The Community Life of God

This enlightening book by Milt Rodriguez will change your life; it has become one of my favorites. This is a great resource for group study, being only 200 pages with short chapters. I hope you enjoy this book as much as I did. I plan on posting 2 or 3 excerpts…yes, it’s that good! Unfortunately, the website in the book isn’t linked anymore and his email isn’t active. There is one website still active and it’s a useful tool for those interested in Organic Church. See here.

You do not realize how deep this individualistic mindset really goes. You still have no idea how firmly rooted this is in your mind. It effects the way that you view God, yourself, your friends and family, and the world. And it also effects the way that you view and interpret the holy scriptures, the Bible.

When you open your Bible and begin to read, you immediately begin to interpret everything through the filter of your individualistic mind. You automatically assume that the scriptures were written to you as an individual so you apply them that way. But that is not reality. The truth is that most of the scriptures were not written to the individual.

Most of the New Testament was written to corporate entities. These were communal expressions of the Body of Christ in different localities or cities. I’m trying not to use the word “church” here because of the horrendous abuse of that term. For example, the letter to the Colossians was not written to you as an individual. It was written to the community of believers in the city of Colossae. The context for this letter is the community life. You cannot superimpose your individualistic mindset and lifestyle upon this letter. It just won’t fit.

It’s very difficult to really understand this letter unless you are experiencing the community life with a group of believers. You will have a tendency to always bring back the meaning of this letter and relate it to your own individual walk with God. But this letter is not about that. This letter is about the centrality, supremacy, and preeminence of Christ. That is, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Now, please pay attention very carefully.

When you just read my quotation of that verse in Colossians you immediately took that verse and applied it to you as an individual. “Christ in me, the hope of glory.” But that’s not what that verse says! It says, “Christ in you…” but that word “you” is plural, not singular! Paul is speaking to the church in Colossae and is telling them about a secret, a mystery which has been hidden for ages. But this mystery has now been made known to His saints. This mystery is Christ in all of you. In other words, Christ lives in His Body! Christ lives in you all.

Of course, it’s also true that Christ lives in you as an individual. But that is not what Paul is talking about here. He is talking about God’s mysterious purpose being fulfilled by a communal body that contains and expresses the life of His Son. This is just one example of how we take the scriptures and interpret and apply them to us as individuals. We are constantly doing this without even being aware of it. This is what I call the individualistic mind. We very rarely think in terms of the community. Yet that is exactly how we need to think in order to understand the scriptures. The scriptures, after all, were written by a God who is community. Only a renewing of our minds brought about by a constant contact with our indwelling Lord can bring about a change.

We do this with everything. We see everything through our “filters” of individualism. We desperately need to ask God to open our eyes to see the way He sees. We need to see from His perspective. We need to see from His viewpoint. That viewpoint is community. We need to have a revelation of God’s eternal purpose, and then see and understand everything according to that purpose. That purpose is the motivation behind everything God says and does. He is always working to fulfill this purpose in and through us (see Rom. 8:28-30).

When we see the scriptures only from an individual viewpoint, something very damaging happens. We place ourselves under the law, and the resulting condemnation and guilt. When we apply the scriptures to ourselves individually, then we simply can’t measure up to what God wants and we come under condemnation. Let me give you an example from the direct words of our Lord.

Matthew, chapters 5, 6, and 7 are normally referred to as the Sermon on the Mount. But after reading this section of Matthew, who would not feel totally inadequate? Why? Because as an individual, you are totally inadequate to live the kind of life described in these chapters. But we miss the point. In these chapters, and in many other places in the gospels, Jesus is describing a people. He is giving the description of a kingdom of people, of a new race, one new man. This passage can only be understood from the communal perspective. When you take it individually, it becomes law and results in condemnation. But this is a description of a corporate man who contains the life of Christ, the only one who can fulfill the law! The law is fulfilled by God’s eternal, divine, community life, not by an individual.

Another example of our mistaken viewpoint is in Ephesians 6:10-18 concerning the armor of God. Remember that this letter was written to a church; actually, it was written to several churches in Asia Minor. Paul was not asking individuals to put on the armor of God, He was asking the Church. The bride, the body of Christ puts on this armor. Not you as an individual. You could never measure up to this as an individual. And what is this armor? Truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation, and the word of God. Who is all of those things, dear reader? That’s right, it’s Christ Himself! The Church is to put on Christ as her only armor and protection.

We desperately need to see everything from His viewpoint. We need to see as He sees; we need to think as He thinks. And we need to see all of the scriptures in relationship to His eternal purpose to have a corporate image (or man) who will express the life of His Son. This is the central thought of God throughout the whole Bible. If we miss this, we miss the main point of everything.

Milt Rodriguez, The Community Life of God