The Divine Community

The Divine Community

that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. (John 17:21)

In the beginning, as far as we know, there was nothing but God. There was as much eternity before the beginning as there will be after this world passes away. I suspect there were the angelic beings and perhaps the Kingdom of God but even before those there was nothing but God. In the first verse of the Bible, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth," the Hebrew meaning for the term God is a Super Deity. There are many gods that man has created but before the beginning there was only one Super Deity that we call God. At some point in His determination He decided to create the Heavens and the earth. I wonder why and have suspected that He created the Heavens and the Earth as a home for the crown of His creation, which is man. The question just jumps to our mind as to why God would do this? The best answer that I have is that He created man to have an intimate fellowship with Him. But He did this not because He was lonely. In Genesis 1:26 we read, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness." Us tells me that God certainly was not lonely. Us refers to the Godhead, known to us as the trinity. We serve a triune Super Deity. They have been identified to us as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in Scripture.

They, together, enjoy a perfect fellowship in love, joy, and peace. We, humankind, were created in their likeness and we were created to also have a perfect fellowship in love, joy, and peace.

The Godhead is united in motive and action. They together have one plan, one purpose, and one goal to accomplish their shared will. They are equal in power and ability yet they are submissive to each other. People have taken the word submissive and made a detestable definition of its meaning. To be submissive is to be obedient to the established order for the achievement of the common goal. It is to serve in your place to fulfill your capacity in completing the overall mission. Submission also requires humility. Humility is another word that the world has a twisted view of. Humility is a disposition to be humble; a lack of false pride, a disposition to be patient and long suffering. What destroys relationships is when one member feels superior towards the other members. It destroys the ability to act together in a cooperative state. Through perfect submission the Godhead is able to work together as one in harmonious unity. We read in John 14:9-10 "Jesus said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?  Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works."

Mankind at the onset was created with these attributes until the fall and introduction of self-will and self-pride from the temptation of the one who wanted to be as the Most High.

The members of the Godhead are also distinct. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are separate yet they are one. This is a hard concept to understand and has been the cause of much debate. One example to help understand this is the sun. We can see the sun and we can see the light that the sun produces. If we are unable to see the sun still we can feel the heat of the sun. The light and heat of the sun are two distinct aspects of the sun but they come from the one sun. There is one Godhead but three distinct aspects that operate individually to accomplish their unified goal.

To better understand the relationship of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit read John Chapter 14. The Father sent His Son to redeem the lost and restore the fellowship between man and God. Jesus introduces the Holy Spirit to convict the consciousness of man that man would be drawn and call upon the name of Jesus. Jesus then leads man back to the Father.

We see in the way the three, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, work individually together to accomplish the unified goal of the Godhead. To restore mans fellowship broken by the fall in the Garden of Eden back into unity with God. This is the model for a perfect social structure which was designed by the perfect relationship of the triune Godhead. In the perfect world this is the example of how Churches, Families, and Communities should be and will be once our Lord and Savior establishes His Kingdom here on earth.

This farewell payer of our Lord is farther reaching for us today than at some point in time when He comes to establish His Kingdom here on earth. We are His ambassadors now, we are His representatives now, and we can abide in Him and He is in us now. "If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love." (John 15:10) We can have all the power of His Word, all the power of His promises, and we can continue to change the world in the power and promise of this passage. “That they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.”

Thomas N Kirkpatrick

First Baptist Church of Durant, 01/29/14