Neediness and Weakness
Last Thursday, at the semi-chapel service that RTS does each week, one of the students gave a short devotional on the need for community and fellowship. It was a good talk, correctly (I think) highlighting the need for community and God's gracious provision in giving us fellow believers.
One thing that he said that I have been thinking over was that God gives us fellowship as a means to condescend to our weakness. I think that this was an offhand remark, simply using the standard language of this day and not even a major point, so I am not attacking his theology by any means. However, this seems like a common belief in society: that the "strong" people are the independent ones, while the whiny co-dependents are the ones to be pitied and condescended to.
Two things give me pause. First, God said of Adam in the garden that it was "not good" for him to be alone. Thus God gave him a wife for companionship. This was in the pre-fall state where Adam was sinless, so a desire for companionship is, at the least, not a sign of moral weakness.
Second, while God needs no man (or woman), but is entirely self-sufficient, it seems that there is some sense of dependence in the Trinity. Jesus says, for example, in John 5:19 that "the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing." Obviously, God is the one by whom we define weakness and strength. Therefore, if it is evident that fellowship within the Trinity is an essential part of who he is, who are we to say that is weakness?
All this to say that, instead of viewing fellowship and community as a necessary evil, a caveat from God to hold us over until we are made perfect and have no need of anything, perhaps we should see fellowship and community as simply part of the created order, one more aspect of what it means to be the image of God.
October 13, 2003 08:52 AM