At the beginning of creation, God saw that everything in the world He created had community except for the first man, Adam. No suitable helper was found for him among the other created entities. Therefore, God formed woman from the side of man to which man proclaimed, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman', for she was taken out of man." (Genesis 2:18-25). Thus a man, in due time, will leave his birth family/community and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh and in essence, the beginning of a new community.
And this is not any ordinary community. Biblically, it is to be a community where God is exalted, honored and followed first by the head of the community (the man). In turn, the man is to be the head of the family and the wife. The NT commands us to "Submit to one another out of revernce for Christ" and more specifically for, "Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything." (Ephesian 5:22-24)
The husband, being the "head" of this community, finds his inspiration and model in Christ. "Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy...In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself." (Ephesians 5: 25, 28)
Thus, here you have another model of community as God meant it to be: God, a man and a woman, together in unity, loving one another and raising up a new generation and a new community which they call their family...
So, where are we going with all these models of community and what in the world do they have to do with Kingdom and community development? The new heaven and earth, the church, Israel, the family...
Next blog, model community number 5 (or number 2 going in reverse order as they occur in the Bible)...
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