Thursday 7 October 2010

God of relationship

I started reading "God of Promise" by Michael Horton. So far, I've only got through the first introductory chapter, which doesn't even really go much into what "covenant theology" is. Yet, reading it, I've realised once again just how much relational our God is!

Our God is a Trinitarian God.
God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. Not three gods, but one God, three Persons.
From this God, I can make sense out of relationships and see what the community is meant to be.

It is obviously not individualistic. I am not to insist only on my desires and needs if I am to be in a healthy relationship. It is fairly well understood that the western culture has become so individualistic, church life also suffers from it. So we hear from preachers warning us about treating our faith as a complete private affair. Christians are called to be part of Christian communities. We are admonished to take active part in meetings and serving others.
Yet, we remain individuals. We don't simply become nobodies within a kind of uniform mass of indistinguishable persons. We are not saved by belonging to a certain group of people. God saves individuals. It is just that when He saves an individual, He saves her into a community. Not for her to seize to be herself, but to take part and find her place in a community, the community made by and for God. It is in this context of a community she can fully utilise the talents God has given her and be who she is.

There is much more to be said and the application of this truth about our God is far more practical than many people realise.

But I'll close here with a couple of questions.

If the claims of other religions or philosophies are correct, how would you make sense out of the relentless longing for relationships that everyone has?
If you adhere to theologies of other religions, which may be monotheistic, polytheistic, pantheistic, or even atheistic, what would an ideal human society look like, if there could be one consistent with the given theology? How do you like that picture?

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