Life in Community
Human life is life in community. We are called to serve the wider community. This aspect of our response to God cannot be ignored. It is an important sociological maxim that ‘no man is an island’. Our life is lived in relation to others. From the very outset, our life is lived in community. A newborn child, abandoned, is a child left to die. From the beginning, we need one another. Our life is not to be lived in isolation. We are a people in community. An important aspect of our life in community is highlighted in the biblical account of our creation: ‘God created man in his own image, ... male and female he created them’ (Genesis 1:27). This life in community is expanded further in v.28. For our first parents, their life in community was not a blissful existence, shared with nobody else and nothing else. Their life in community was shared with the rest of God’s creation, and it was to be shared with the next generation of human beings, the product of their own obedience to the divine command ― ‘Be fruitful and increase in number’.
Life in community is a life of privileged responsibility. There is the privilege of being created in the image of God and the responsibility of living as those who bear the divine image. It is important that the right balance between privilege and responsibility is maintained. The Westminster Shorter Catechism provides a helpful combination of privilege and responsibility. In its statement, ‘Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever’ it emphasizes the privilege of enjoying God and the responsibility of glorifying him. Maintaining the true balance between the two is most important for all our human relations ― marriage, the family and life in the wider society.
Life in community involves more than human relationships. It involves humanity’s relationship with the whole of creation. This divine calling ― ‘to rule over’ the rest of God’s creation (Genesis 1:26, 28) ― is to be exercised with a sense of both privilege and responsibility. There is to be a humble acknowledgement of God’s gift, and a caring commitment to exercise our God-given stewardship responsibly.
Scripture says that ‘The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it’ (Psalm 24:1). It also says that ‘The highest heavens belong to the Lord but the earth he has given to man’ (Psalm 115:16). These two insights are taken together - concentrating on God without forgetting about his creation, focusing on humanity and its world without forgetting about God.
There is a real concern with understanding human experience, and not simply producing a ‘theology’ which remains rather detached from life on earth. Humanity is not the sole focus of attention. We see ourselves as created by God and created for God. Created by God and created for God, humanity is called by God and called to him. We are invited to come to him. We are invited to serve him. This is the human calling. We cannot serve God without first coming to him.
In serving God, we do not turn away from worshipping him. Our service is grounded in worship. Worshipping God, we are equipped for serving him. A real commitment to serving God will affect the way in which we understand ourselves. It will transform our way of living here on earth. Serving God may be grounded in worshipping him, but it does not mean floating around in a kind of ‘head in the clouds’ existence. It will mean involvement in a very human world. In so many different ways, it will mean serving very ordinary people. Nevertheless, this service will not be ‘ordinary’. It will be a special kind of service, the service of God, given in the name of the Lord, carried out with the help of the Lord, and pursued with the object of restoring his glory to his world.
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