationship among them.
In Genesis 1:26 God states, “Let us make man in our image…” [emphasis mine] These pronouns indicate the diversity of God. John 1 confirms that presence of Christ’s participation in the creation story. God is Himself, a being of communion.
ADAM
Further God showed Himself to be interested in communion with man. He created Adam in His likeness and image.
[7] God found Adam lacking His full image. The image was not complete until Adam had someone to commune with. Eve was the completion of God’s likeness in Adam.
Adam and Eve’s story leaves so many questions, but it does in some points show us a picture of God’s intended communion with man. Genesis describes the garden and the trees in the garden. The tree of life is a significant tree because it prolonged life.
[8] God walked in the garden.
[9] He came close to man to commune with him. In Genesis 3 Adam and Eve sinned. It is a point of interest here that they were together when they sinned.
[10] Community did not keep them from sinning.
After the fall of man many things changed, however some things did not. Adam and Eve still had community among themselves, but their unity with God was severed by sin. This scenario set in place the plan of redemption for Adam’s seed; so that man could again enjoy community with God.
ABRAHAM
Abraham, twenty generations after Adam, becomes a part of the restoration of community between God and man. Abraham enjoys a special relationship because of the faith he had in the future fulfillment of God’s promises.
[11] In this relationship God institutes a covenant with Abraham. God promises that his offspring will be more numerous than the stars, a land for his people, and that through his seed all nations will be blessed.
[12] This covenant is ritualized by God moving His torch through the sacrifice, and by Abraham circumcising his people.
In this symbolic rite Abraham begins making a community of God. Community must be comprised of two things. First, it must hold things in common. Second, it must be united around their commonalities. Already the Trinity has been shown to have common position as God, and is united in their individual roles. God and Adam had a common likeness and image, and prior to the Fall were united in their fellowship. The pattern of community continues into God’s friendship with Abraham. They hold their covenant in common and are mutually looking forward to its completion and fulfillment.
ISRAEL
Jacob was the grandson of Abraham. He was blessed by God and received a new name, Israel. From that time on all his offspring were known as children of Israel or Israelites. It is in Israel’s people that a community of God begins to be seen on the earth. Israel’s sons move from the land God promised Abraham to Egypt, in order to survive a famine. Over time and successive Pharaohs the children of Israel become enslaved.
God heard the cry of this people and remembered the covenant He made to Abraham.
[13] In order to insure its fulfillment God raises up a leader, Moses, to lead them back to the Promised Land. It is on this journey that something special in the communion story of God and man occurs. At Mt. Horeb, He gives the Israelites His law. It is a collection of the attributes of God and His people. In fact, it is in this act of giving the law that Israel participates in “the day of assembly.”
[14] The Greek word from the LXX is ekklesia, discussed earlier; this is the first community of the people of God among men.
The law is the most treasured possession of the Israelites. By keeping this law they would be God’s chosen people, and he would be their God.
[15] The Law enabled them to live in community with each other and with God. They shared a relationship with God through unity by obedience, and with each other in the common law they lived by.
As a community they were provided for and led.
[16] They respected and honored each other and their God. They bore the penalties for the community’s sin, and shared in its common blessing. The Israelites were a holy nation. They were set apart from all the nations of the world as different. Set apart to honor God. And as God’s people they played a role for Him on earth. God chose them for relationship. This is an important aspect of community with God. It is always God who initiates communion with man. God brought them into relationship with Him and each other. This is a key in the understanding of ekklesia. God’s law was the central commonality for all His people, and through them He revealed Himself to the world.
JESUS CHRIST
Jesus Christ came as the fulfillment of God’s covenant with Abraham. Jesus’ coming had important implications for the theology of community. Israel had enjoyed the community relationship with God and each other as God’s chosen people, but the coming of Christ changed that relationship. Jesus was the promise of God to Abraham. He was the first of Israel’s sons to truly obey the law of God, and thus fulfilled Israel’s part of the Mosaic Covenant.
Christ came to fulfill the law.
[17] In His coming, He prepared the way for a new covenant. Each of the old covenants had been failures on the part of man to honor their part of the agreement. However, Christ came as fully man and fully God. Therefore, He was able to fully institute and fulfill the New Covenant in His blood.
[18] Sin even in God’s people had made them unrighteous. The order in which God had created the world was no longer rightly aligned. Christ lived rightly, and ultimately died as a sacrifice to God and a ransom for many.
[19] Because of this God’s justice did not have to be exacted against Christ. Christ’s resurrection from the dead set the order of creation right again. Therefore, whoever is in Christ, that is, holds in common death to sin, and unity in faith is justified before God.
[20] Christ embodied fully the theology of community. He fully communed with God and with man. He provided a glimpse for what consummated community with God will be like, and what the community of God in Christ should look like now. Through the institution of the New Covenant the covenant that had made Israel God’s people was over. The New Covenant provided the way for anyone in Christ to enter communion in the ekklesia of Christ.
DISCIPLES
Christ reconstituted Israel through the choosing of the twelve disciples. In this community of disciples He gave important instructions, setting boundaries and rules for the common union of the ekklesia of Christ. He called them to follow Him, and become fishers of men.
[21] They should be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.
[22] Disciples are not above their master so they would be a community of submission.
[23] They would have to take up their cross and follow Him.
[24] They were commissioned with making other disciples.
[25] The community of disciples would despise material possessions in order to serve.
[26] They were chosen by Christ.
[27] They were to continue in His word.
[28] Christ affirmed that His community would honor the Father.
[29] And the defining characteristic that would set them apart from every other people in the world would be their love for one another.
[30] These characteristics were the defining traits of Christ’s desired community. The significance of the reestablishment was not understood by the disciples until after Christ’s death and resurrection. They had heard Him teach new commands. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus referred to the Old Covenant law and offered better solutions to issues like divorce, oaths, etc.
[31] However, the full understanding did not take effect until the coming of the Holy Spirit. Christ said it was better that He go away so the Paraclete or counselor could come.
[32] The Holy Spirit would lead the community of Christ to His truth so that what is Christ’s will be made known to them.
[33] In other words, the Holy Spirit would maintain the intimate, authentic communion between God and man.
One final thought about Christ’s significance in relationship to the community theology of the Bible. Christ instituted an ordinance among His followers. The Eucharist or what has become know as “Communion” was offered by Christ at the conclusion of the last supper. God always used vivid imagery to remind his people of the covenants He made with them. This is for the New Testament church the most significant of imagery. All of the covenants were completed in the New Covenant, and they all were for the restoration of mankind to community. Christ offered the bread and cup to the disciples with the instructions that as often as they ate together, they should remember Him. This is divine imagery at its best. The Communion meal was not to be done only in remembrance of Christ, but was to be done together in community; the common faith, the unity of the ekklesia of Christ.
EPISTLES
The later writings of the New Testament also give us a developing revelation of the significance of the community of Christ. Paul wrote regarding the church and provided information for the organizational understanding of how gatherings of the community should be run. 1 Corinthians 11-14 gives specific instructions regarding the use of spiritual gifts and the practical aspects of organizing a meeting of the community. He wrote more about the relationships in the church and how the community of Christ should interact.
[34] The writer of Hebrews writes to help the dispersed Jewish Christian sect to deal with sorting out the history of the Old Covenant with the reality of the New Covenant. The book deals with recognizing Christ as the Sacrifice and High Priest; both were significant pieces of the Jewish faith. The new community was encouraged in this book to continue to assemble together.
[35] This is important reinforcement of the carryover aspects of community. These Jews still remembered “the day of assembly” from their people’s history; now in Christ a new assembly was had.
Peter writes to “God’s elect, strangers in this world”.
[36] He reminds them throughout his writings that they are living stones, a priesthood, and a holy nation.
[37] These hold significance yet again from a Jewish-Christian perspective. Peter as a Jew knew the imagery that was evoked out of the Old Covenant community played out anew in the New Covenant. Living stones were a reference to the temple. The priesthood and holy nation was a carryover reference to the position of the Israelites as they fulfilled the Abrahamic Covenant.
ESCHATOLOGY
It is necessary in encapsulating the biblical theological understanding of community that we look to the end of the age. The coming of Christ is for judgment upon sin and Satan. It is for the reordering of the created order. Though it is the finality of the fulfillment of all Kingdom prophecy, it is also the reuniting of true community between God and man. The church is referred to as a bride in scripture.
[38] The end-time imagery of the community of Christ being reunited with God is seen through the marriage of the church to Christ.
[39] The church then returns with Him to the judgment on earth.
[40] And most precious is that the community between God and man will be made complete.
[41]CONCLUSION
The communion of God and man ends up in the divine order it was started in; God and men in the New Heaven and New Earth communing with the Tree of Life.
[42] The essence of community in scripture is getting men back to a place where they both know and are known. The intimacy and authenticity of total love between God and man is the hope of believers.
[43] The buzz-worthiness of “community” among churches today is not a new thing. It is quite an old theme that tracks through the Bible from beginning to end. Understanding community is important in light of how we live now, awaiting the return of Christ.
The Church would do well to understand the theological impact of its position as the community of God on earth. Through the power of the Holy Spirit we have the opportunity to be proclaimers of the Kingdom of God coming near. It is critical then that the emphasis in our churches, in relationship to community, be focused not in a pursuit of community, but our pursuit as community.
Works Cited
Healy, Nicholas M. 2004. “Ecclesiology and communion”. Perspectives in Religious Studies 31
(Fall): 273-290.
Millar, J. Gary. “People of God.” New Dictionary of Biblical Theology: Exploring the Unity & Diversity of Scripture. Rosner, Brian S., T. Desmond Alexander, et.al. eds. Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2000. 684-687.
The Holy Bible, New International Version. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996
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footnotes:
[1] Nicholas Healy, “Ecclesiology and communion”. Perspectives in Religious Studies (Fall, 2004): 273-290.
[2] Gary Millar, “People of God.” New Dictionary of Biblical Theology: Exploring the Unity & Diversity of Scripture. Rosner, Brian S., T. Desmond Alexander, et.al. eds. (Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2000), 687.
[3] Deuteronomy 6:4-5; Isaiah 44:6-45:25; Mark 12:29-30; I Corinthians 8:4, Ephesians 4:6; 1 Timothy 2:5
[4] Romans 8; Eph.1:3-14; 2 Thessalonians 2:13-14; 1 Peter 1:2
[5] John 10:30;17:11, 22
[6] John 16:13-14
[7] Genesis 1:26
[8] Genesis 2:9; 3:22-24
[9] Genesis 3:8
[10] Genesis 3:6
[11] Hebrews 11:8-13
[12] Genesis 12:3; Galatians 3:8
[13] Genesis 15-17
[14] Deuteronomy 9:10; 10:4; 18:16
[15] Leviticus 26:12
[16] Exodus 16:31;Exodus 13:21-22
[17] Matthew 5:17
[18] Luke 2:20; 1 Corinthians 11:25
[19] 1 Timothy 2:6, Hebrews 19:5
[20] Romans 3:24, 28
[21] Matthew4:19
[22] Matthew 10:16
[23] Matthew 10:24
[24] Matthew 10:38; Mark 8:34
[25] Matthew 28:18-20; Mark16:15
[26] Luke 14:33
[27] John 6:70; 15:16
[28] John 8:31
[29] John 12:26
[30] John 13:35
[31] Matthew 5-7
[32] John 16:7
[33] John 16:13
[34] 2 Corinthians 8-9; Ephesians 4:17-6:9; Philippians 2:1-18; Colossians 3:5-4:1; 1 Thessalonians 4:1-12
[35] Hebrews 10:25
[36] 1 Peter 1:1
[37] 1 Peter 2:5
[38] John 3:29; Revelation 18:23, 19:7, 21:2, 21:9, 22:17
[39] Revelation 19:7-9, 21:2
[40] I Thessalonians 3:13
[41] John 17:3
[42] Revelation 2:7; 22:2, 14, 19
[43] I Corinthians 13
