Going on a Journey

God is Community

God Is Community
The Community of God and the Church

Executive Summary

Introduction

1. “Let Us Make Man”: Community Within the Godhead

2. “I and My Father Are One”: The Fellowship of Father, Son, and Spirit

3. “Abba, Father”: Drawn Into God’s Family

4. “Brethren”: The Family Name of the Church

5. “Baptized Into One Body”: Shared Life and Mutual Care

6. “Rich in Faith”: Partnership Across the Global Family

Practical Summary: Living as the Community of God

Sources Consulted

Executive Summary

The first chapter of the Bible already shows God speaking as “Us”: “Let Us make man in Our image” (Genesis 1:26). The rest of Scripture fills in what that phrase hints at. The one God exists eternally as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, a fellowship of love that needed nothing outside itself. The astonishing news of the gospel is that this God draws people into that fellowship. Believers receive “the Spirit of adoption” and learn to call God “Abba, Father” (Romans 8:15). They are baptized “into one body” (1 Corinthians 12:13). They become brothers and sisters, and the New Testament letters name them that way far more often than by any other title.

This study traces that movement in six sections:

  1. “Let Us Make Man”: Community Within the Godhead. The plural of Genesis 1:26 within the confession that “the LORD is one” (Deuteronomy 6:4).
  2. “I and My Father Are One”: The Fellowship of Father, Son, and Spirit. The unity Jesus claims with the Father, and the unity He prays His people will share (John 10:30; 17:21).
  3. “Abba, Father”: Drawn Into God’s Family. Adoption, and the intimate yet reverent address it gives us (Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:6).
  4. “Brethren”: The Family Name of the Church. Why ἀδελφός is the New Testament’s most common word for believers, and what it asks of us.
  5. “Baptized Into One Body”: Shared Life and Mutual Care. Fellowship (κοινωνία) with God becomes fellowship with one another (1 John 1:3; 1 Corinthians 12:26).
  6. “Rich in Faith”: Partnership Across the Global Family. The poor who are “rich in faith” (James 2:5) and the two-way exchange Paul calls “equality” (2 Corinthians 8:14), applied to the relationship between sending churches and the suffering church.

The thread through it all is simple: because God is community, the church is a family, not an organization. We do not create that family; we receive it and learn to live in it.

Introduction

In the opening chapter of the Word of God we see the beginning of all creation and our first view of God Himself. Before God makes the man and the woman, He speaks in a way He has not spoken before:

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.” (Genesis 1:26a)

God is three persons, and yet He is one in nature. We cannot comprehend the depth of that truth, but believers live inside it every day. The God who is community has drawn us into His community. He has made us His children, and He invites us to know Him as our Father, to call upon Him as “Abba, Father” (Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:6).

We have been baptized into the Body of Christ and have become one body (1 Corinthians 12:13). Believers around the world live, work, and minister as members of one family. We are, in the fullest sense, brothers and sisters. That is why the writers of the epistles reach again and again for the family word ἀδελφός, “brother,” when they address the churches.

This study asks what it means that God is community, and what it means for us that He has made us part of His family. It moves from the inner life of God, to our adoption into His family, to the shared life of the body, and finally to the partnership that binds believers across nations and economic circumstances. It belongs with the other studies in the Unity of the Body series, especially the Body of Christ study and the household-and-family picture in Pictures of the Body. Here the focus falls one step further back: on the God whose own life is the source and pattern of the church’s unity.

1. “Let Us Make Man”: Community Within the Godhead
Significance

Genesis 1 uses the ordinary Hebrew word for God, אֱלֹהִים, which is plural in form, but pairs it with singular verbs throughout the chapter. Then, at the creation of humanity, God speaks in the first person plural: נַעֲשֶׂה, “let Us make,” followed by בְּצַלְמֵנוּ, “in Our image,” and כִּדְמוּתֵנוּ, “according to Our likeness.” The very next verse returns to the singular: “So God created man in His own image” (Genesis 1:27).

Interpreters have offered several explanations for the plural. The main ones are: God addressing a heavenly court of angels, a “plural of majesty” like a royal “we,” God deliberating with Himself, and an early hint of plurality within God. Gerhard Hasel surveyed these options and found the court, majesty, and self-deliberation readings unconvincing on grammatical and theological grounds. In particular, Scripture never presents angels as co-creators or humanity as made in the image of angels.[1] Hasel concluded that the plural best expresses “a plurality within the deity,” an intra-divine deliberation, while noting that the Old Testament does not yet spell out the doctrine of the Trinity.[2]

That is the right balance for teaching. Genesis 1:26 does not hand us a finished doctrine of the Trinity. But it opens a door that the rest of Scripture walks through. The one God of Israel is not a solitary being. Within His one life there is relationship, conversation, and shared purpose. Communion did not begin with creation; God is communion.

Israel’s great confession guards the other side of this truth: “The LORD our God, the LORD is one” (Deuteronomy 6:4). The Hebrew word for “one,” אֶחָד, is the ordinary word for the number one.[3] The same word describes a husband and wife who “become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24), two persons joined in a single shared life. Christians should not build a doctrine on that one word, but the parallel is instructive. God’s oneness is not loneliness, and human oneness, in marriage and in the church, is a creaturely echo of His.

Key Texts

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.” (Genesis 1:26a)

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! (Deuteronomy 6:4)

Further passages to read:

  • Genesis 1:27. The plural “Us” gives way to the singular “He created him,” with humanity created “male and female.” The image of God is borne by persons in relationship.
  • Genesis 2:18. “It is not good that man should be alone.” The first thing God calls not good is human isolation.
  • Genesis 2:24. Two become “one flesh,” the same word אֶחָד as in Deuteronomy 6:4.
  • Genesis 3:22; 11:7; Isaiah 6:8. God again speaks of Himself as “Us” (“like one of Us,” “let Us go down,” “who will go for Us?”).
Implications for the Local Church
  • Align: Root the church’s fellowship in who God is, not in what the church does. We gather because we bear the image of a God who is communion, not merely because programs require attendance.
  • Adjust: Treat isolation in the congregation as something God calls “not good” (Genesis 2:18). Notice the person who comes and goes alone, and take the first step toward them.
  • Adjust: Teach the Trinity as a truth to live inside, not only a doctrine to defend. When the church prays, it prays to the Father, through the Son, in the Spirit, drawn into God’s own fellowship.
  • Align: Guard both truths together: God is one, and God is three persons. A church that loses either one will misunderstand its own unity, either as uniformity or as a loose association of individuals.
Questions for Reflection

Worldview Questions

  1. If human beings are made in the image of a God who is community, what does that say about the modern idea that a person is most fully themselves when independent of others?
  2. How might believing that God is communion change the way church members think about the people they find hardest to be in fellowship with?
  3. Our culture often treats relationships as optional add-ons to a self-sufficient life. How does Genesis 1–2 challenge that view among believers?

Discussion Questions

  1. When you first learned about the Trinity, was it presented as a puzzle to solve or a relationship to enter? How did that shape your faith?
  2. Genesis 2:18 records the first thing God calls “not good.” Why do you think God chose isolation as the first problem to name?
  3. Where in our congregation is it easiest for someone to remain alone? What would it take to change that?

Analysis Questions

  1. Genesis 1:26 uses plural forms (“Us,” “Our”) and Genesis 1:27 uses singular forms (“He,” “His”). What does the shift between the two verses suggest about God’s nature?
  2. Why do the “heavenly court” and “plural of majesty” explanations fall short when Genesis 1:26 is read alongside Genesis 1:27?
  3. Compare the use of “one” in Deuteronomy 6:4 and Genesis 2:24. What can this comparison legitimately teach, and where would it be easy to claim too much?

Personal Evaluation Question

Do I experience my faith mainly as a private relationship with God, or as a share in His family? What one step this week would move me toward the second?

2. “I and My Father Are One”: The Fellowship of Father, Son, and Spirit
Significance

What Genesis hints at, the Gospel of John declares. John opens by telling us that “the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). The preposition πρός (“with”) speaks of personal presence and relationship: the Word was not merely beside God but in living fellowship with Him. John 1:18 deepens the picture. The only begotten Son is “in the bosom of the Father,” using κόλπος, the same word John uses for the beloved disciple leaning against Jesus at the Last Supper (John 13:23). Before there was a world, there was this intimacy.

In John 10, Jesus speaks of His sheep. No one can snatch them out of His hand, and no one can snatch them out of the Father’s hand. Then He gives the reason: “I and My Father are one” (John 10:30). The Greek reads ἐγὼ καὶ ὁ πατὴρ ἕν ἐσμεν. The word for “one,” ἕν, is neuter, not masculine. Jesus does not say that He and the Father are one person; He says they are one thing, united in being and action. Thayer glosses the phrase as “to be united most closely.”[4] The Reformation Study Bible notes that the neuter points to oneness of essence, not identity of persons.[5] The crowd’s response confirms that they heard more than a claim of shared purpose: “You, being a Man, make Yourself God” (John 10:33).

The fellowship within God is not closed in on itself. Jesus promises “another Helper,” the Spirit of truth, who “dwells with you and will be in you” (John 14:16–17). And in His prayer on the night before the cross, He asks the Father that believers would share in the very unity He has with the Father: “that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us” (John 17:21). The same neuter ἕν appears there: “that they may be one just as We are one” (John 17:22).

This is the heart of the study. The church’s unity is not something believers manufacture by agreeing with one another. It is a share in the unity of the Father and the Son, given by the Spirit, and it is meant to be visible: “that the world may believe that You sent Me” (John 17:21).

Key Texts

I and My Father are one. (John 10:30)

that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. (John 17:21)

Further passages to read:

  • John 1:1–2, 18. The Word “with God” and the Son “in the bosom of the Father.”
  • John 10:27–29, 31–33. The security of the sheep held in both the Son’s and the Father’s hand, and the crowd’s charge that Jesus “make[s] Yourself God.”
  • John 14:16–17; 15:26. The Spirit sent from the Father by the Son to dwell in believers.
  • John 17:20–23. The full prayer for unity, extended to “those who will believe in Me through their word.”
  • Matthew 28:19. Baptism into the one name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
  • 2 Corinthians 13:14. “the communion [κοινωνία] of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”
Implications for the Local Church
  • Align: Measure the church’s unity by the standard Jesus set, “as We are one,” not by the absence of conflict. Unity is a shared life, not merely a truce.
  • Adjust: Pray John 17 for the congregation by name. Unity is first something Christ asks the Father for, so it must also be something His people ask for.
  • Adjust: Recognize that disunity among believers is a witness problem, not only a relationship problem. Jesus links our oneness directly to whether “the world may believe.”
  • Align: Rest in the security of John 10:28–30. Fellow believers are held by the same hands that hold us; we can afford to be patient with them.
Questions for Reflection

Worldview Questions

  1. Jesus ties the world’s belief to the visible unity of believers (John 17:21). What do our neighbors conclude about Jesus from the way Christians treat one another?
  2. If our unity is a share in God’s own unity, how should that shape the way believers handle disagreements with each other?
  3. In a culture that prizes independence and personal choice, what would it look like for believers to treat their unity as a gift received rather than an arrangement chosen?

Discussion Questions

  1. Jesus prayed for “those who will believe in Me through their word” (John 17:20). How does it feel to know that He prayed for you, and for the people sitting beside you, that night?
  2. Where have you seen Christian unity that was clearly more than human friendliness? What made the difference?
  3. What keeps believers in our community from experiencing the oneness Jesus prayed for?

Analysis Questions

  1. In John 10:30, why does it matter that the word “one” (ἕν) is neuter rather than masculine? What error does that guard against, and what truth does it affirm?
  2. How does the crowd’s reaction in John 10:31–33 help us interpret what Jesus meant in verse 30?
  3. In John 17:21–23, trace the phrase “that the world may” through the passage. What does Jesus expect the church’s unity to accomplish?

Personal Evaluation Question

Is there a fellow believer with whom my relationship falls short of the oneness Jesus prayed for? What is one concrete step I can take toward them this week?

3. “Abba, Father”: Drawn Into God’s Family
Significance

The God who is community does not keep His fellowship to Himself. He brings people into it, and the New Testament’s word for how He does so is adoption. The Greek υἱοθεσία (Strong’s G5206) combines “son” and “placing”: literally, placing someone as a son.[6] Paul alone uses it, five times (Romans 8:15, 23; 9:4; Galatians 4:5; Ephesians 1:5). In the Greco-Roman world adoption gave the adopted person full legal standing in the new family, including the family name and the right of inheritance.[7] Paul’s readers would have heard that believers are not guests in God’s house or servants on His estate. They are sons and daughters with a full share.

The Spirit who brings us into this family also gives us its language. “You received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father’” (Romans 8:15). Αββα is Aramaic (אַבָּא), the word Jesus Himself used in Gethsemane (Mark 14:36). It appears in the New Testament only three times, and each time it is followed by its Greek translation, ὁ πατήρ, “Father.” Believers are given the very words of the Son.

It has often been said that “Abba” means “Daddy.” That claim goes back to Joachim Jeremias, who described the word as the speech of a small child.[8] James Barr’s careful study showed that this overstates the evidence. “Abba” was used by adult sons and daughters as well as children, and it is better understood as a warm but “solemn, responsible, adult address to a Father.”[9] The point is not baby talk; it is belonging. We speak to God the way Jesus spoke to Him, as children who are fully at home.

Paul presses the family logic one step further. “If children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together” (Romans 8:17). Three Greek words in that verse begin with the prefix σύν-, “with”: συγκληρονόμοι (“joint heirs”), συμπάσχομεν (“we suffer with”), and συνδοξασθῶμεν (“we may be glorified together”). Adoption into God’s family is never solitary. We inherit with Christ, suffer with Him, and are glorified with Him, and therefore with everyone else He has brought into the family.

Key Texts

For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” (Romans 8:15)

Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! (1 John 3:1a)

Further passages to read:

  • Romans 8:14–17. Led by the Spirit, adopted, crying “Abba,” and co-heirs with Christ.
  • Galatians 4:4–7. God sent His Son to redeem, and the Spirit of His Son into our hearts: “you are no longer a slave but a son.”
  • Mark 14:36. Jesus’ own “Abba, Father” in Gethsemane, prayed in submission.
  • John 1:12–13. The right to become children of God, born “not of blood … but of God.”
  • Ephesians 1:5. Adoption as the purpose of God’s predestining love.
Implications for the Local Church
  • Align: Address God in prayer as Father, and teach new believers to do the same. The church’s first family word is the one it speaks to God.
  • Adjust: Replace a servant mentality with a child’s confidence. Members who serve out of fear of falling short need to hear that they are already sons and daughters with a full share.
  • Adjust: Look at fellow members as co-heirs. The person across the aisle shares my inheritance; that changes how I speak to and about them.
  • Align: Hold intimacy and reverence together. “Abba” is warm but not casual; Jesus spoke it in Gethsemane while yielding His will to the Father.
Questions for Reflection

Worldview Questions

  1. Many people today have experienced broken or absent fathers. How can the church help such believers receive God as “Abba, Father” without projecting their pain onto Him?
  2. If every believer is a co-heir with Christ, what happens to rankings of importance within the church based on wealth, education, or position?
  3. How does the doctrine of adoption challenge the idea that belonging in a church must be earned through service or longevity?

Discussion Questions

  1. When you pray, what name do you most naturally use for God? Why that one?
  2. What difference does it make to know that “Abba” is the word Jesus used in His darkest hour?
  3. Where in church life have you felt like a guest or a servant rather than a member of the family?

Analysis Questions

  1. Compare Romans 8:15 and Galatians 4:6. Who cries “Abba, Father” in each verse, and what does the difference suggest about the Spirit’s role?
  2. Romans 8:17 uses three “with” (σύν-) words. Trace how each one connects our adoption to Christ’s own story.
  3. Why do you think Paul, writing in Greek to Greek-speaking churches, kept the Aramaic word “Abba” rather than simply writing “Father”?

Personal Evaluation Question

Do I relate to God more as a servant hoping for approval or as a child who already belongs? What would change in my prayers this week if I truly believed the second?

4. “Brethren”: The Family Name of the Church
Significance

If God has adopted us, then every other believer is our brother or sister. The New Testament writers took this literally in their vocabulary. The Greek ἀδελφός (Strong’s G80), “brother,” occurs 342 times in the New Testament, and 183 of those occurrences fall in the letters from Romans through Jude.[10] In the letters the word refers overwhelmingly to fellow believers. It is the apostles’ most common way of addressing the churches. Paul uses it 38 times in 1 Corinthians alone, the letter to the most divided church he served. James uses it 19 times in five short chapters. Thayer defines this use as “a fellow-believer, united to another by the bond of affection.”[11] The feminine ἀδελφή, “sister,” appears alongside it (Romans 16:1; 1 Timothy 5:2; James 2:15).

The family name began with Jesus. When told that His mother and brothers were waiting outside, He pointed to His disciples: “Here are My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother” (Matthew 12:49–50). Hebrews adds a remarkable note: because the Son and those He sanctifies “are all of one,” “He is not ashamed to call them brethren” (Hebrews 2:11). The Lord of glory is not embarrassed to be counted in our family. We have no grounds to be embarrassed by one another.

Paul extends the picture to the whole household. Gentile believers are “no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God” (Ephesians 2:19). The phrase “members of the household,” οἰκεῖοι, means those who belong to the family home. That is why Paul can tell Timothy to treat older men as fathers, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters (1 Timothy 5:1–2). The church’s relationships are to be shaped by family loyalty, family honor, and family purity.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, writing for a small community of seminarians under Nazi pressure, put the point memorably: “Christian brotherhood is not an ideal which we must realize; it is rather a reality created by God in Christ in which we may participate.”[12] We do not choose our brothers and sisters in Christ. God gives them to us.

Key Texts

For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother. (Matthew 12:50)

For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren. (Hebrews 2:11)

Further passages to read:

  • Matthew 12:46–50. Jesus redefines His family around doing the Father’s will.
  • Hebrews 2:11–12. The Son declares the Father’s name “to My brethren.”
  • Ephesians 2:19. Strangers become “members of the household of God.”
  • 1 Timothy 5:1–2. Church relationships modeled on family roles.
  • Galatians 6:10. Doing good to all, “especially to those who are of the household of faith.”
  • 1 John 4:20–21. The one who loves God “must love his brother also.”
Implications for the Local Church
  • Align: Use family language because it is true, not because it is traditional. “Brother” and “sister” should describe how we actually treat one another.
  • Adjust: Close the gap between the family we profess and the strangers we sometimes remain. Know the names, stories, and burdens of the people you call brother and sister.
  • Adjust: Receive the believers God gives you rather than only the ones you would choose. Family membership is not based on compatibility.
  • Align: Follow Hebrews 2:11. If Christ is not ashamed of us, we must not be ashamed of any believer, whatever their background, struggles, or circumstances.
Questions for Reflection

Worldview Questions

  1. Our culture tends to sort people into groups of similar age, income, politics, and taste. How does the family language of the New Testament cut across those groupings within the church?
  2. What does it say to a watching world when believers of very different backgrounds treat one another as family?
  3. If Christ is “not ashamed to call them brethren” (Hebrews 2:11), what kinds of believers are churches today tempted to be ashamed of?

Discussion Questions

  1. Does calling fellow members “brother” or “sister” feel natural or awkward to you? Why?
  2. Think of someone in the church who has been family to you in a hard season. What did they do that made it feel like family?
  3. Bonhoeffer says Christian brotherhood is a reality to participate in, not an ideal to achieve. How might that relieve pressure in church relationships?

Analysis Questions

  1. In Matthew 12:46–50, what is the basis for membership in Jesus’ family? How does that differ from natural family membership?
  2. Why might Paul use “brethren” so often (38 times) in 1 Corinthians, a letter written to a divided church?
  3. In 1 Timothy 5:1–2, how does each family role shape the way Timothy is to speak to different groups in the church?

Personal Evaluation Question

Is there a brother or sister in Christ I have kept at a distance because they are not someone I would have chosen? How can I treat them as family this week?

5. “Baptized Into One Body”: Shared Life and Mutual Care
Significance

The New Testament word that joins life with God and life with one another is κοινωνία (Strong’s G2842). It means what is held in common: participation, partnership, fellowship, and even a shared financial gift. HELPS Word-studies describes it as “what is shared in common as the basis of fellowship.”[13] It appears 19 times in the New Testament. John’s first letter shows its two directions at once: “that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3). Fellowship with God and fellowship with the church are not two separate things. The first creates the second.

Paul describes how believers enter that shared life: “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:13). Ethnic and social divisions that mattered enormously in the ancient world are not erased, but they no longer define who belongs. One Spirit places every believer into one body.

The body then shares one experience: “And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it” (1 Corinthians 12:26). Paul again reaches for the “with” prefix: συμπάσχει (“suffers with”) and συγχαίρει (“rejoices with”). In the same passage he insists that the members that “seem to be weaker are necessary,” and that God has arranged the body so “that the members should have the same care for one another” (1 Corinthians 12:22, 25). In God’s design there are no spare parts and no unimportant members.

The early church in Jerusalem lived this out. They “continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship” (Acts 2:42), shared their possessions “as anyone had need” (Acts 2:45), and broke bread from house to house. Paul gives the principle in one sentence: “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2).

Boys Town in Nebraska has long used a phrase that captures this mutual care. Its origin, according to Boys Town, goes back to an older boy named Reuben Granger, who regularly carried a younger boy, Howard Loomis, whose legs were in braces from polio. When Father Flanagan asked whether the load was hard, Reuben answered, “He ain’t heavy, Father … he’s m’ brother.” In 1943 Boys Town adopted a similar image and caption as its emblem.[14] That is the spirit of 1 Corinthians 12 and Galatians 6:2. Burdens carried for a brother or sister are not lighter in weight, but they are lighter in love.

Key Texts

For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12:13)

And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. (1 Corinthians 12:26)

Further passages to read:

  • 1 Corinthians 12:12, 22–27. One body, many members; the “weaker” members necessary; “the same care for one another.”
  • 1 John 1:3. Fellowship with the apostles is fellowship with the Father and the Son.
  • Acts 2:42–47. The fellowship, the breaking of bread, and sharing “as anyone had need.”
  • Philippians 2:1–2. “Fellowship of the Spirit” expressed as being “like-minded, having the same love.”
  • Galatians 6:2. Bearing one another’s burdens fulfills the law of Christ.
Implications for the Local Church
  • Align: Treat fellowship as participation in shared life, not as coffee after the service. κοινωνία includes time, care, prayer, and possessions.
  • Adjust: Build ways for the church to know when a member is suffering. The body cannot “suffer with” a member whose suffering it never hears about.
  • Adjust: Give honor where the world gives little. Seek out the members who “seem to be weaker” and make room for their gifts.
  • Align: Rejoice as fully as you grieve. Celebrating a brother’s or sister’s blessing without envy is as much a mark of one body as sharing their sorrow.
Questions for Reflection

Worldview Questions

  1. Our culture often measures a person’s value by productivity and visibility. How does Paul’s teaching about “weaker” and “less honorable” members overturn that among believers?
  2. What would a congregation look like if members truly treated another believer’s suffering as their own?
  3. How does the shared life of Acts 2 challenge the way believers today think about privacy, possessions, and time?

Discussion Questions

  1. When have you experienced the church “suffering with” you or “rejoicing with” you? What did that look like?
  2. Which is harder for you: weeping with those who weep, or rejoicing with those who are honored? Why?
  3. What burdens are members of our church carrying alone right now that the body could help bear?

Analysis Questions

  1. In 1 John 1:3, how are fellowship “with us” and fellowship “with the Father” related? Which comes first, and why does the order matter?
  2. In 1 Corinthians 12:13, what is the significance of the pairs “Jews or Greeks” and “slaves or free” in a first-century setting?
  3. Trace the reasons Paul gives in 1 Corinthians 12:22–25 for honoring the “weaker” members. What is God’s stated purpose in arranging the body this way?

Personal Evaluation Question

Whose burden is God asking me to help carry right now? What practical step will I take toward them this week?

6. “Rich in Faith”: Partnership Across the Global Family
Significance

If the church is one family, then the family extends beyond a single congregation, denomination, or nation. That raises a question every generation of missions must face: what does family partnership look like between believers who have plenty and believers who have little?

James begins by forbidding partiality. Believers must not honor the man with gold rings and dishonor the poor man in filthy clothes (James 2:1–4). Then he asks: “Has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?” (James 2:5). The Greek sets the two kinds of wealth side by side: πτωχοὺς τῷ κόσμῳ, “poor in the world’s eyes,” yet πλουσίους ἐν πίστει, “rich in faith.” The poor believer is not only someone to be helped. He or she holds riches the wealthy church needs.

Paul makes the same point through the churches of Macedonia. “In a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded in the riches of their liberality” (2 Corinthians 8:2). They gave beyond their ability and begged Paul for “the fellowship of the ministering to the saints” (2 Corinthians 8:4). The word is again κοινωνία: they wanted a share in the family’s partnership. Paul held up these poor churches as the example for the wealthier church at Corinth, grounded in the example of Christ Himself, who “though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor” (2 Corinthians 8:9).

Paul then explains that partnership flows in both directions: “that now at this time your abundance may supply their lack, that their abundance also may supply your lack—that there may be equality” (2 Corinthians 8:14). The words are περίσσευμα (“abundance”), ὑστέρημα (“lack”), and ἰσότης (“equality”). Each side has an abundance, and each side has a lack. In Romans 15:26–27 Paul describes the same exchange: the Gentile churches had received spiritual blessings from Jerusalem and gladly shared material blessings in return.

This has direct consequences for international partnership. For generations, churches in the West have thought of themselves as “sending” churches and of churches in poorer or persecuted regions as the “mission field.” Scripture does not allow the relationship to run in only one direction. Churches that have learned faith through poverty and “the trial of affliction” possess something precious: “the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes” (1 Peter 1:7). Believers in the suffering church can help comfortable churches understand the sufficiency of God’s grace and how to live out faith before a watching world. Paul’s counsel to the wealthy is to “be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share” (1 Timothy 6:18), and part of that readiness is the humility to receive.

The family of God is a body in which, as 1 Corinthians 12 teaches, the members that seem weaker are necessary. It is time for churches once viewed only as the “mission field” to take up their place as full partners, helping the rest of the family on the journey of faith and conformity to the image of Christ. And it is time for the churches that once did all the sending to learn to receive.

Key Texts

Listen, my beloved brethren: Has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him? (James 2:5)

that now at this time your abundance may supply their lack, that their abundance also may supply your lack—that there may be equality. (2 Corinthians 8:14)

Further passages to read:

  • James 2:1–4. The sin of partiality toward the rich in the assembly.
  • 2 Corinthians 8:1–9. The Macedonians’ generosity in deep poverty, and the grace of Christ who became poor.
  • Romans 15:26–27. Spiritual and material blessings exchanged between Gentile and Jewish believers.
  • Philippians 1:3–5. Paul’s thanks for the Philippians’ “fellowship [κοινωνία] in the gospel.”
  • 1 Timothy 6:17–19. Instructions for the rich: trust God, do good, be ready to share.
  • 1 Peter 1:6–7. Faith proven through trials is “more precious than gold.”
  • 2 Corinthians 11:28. Paul’s daily “deep concern for all the churches.”
Implications for the Local Church
  • Align: Think of churches in poorer and persecuted regions as family members and partners, not as projects or recipients.
  • Adjust: Ask what our church needs to receive, not only what it can give. Invite believers from the suffering church to teach us about faith, endurance, and joy.
  • Adjust: Examine partnerships for hidden partiality. Do decisions, honor, and voice follow the money? James 2 warns against exactly that.
  • Align: Give in the spirit of the Macedonians, willingly and joyfully, as a share in the family’s κοινωνία rather than as charity from above.
Questions for Reflection

Worldview Questions

  1. Western culture tends to equate wealth with competence and authority. How does James 2:5 challenge that assumption in relationships between churches?
  2. What might comfortable believers in the West learn from brothers and sisters who have suffered for their faith?
  3. How should the “equality” of 2 Corinthians 8:14 shape the way churches from different nations relate to one another as family?

Discussion Questions

  1. Have you ever been ministered to by a believer who had far less materially than you? What did you receive?
  2. Why is it often harder for churches to receive than to give?
  3. What would change in our church’s missions involvement if we saw partner churches as family members with gifts for us?

Analysis Questions

  1. In 2 Corinthians 8:1–5, list the circumstances of the Macedonian churches and the qualities of their giving. How does Paul connect the two?
  2. How does 2 Corinthians 8:9 serve as the theological foundation for verses 13–14?
  3. Compare James 2:5 with 1 Timothy 6:17–19. How does each passage define true riches, and what does each ask of the materially rich?

Personal Evaluation Question

Do I think of believers in poorer or suffering churches mainly as people I help, or as brothers and sisters I need? How will I learn from one of them this month?

Practical Summary: Living as the Community of God

The study began with a single phrase in Genesis: “Let Us make man in Our image.” It ends with believers across the world sharing their abundance and their lack as one family. Between those two points lies the whole movement of the gospel.

  • God is community. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit live in an eternal fellowship of love. Our need for one another is not a weakness; it is part of bearing His image.
  • God draws us into His community. Through adoption we receive the Spirit of His Son and call God “Abba, Father.” We belong as children and heirs, not as guests or servants.
  • God’s children are one family. Every believer is a brother or sister. We do not choose them; we receive them, and Christ is not ashamed to call any of them His own.
  • God’s family shares one life. In κοινωνία we suffer together, rejoice together, carry burdens together, and honor the members who seem weakest.
  • God’s family spans the world. Partnership flows in both directions. The poor in this world may be rich in faith, and churches that have always given must also learn to receive.

The unity of the body is not a program the church runs or an ideal it strives to reach. It is a share in the life of the God who is community. Our part is to receive it, protect it, and make it visible, “that the world may believe” (John 17:21).

Sources Consulted
Directly Retrieved/Verified This Session
  • Barr, James. “‘Abbā Isn’t ’Daddy.’” Journal of Theological Studies 39, no. 1 (1988): 28–47. (Bibliographic details verified; quotation as reported by Stanton, below.)
  • Brown, Francis, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs. A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament. Entry for אֶחָד. Bible Hub.
  • Hasel, Gerhard F. “The Meaning of ‘Let Us’ in Gn 1:26.” Andrews University Seminary Studies 13, no. 1 (1975): 58–66.
  • HELPS Word-studies. Entry for κοινωνία. Bible Hub.
  • Reformation Study Bible. Study note on John 10:30. BibleGateway.com.
  • SBL Greek New Testament, with MorphGNT morphological and lemma data. Used for Greek text and word counts.
  • Thayer, Joseph Henry. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament. Entries for ἀδελφός, εἷς, κοινωνία, υἱοθεσία. Bible Hub.
  • “The Story Behind ‘He Ain’t Heavy.’” Boys Town. boystown.org.
Located Only Through Secondary Summary
  • Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. Life Together. Translated by John W. Doberstein. New York: Harper & Row, 1954. Quoted via E. J. Hutchinson, “Life Together, Today,” Plough, November 8, 2017.
  • Jeremias, Joachim. New Testament Theology. 1971. Cited via Glenn Stanton, “FactChecker: Does ‘Abba’ Mean ‘Daddy’?” The Gospel Coalition, May 13, 2013.

[1] Gerhard F. Hasel, “The Meaning of ‘Let Us’ in Gn 1:26,” Andrews University Seminary Studies 13, no. 1 (1975): 59–64. Hasel surveys the mythological, earthly-elements, heavenly-court, majesty, and self-deliberation views in turn.

[2] Hasel, “Let Us,” 65–66. Hasel calls this a “plural of fullness” and notes that the Old Testament does not explicitly teach the Trinity.

[3] Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, s.v. “אֶחָד” (Strong’s H259), accessed via Bible Hub. The HALOT entry should be confirmed before use in teaching.

[4] Joseph Henry Thayer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, s.v. “εἷς” (Strong’s G1520), accessed via Bible Hub. Thayer’s full gloss reads “to be united most closely (in will, spirit),” citing John 10:30 and 17:11, 21–23. Thayer predates the Koine papyri discoveries; the BDAG entry should be confirmed before use in teaching.

[5] Reformation Study Bible, study note on John 10:30, BibleGateway.com, accessed October 11, 2026.

[6] Thayer, Greek-English Lexicon, s.v. “υἱοθεσία” (Strong’s G5206), accessed via Bible Hub. The BDAG entry should be confirmed before use in teaching.

[7] This summary of Greco-Roman adoption comes from the Topical Lexicon entry for υἱοθεσία on Bible Hub. Confirm the background in Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, at Romans 8:15, before use in teaching.

[8] Joachim Jeremias, New Testament Theology (1971), 67, as reported in Glenn Stanton, “FactChecker: Does ‘Abba’ Mean ‘Daddy’?” The Gospel Coalition, May 13, 2013. Secondary citation; Jeremias not consulted directly.

[9] James Barr, “‘Abbā Isn’t ’Daddy,’” Journal of Theological Studies 39, no. 1 (1988): 28–47. The quoted phrase is as reported in Stanton, “FactChecker”; the page within Barr’s article was not confirmed.

[10] Counts made from the lemma data of the SBL Greek New Testament (MorphGNT). Different Greek texts and concordances may give slightly different totals.

[11] Thayer, Greek-English Lexicon, s.v. “ἀδελφός” (Strong’s G80), accessed via Bible Hub.

[12] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together, trans. John W. Doberstein (New York: Harper & Row, 1954), quoted in E. J. Hutchinson, “Life Together, Today,” Plough, November 8, 2017. Secondary citation; confirm the page number in the Doberstein translation before use in teaching.

[13] HELPS Word-studies, s.v. “κοινωνία” (Strong’s G2842), accessed via Bible Hub. Thayer’s entry also notes the sense of a contribution or collection, as in 2 Corinthians 8:4. The BDAG entry should be confirmed before use in teaching.

[14] “The Story Behind ‘He Ain’t Heavy,’” Boys Town, boystown.org, accessed October 11, 2026.