I’ve been thinking about the concept of community as of late. Just a couple quotes:
“God creates inside this man a kind of “human-shaped void” that God himself will not fill.” – John Ortberg
“God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone.” – Genesis 2:18
When I first read #1, I felt a little awkward. Is it saying that God can’t do something?
If #2 is true, then I shouldn’t feel guilty for wanting community. I did a little research on that quote and found that #2 was spoken before Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit…so it’s saying that we were designed to have community…to enjoy friendship! #1 is now more clear in that God planned to use people to fill the human-shaped hole.
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July 14, 2008 at 9:26 pm
Jay
I agree with your conclusion. If God was talking about himself in #2…then, why would he have created Eve? Man was already in the garden with God (technically not “alone” right?), so yeah, I think you’re right…there is a human component to community that we need.
That isn’t to say that God can’t fulfill our needs. Perhaps there are many situations in which people don’t really have much human community (living in a foreign land, socially unaccepted ppl, etc) but God is sufficient for them. God can fulfill even our need for relationship, but I think GOD’S INTENT or His IDEAL is for us to be in healthy community with Him and also other human beings.
If you think about it, it’s the sinfulness of man that prevents that human component of community from being available to all ppl. Just like our sin keeps us from having relationship with God, so also our sin (self-centeredness, lack of trustworthiness, offensiveness) keeps us from having the human relationships that we desire. But in the world that God intended, there wouldn’t be uncool people, or left-out people, or people living w/o community in a foreign land. All of that is an outworking of sin.
haha…im bored so I just started writing something.