I was reading an excerpt from a book called The Great Commandment Principle (by David Ferguson). He posed the question, “When did the first crisis or conflict happen?” Some people pointed to the murder of Abel by Cain. Others confidently pointed to the fall of man through Adam’s disobedience. But there was a moment of conflict before that. At one point, after the earth was created and God and Adam fellowshiped together for a time. All of a sudden, in the midst of what must have been high quality “Quiet Time” with God, the Lord said something that defined conflict, that defined crisis.
“It is not good…” God said. As most of us remember, God went on to say, “…it is not good for man to be alone.” Apparently, God created us with physical, spiritual and relational needs. We can assume that the relational need God created and imported into Adam was not something that God could fully meet Himself. Can you believe that? This means that the old adage, “God is all I need” is really false and incomplete. God made us to need each other. God created us to have relationships. This ties in with the book’s title, of course, The Great Commandment Principle references the answer Jesus gave to the question about the most important commandment. We are made to love God with all we are and we are also to love others as we love ourself.
I like this! I always instinctively knew that the cliched statement to be wrong: “I don’t need to go to church, because I can fellowship with God out in the woods.” We are made for being the church. We are made for community. Apathy sucks! Love rules!
I think I could glean some useful info from a book or study like this. There’s got to be a way for God to love others through me … and I’m not talking about some pretend or magical formula where God uses me like a robot to nurture someone else. If I offer a listening ear, or empathy or compassion (which are all pretty natural responses if we let it), then I can possibly give something to another that they really need. Being a community without working myself into a spazzed-out frothing bundle of manufactured excitement and energy. Being able to love just by “being myself.” This is kind of liberating. I am aware that there will be times where I’ll choose to do something without “feeling it” or being into the act. There’ll be some sacrifice and work involved sometimes, for sure, but caring about someone even makes work bearable (and sometimes joyful).
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