God is not an individual

As you gather together with other believers this is very important to remember.  God is not an individual.  God is a community of three persons who are One and since we are made in the image of God we are to live in Him not as individuals but as a community made up of different persons, yet all one.  Each one distinct in role and function yet working with and for the others. The top picture depicts an orthodox understanding of the Trinity.  God is One with three distinct members who are each fully God.   Each one doing everything for the other.

For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.  (John 6:38 ESV)

Community, diversity, oneness, family, mutuality.  The fellowship of God the Father with the Son and the Spirit gives us a better understanding of who we are meant to be as the church.  The picture below depicts it well.




We must get rid of the individualistic thinking as believers.  We were not called into Christ to be individuals.  We were called into Christ to be the Church.  The Church is not a gathering of individuals.  She is one body of many members, each one a piece of the whole.

• 1 Corinthians 12:12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.

• 1 Corinthians 12:18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose.

• 1 Corinthians 12:25 that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.

• 1 Corinthians 12:27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.

May we no longer think about what God is telling us (individuals).  Rather, let us seek what God's will is for us (corporately).  Let us see ourselves not as a collection of individual precious stones but as ONE spiritual building built out of many precious stones.

As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 2:4-5 ESV)

God is not an individual.  In Christ, we are not individuals.  We should live, serve ,and pray for the whole and not for ourselves. Like the Triune creator in whose image we are made we should do all things for one another to the glory of God.