Becoming Like Jesus: CommunitySample

Community: What Is It?

Pray …

Heavenly Father, thank You for loving me. Meet with me today and teach me what it means to be made in Your image. Holy Spirit, please open my eyes to what You want me to see, ears to what You want me to hear, and my heart to understand. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Consider …

When you hear the word “community,” what are some of the first thoughts and feelings that come to mind? Do you think of the people who live next door? The neighborhood pool or park? People who do a certain activity together or live in the same general area?

Community is so much more than just your neighborhood, but that’s part of it. It’s so much more than an activity you do together, but it does usually involve that. Community is one of those things that is part of your life whether you like it or not, because you are a person, who lives in a place, and has needs that can only be met by other people.

Here’s the dictionary definition of community.

Community: a group of people with common characteristics, interests, or purposes living together in a larger society.

As we navigate life, we are all trying to find answers to some big, existential questions. Questions like: Who is God? Who am I? Where do I belong? What difference do I make?

Our answers to the biggest questions in life are quite literally dependent on other people. We cannot, no matter how hard we may try, answer these questions alone.

Whether that fires you up or stresses you out, keep reading, because this is how God set things up in the very beginning.

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.” So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. Genesis 1:26-27 NIV

Even if you have read these words a million times, try to look at them with fresh eyes.

First things first. God says, “Let us make …”

Who is the “us”? Is God talking to Himself? Does He have multiple personalities? What’s happening?

Well, something you need to know about God is that He has eternally existed as a community. That’s why Christians refer to God as the Trinity, a word that describes the intimate relationship, the three-in-one nature of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. The very core of God’s nature consists of an eternal loving relationship. Which is why John, a student of Jesus, writes, “God is love.” Love isn’t just something God does, it’s who He is.

When He created the universe, God wove relationship into the very fabric of reality. All of creation is built on and held together by the loving relationship of God the Father, Son, and Spirit.

And we are created in the image of this communal, relational God. What does that mean? It means we’re created by relationship for relationships—with God and with others.

In fact, if you turn over to the next chapter, Genesis 2, we get a zoomed-in view of the creation of Adam and Eve.

Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. … The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” Genesis 2:7, 18 NIV

Hold up. It’s not good for man to be alone? He’s not alone. He’s with God! He’s with the animals in a perfect world.

Some of you have lived a large part of your life thinking that something is wrong with you because you long for friends, relational depth, and even intimacy with other people. You may have even been told, “Jesus is all you need.” And, perhaps, you’ve let that be an excuse to not do the hard work of building relationships, or maybe you’ve beat yourself up because you don’t “have enough faith” to be okay with just you and Jesus. Some of you are wrestling with a deep sense of loneliness right now.

Here’s what you need to know: Your desire for people to belong to, relational connection, and intimacy with others is not wrong. It’s beautiful and it’s God-given.
The mantra of “Jesus is all I need” isn’t false—He is and always will be the Savior and Source of every good thing; it’s all through Him, and for Him, and held together in Him. But it is incomplete. Just like creation wasn’t complete when it was just God and Adam.

God wanted humans to enjoy what He does. He wanted us to understand what it would be like to be unified with people who are different from us, but are also the same—made from the same stuff: the dust of the earth and the breath of God.

We experience God and His love more fully in relationship with others because He is relational! John says it brilliantly in one of his letters, “No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us” (1 John 4:12 NIV).

That’s what community is all about: God’s design for us and His heart for us to know Him and what He’s like.

Now, to pump the breaks for a second. Why is this not actually our experience with relationships? They are often hard, almost always messy, and they usually hurt. How does that make sense if this is what God is all about? That’s what we’re talking about throughout the rest of this Plan. For now, grab a friend, invite them to read this Plan with you, and let’s keep moving forward together!

Practice …

In a journal, your notes app, or the discussion portion of this Bible Plan, write down your answers to these questions:

What’s the biggest relational challenge you are facing right now? What is a hope or desire you have for that relationship or others moving forward?

Listen …

Find a quiet place where you can continue to spend time with God. Maybe you have a favorite chair, a certain spot in your backyard, or a particularly cozy closet. Wherever you need to go to limit distractions, do it.

Set a timer for 5-10 minutes.

Ask God to speak to you.

When you get distracted in your mind, and you will, don’t beat yourself up. Instead, use it as a chance to practice coming back to Jesus by praying this prayer:

Lord Jesus, have mercy on me. Heavenly Father, speak to me. Holy Spirit, breathe on me.

When the timer ends, thank God for the time you spent together and go into your day looking for opportunities to love Him and love others.