Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” – Genesis 2:18
How well do you know others? How do you go about getting to know others better? These questions beg a more important one: Why would you want to know others better?
Anthropology is the study or knowledge of man (anthropos man + logos word). Humans are not so much things to study as they are persons for you to get to know. Theology is the study of God (theos God + logos). One of the great truths of Christianity is that God also is not so much something to be studied as He is someone to be known. How do we get to know Him? He makes Himself known two ways: in nature and in His Word. He lovingly reveals Himself so that we may know our Creator and Sustainer. We see from nature that God is magnificent and powerful, since He created everything from nothing and sustains order and prevents chaos.
What God’s Word teaches us is that God is a spirit, so He is invisible – we can see THAT He exists but cannot see Him directly in the natural world. His Word also tells us that there is only one God (Deuteronomy 6:4, Jeremiah 10:10) – something that we could not be sure of only from nature, which is why some religions misunderstand this truth, misinterpreting nature without confirming with the Bible. God’s Word also makes it clear that He is personal. He communicates this in at least three ways: By who He is, what He does, and How He relates.
1) Who God is: He tells us that He exists eternally in three Persons, commonly referred to as the Trinity. The three Persons are: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:18-20). Each Person of the Trinity is in personal relationship with the others. 2) What God does: He provides for us, personally seeing to it that our individual needs are met AND speaking to us directly in His Word, giving us guidance and direction relevant to each of us. 3) How He relates: God sent His only Son who is fully God and fully man to live among us personally, to die for us personally, and to overcome death for us, personally.
Why is this biblical teaching so important to you today? It might seem intellectually interesting, since no other religion communicates these truths. Said differently, only Christianity teaches correct anthropology and theology. Okay, so God is a personal, spiritual being who is present everywhere and all powerful, but how are these truths practically relevant to you today?
God invites His people to a deep, abiding communion with Him. He calls and enables you to be in a personal relationship with Him, so that you may walk with Him, talking to Him and listening to Him, getting to know Him, more and more each day. You’ve got a lot on your plate and relationships take time. How does God help you to adjust your priorities so that you can develop a relationship with the Creator of the universe? God gives you vital relationships with other people! With Adam, God said, “I will make him a helper fit for him.” Why are relationships so important? Not just to make things enjoyable, and not only to develop families, but to carry out God’s design for us to be relational. The three Persons of the Trinity exist in relation to one another. Adam and Eve were created to be dependent upon God and each other. God designed us to be dependent upon Him and interdependent with each other.
Your needs in this world help reveal your need for personal fellowship and communion. God provides for these needs by giving us the Church. This is the fourth way that God makes it clear that He is personal: How He includes us in His plan. What is the Trinity’s relationship to the church? The church is described as God’s People (1 Peter 2:9-10), Christ’s Body and Bride (Colossians 1:18; Ephesians 5:25-27), and the Spirit’s Fellowship (1 Corinthians 12).
To enable you to know Him better, God created the Church as His family of personal relationships. At First Presbyterian Church, the opening “Call to Worship” each Sunday invites each person to commit to spending time worshiping God, together. This is personal corporate worship. Worshiping God is personal – us personally dependent upon His three persons, alongside others who need Him and us. We get to know Him as we get to know them. These are vital relationships. How can you help the church to live out God’s design to be more relational?
