A Theology of Community and Gospel Proclamation

 My father is a Vietnam War veteran.  He has many heroic and yet disparaging stories to tell.  Once, I inquired why he thought the United States lost the war.  Among many reasons, he said it was largely because the U.S. forces did not know whom they were fighting.  Often they could not discern between the Viet Cong (enemy) and the South (ally).  So there was much confusion and mental hysteria among the U.S. soldiers.  On top of that, they were receiving meager support from Americans back home.  It was a time of widespread division, disunity, and confusion.  There was so much disorder both in Vietnam and at home, that the U.S. forces had to pull out and give up.  They did not know who the enemy was.  They were, in fact, fighting each other.  There was no unity.

The Forewarning.  Jesus said, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and a divided household falls” (Luke 11:17).  The context is directly referring to Satan’s kingdom and the accusation that Christ was using Satan to cast out Satan.  Nevertheless, I believe Christ is using a universal principle.  A body of believers divided against themselves cannot stand.  We are largely divided within our churches and we have made enemies out of each other.  We stress uniformity so much that we cause disunity.  We fight more to vindicate our cause rather than to liberate the captives.

The Problem.  I believe the church in the West is suffering from spiritual implosion.  It seems the mindset of Christians is that the church is comprised of a collection of individuals, not a community of individuals.  I have heard many people in the church slander other denominations for being divisive and too extreme.  Some people say that the church is divided and ineffective primarily because we have so many differing denominations and traditions.  There is some truth to this assertion, but I believe it is largely incomplete and misguided.  I believe the reason our churches are so divided and ineffective is primarily because we equate personhood with individualism.  There is too much of an emphasis on self and asserting individual interest, though it may be spiritual.  I believe blaming division on the spread of denominationalism is merely a red herring fallacy—a distraction away from the real issue.  The problem truly lies in our sinful selves, every one of us.  We need a revolution of biblical love—community-based, Trinity-mirroring love.  We will remain fruitless until Gospel proclamation becomes the overflow of an authentic community emulating the relational love of the Trinity.   

The Relational Trinity.  For the sake of encouraging community, it starts with our understanding of the God of the Bible. God should be discovered and not defined.  We ought to explore God and not attempt to explain Him.  Too often, Christians read Scripture only from a Greek, rational, philosophical mindset.  We cannot interpret and understand Scripture from a Western mindset alone, though it is helpful.  We must also read it from a Hebraic point of view—the point of view in which it was actually written.  The Greek mindset rationalizes to know.  The Hebrew mindset enters into relationship to know.  The Greek mind asks, “How did Christ die on the cross and how did God become man?”  Whereas the Hebrew mindset asks, “Why did Christ die and why did he become a man?”  The Hebrew mindset seeks to know God intimately, not just cognitively.  We are simply asking incomplete questions about God.  People need a relationship with God.

We have an incomplete understanding of the nature of the Trinity, and we thus do not understand how it applies to life.  God exists within community.  The name ‘Yahweh’ is the highest name of God.  It has a relational connotation.  It implies steadfast, unconditional commitment within covenantal relationship.  God exists to be for Himself, that is, each person in the Trinity loves the other and pursues their pleasure in serving the other.  The name ‘Yahweh’ was never manifest more than on the cross.  The Father was for the glory of the Son, the Son was for the glory of the Father, the Spirit was for the glory of the Father and the Son (Jn 8:28:29; 12:28; 13:31-32; 17:1-10).  And in their love for one another, they loved mankind.  All of life and history bleeds out of the Trinity’s love for itself.  The realities of marriage, ministry, and relationship are derived out of the Trinity.  The credibility of the gospel message hangs on the authenticity of Trinity-like communities of believers.  Each person of the Trinity is defined within their relationship with each other.  Their personhood is defined by their love for one another.  God is relational by nature, and we who are in His image, are thus intrinsically relational. 

A Paradigm Shift.  The kingdom of heaven is a community of individuals, not a collection of individuals.  The meaning of being a person is discovered within community.  A person is defined within a community.  A true person does not enter into a community; for his personhood is incomplete until he enters community.  In fact, Hell is solitary confinement.  We do not suffer in community in Hell; we suffer in isolation.  A true person is only found within relationship.  A person cannot fully worship God in isolation.  A person ceases to be a person in isolation.  Worship is fully actualized with another.  Worship consists out of relationship.  We love others by loving God.  We love God by loving others.  The Shema—love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind; and love your neighbor as yourself—is one command.  It is not hierarchical.  The soul cannot completely do one without doing the other.  We need to prove our love for God by loving others.  But we cannot love without first receiving love.  We cannot know without first being known.  God must do the loving first and then we can take that love and give it to others.  It is then that we take the glory and love given us and make it worshipful, because we are utilizing the love only God can give. 

Jesus said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the great and first commandment.  And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets” (Matt 22:37-40).  Not only is our Christianity authenticated by our love for God, but our love for God is authenticated by our love for people.  When we bear fruit by abiding in Christ, we prove we are His disciples and therefore truly saved (Jn 15:5-8).  When we abide in Christ’s love, we will keep His commandments (Jn 15:10).  His commandment is that we love one another as He has loved us (Jn 15:12).  Jesus said, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples if you love one another” (Jn 13:35).  “Upon His authority He gives the world the right to judge whether you and I are born-again Christians on the basis of our observable love toward all Christians.”^[1]  The authenticity of our Christianity is contingent on how well we mirror Trinitarian-type love.  “The one really adequate instrument for learning about God is the whole Christian community, waiting for Him together.”^[2]  A loving, functional community is the vehicle through which we deliver the message of authentic Christianity. 

The Solution.  In order for our ministry efforts to be effective and credible, it is supremely important to stress spiritual community, reflecting Trinitarian love.  An unbeliever may come to Christ without community, but generally his appetite for Christ should be whet by a loving, unified community.  Among divided believers, the Good News is starved and drab, for there is no tangible evidence that the news is good at all.  Just as God exists in community for eternity, so will believers exist in Heaven for eternity.  “In Jesus Christ we have been chosen from eternity, accepted in time, and united for eternity.”^[3]  Gospel proclamation cannot be reduced merely to propositional truths; it must be authenticated by applying the power of its life-giving promise within community.  A community that effectively represents the glory of the Gospel will be contagious in its love.  Not only will the community express relational, covenantal, selfless love to the brethren, but it will also invite those outside the community to be satiated with the fullness of the three-person-Yahweh.  It should reflect His love. 

God loves us so much that He will do whatever it takes at whatever cost to show us His glory (Jn 17:24).  If that is the love of God for us, then our love for lost souls ought to be the same. We must do whatever it takes to maximize their joy in Christ—at whatever cost.  We will love them most when we will do anything in our power to maximize their joy and their intimate knowledge of Christ—including going to the mission field and lay down our lives for the sake of their eternal enjoyment of Christ.  That is true love.  True love brings the object of its love to the source of all love—Jesus Christ.  True love does not merely provide; true love ultimately provides the context in which a person can know the love of the greatest Lover.  If we love souls, we will make every effort to lead those souls to a deeper, sweeter relationship with Christ.  That is love—because ultimately Christ satisfies.  When we can give souls more of Christ, we have then loved them to the fullest. 

Gospel proclamation is the overflow of an authentic community emulating the relational love of the Trinity.  (Nevertheless, there are some supremely significant doctrinal and propositional aspects to sharing the Gospel as well, such as justification by faith alone in Christ alone.) When a community embraces the relational nature of God, applies it to their relation with each other, they will be liberated to pursue their joy in loving one another.  This overflow of joy will whet a thirst for a watching world, which will in turn invite unbelievers to drink deep of the covenantal love of God.  This is Gospel-Proclamation in its simplest, yet most complex form.