Intimacy with God is inextricably connected to our intimacy with others. We see this connection in the great commands of our Lord who tells us to love God and love one another. We discover the intimacy of community in the nature of God who exists as the three-in-one. But beyond these extractions, we find clear teaching from the apostles that illustrate the immediacy of our union with God and each other.
In First Corinthians twelve, we read how none can call Jesus Lord except by the Spirit of God. We read further that it is this one Spirit who baptizes us into union, not only with God, but into unity with all those who are baptized by the Spirit. Our unity in Christ demands that we have unity with one another. Are we all a foot? Are we all an eye? No, for if God were to make us each the same, we would have no need for the community of Faith. God has made us a new creation in Christ Jesus so that we might be a new community of Spirit-filled people. Trying to love God without loving the church is like telling your wife you love her, but you just can’t stand to see her body; its a slap in the face! The reality of our life in Christ is clear; we must love God by living in harmony with each other.
Paul also teaches that we are collectively the temple of our God. First Corinthians three and Ephesians two teach us that to be united to Christ is to become a living stone in His new Holy temple; a temple not of gold and silver, but of living flesh. God has designed His church so that She would be the place where He dwells. God can not dwell among us, if there is no “us”. He can not dwell among a single person; He can only dwell among a people gathered together as His temple. There can be no true worship outside of His temple, and we are the living temple of His covenant-love.
We can not worship God as Father, until we acknowledge all whom the Father loves. The Scripture affirms that by the grace of Christ and the adoption of the Spirit we have been given the promise of Sonship. All too often, our theology focuses upon this principle as an individual rite of adoption, while ignoring that adoption makes us not just Sons, but brothers and sisters of one Father. We can not experience the joys of adoption, if we do not rejoice in the family of our Father. We are not adopted into a single-child home; we are adopted into a magnificent family that can not be counted. A single star is not a universe and a single grain of sand is not a beach, so too a single Son is not a family.
As we continue to explore the reciprocity of communal faith, we discover that true discipleship goes beyond our individualized obedience to the Lord. Jesus affirms in John fifteen that the mark of a true disciple is that they love. Can we love in isolation? Can we truly love as an isolated Christian? Certainly this can never be, for that would strip away the meaning and value of love itself. While being a disciple certainly implies an individual responsiveness to God, it also demands a corporate mentality of love. Jesus said that if I am to be His disciple, I am to love. If I am to love God, I must love my neighbor. Discipleship to God demands that I love my fellow disciples, and I can not love those with whom I do not fellowship and I can not fellowship with those whom I do not love as God loves me.
Finally, we see the biblical ideal that we are called “friends” of God. This is probably one of the most difficult concepts for us to understand for how can a finite creature be called a friend to the infinite Creator? We rebel at times against this title because of how it has been construed in our Western culture. But ultimately, friendship does not mean a peer-to-peer egalitarian relationship with God. True friendship with God means that we are not at odds with His purpose and will. True friendship with God means that He gives us His best and we give Him our best. God’s best has come to us in the person of Christ and the advocacy of the Spirit. Our best goes out to God in the submission of our wills and the commitment to be a friend to His friends. Who are God’s friends? All who are His children are also His friends. Thus, to be a friend to God, I must be a friend to my brother and sister in Christ. I must submit to them my will for theirs. I must give to them my best effort, my best love and my choicest things.
Good and true friendship is rare in our world because it first and foremost denies that friendship rests in the person of God. Devoid of friendship with God, we can not have divine-friendship with others. Friendship is hard to establish on earth because we see it as a give and take relationship instead of an all giving with no expectation of taking relationship. Friendship is a rare thing because we assume it is about equality and not about service. Friendship ultimately rests at the heart of community. Each community is comprised of various friendship groups who work to refine and enhance the community of Faith. As iron sharpens iron, so to does friendship sharpen friendship and in so doing we grow the community into a Kingdom of friendships. It may be safe to say that to approach the God of love with friendship is the chief of all relationships and the foundation for enjoying one another.
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