Today's Scripture Reading (February 15, 2024): John 17
In the first chapter of Genesis,
we find this statement, "Then God said, 'Let us make
mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may
rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the
livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move
along the ground'" (Genesis 1:26). John begins his gospel with the words, "In the beginning was the Word, and the
Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning"
(John 1:1). In both these verses is the sense of plurality in God. And yet, on
the other side of the coin, we also proclaim that God is also one.
The
Godhead exists in plurality that is combined in a oneness that we can only try
to understand. The Bible suggests that God (expressed singularly) exists for
all time and has always existed in the Trinity (expressed in plurality). In other words,
the Trinty was not something God grew into; God and the Trinty were always two
sides of the same coin.
But there is a bigger
surprise in the words of the Bible's first chapter. The idea that we were created
in the image of God might be incorrect. It might be more correct (yes, I
understand that "more correct" is grammatically wrong, but stay with
me) to say that we were created in the image of the Trinity because the
statement in Genesis says, "Let
us make mankind in our image." "Image" here is plural,
so it must mean we are created in the image of the Trinity. God didn't
say let us make a being that is far different from all the other animals, that
is self-aware and self-actualizing and can think, invent, and enjoy. He said
let us create someone like us.
We
often mourn the fact that we no longer live in a Christian Society. The United
States and Canada, once seemingly the center of Christendom, are now a mission
field. We wonder where it was that we went wrong. Then, we turn on our televisions
in the early morning hours and see sex being sold on the small screen.
Everything has gone so wrong.
However,
I don't believe that sex is what these television ads are selling. "I can do all this through him who gives me strength"
(Philippians 4:13) has become our motto, but we have misunderstood the
verse. We have focused on the I and forgotten that Christ exists in a
community and expects us to do the same. It is a fact that Paul understood as
he proclaimed to the Corinthians, "You are the body of Christ and every
one of you is a part of it" (1 Corinthians 12:27). We have accepted the
lie of our North American culture that says I have to do what is good for me
and I can survive without you. We were created by a God who exists
in a community and have that same need placed into our DNA.
The
more we believe that we can exist without community, without friends that we
can call on in the middle of the night when everything seems to be going wrong,
the more unnatural relationships are developed to fill the void. Sex
is not being pedaled on our late-night televisions; it is relationships, even
if they are unhealthy, that are for sale on our T.V. screens. The problem is
that these relationships of the world won't fill the void created by the need
for community that God has placed in our lives, all because we have been made in
the image of the Trinity.
Sexual
addictions and addictions to pornography flourish as we try to fill the void
made by a lack of authentic relationships in our lives. Not only has God existed
in community always and will always exist in community, but we have also been
created for community. Just as the Trinity can't exist outside of Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit, the Christian cannot live outside of the Christian community
because that is how God made us. Our healthy existence requires a complete
unity that
Jesus seems to understand in his prayer to his Father.
Tomorrow's Scripture
Reading: Matthew 27
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