God is faithful and good. God is sovereign. God is our redeemer.
What have we been created for?
Created for Relationship
Act Two, Week 2
Before we dive into this week's question, let's review a little:
In the Prologue of this study, we looked at the story—specifically, why knowing God's story, the Bible, is so important in sharing our story and the gospel message. In Act One, we met the Author and main character of the story, God. We looked at His many attributes, but specifically His goodness and His faithfulness. We saw how His plan is sovereign and intentional, not just for you and me, but for all of creation. Now that we are in Act Two: Creation, we are asking ourselves, "What have we been created for?"
Today, I am sitting in Panera. People come, and people go. In fact, there are a lot of people! Young girls hanging out, older women laughing, middle-aged women grumbling, a couple in their late 70s quietly sitting side by side, and a few boys playing cards. Scattered around are people sitting alone—but on their phones (of course, everybody is eating!). All of these people are relating to one another. Why? Because we are created for relationship!
In our Genesis passages this week, we see how the Lord Elohim created all things and that they were good. God didn't just get carried away day after day. He created the earth and all that was in it and He saved the best for last: "Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth'" (Genesis 1:26).
How amazing is that? Elohim created us in HIS image, in HIS likeness, and gave us a job to do. He asked us to fill the earth, subdue it, and have dominion over it (1:28). He planted a garden and asked us to cultivate it and keep it (2:15). He created us to have a relationship with creation. To name it, love it, and respect it. The garden was nearly perfect, but not quite, because among all those animals that Adam (the first man) related with and named, "there was not found a helper fit for him" (Genesis 2:20). And then God stated that it is not good for man to be alone, and so he created woman (Genesis 2:18). God gave Adam a good gift. "Then the man said, 'This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh...." Adam is actually praising God here! Don't miss that. A quick search for the Hebrew word for relationship (#6106 etsom) will confirm what Adam was thanking God for in Genesis 2:23. Etsom is figurative for "close relationship." It means bone, substance, self. And right there, at that moment, we see that God, when He "took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh," (Genesis 2:21) created for us two more types of relationships: personal relationships with others and the most important relationship, the one with HIM.
And again, just like He did with the first relationship (creation), He gave us direction and commands on how to relate, or fellowship, with and love one another and how to fellowship with and love Him. "If we walk in the light, [and not in sin and darkness] as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin" (1 John 1:7). Maybe man didn't see it at first, but, really, the directions never changed. When Jesus came, He shed more light on what God asked from the beginning. "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love" (John 15:9).
Love God and love one another. One begets the other. A continuous circle of fruit production. As we love God, we cannot help but love one another. We desire to relate and love transparently, without guard, but it is difficult. We cannot do it on our own. This week, we read In 1 John 4:7-11, "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God." This kind of love cannot be mustered up. It is Christ in us overflowing, it comes unconditionally from a good God who has been faithful from the beginning in the Garden. So, how then do we love God in return? “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13-17). What does that mean, lay my life down for my friend? In our every-day context, it means to surrender my own wants and desires for the needs of others. It is what Jesus did. "Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God." (Ephesians 5:1-2). Sisters, the key to the relationships that you and I have been created for is not living the Christian life by checking the boxes and striving for what we think works, but depending on Christ to live His life in us.
