V. The Pattern Of Christian Community

   49. The real relationships existing within the Godhead, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, are reflected within the ordered life of creation and, still more clearly revealed to the eye of faith, in the pattern they establish and make possible for the community life of God's people.

   50. Whenever the Word of God is truly heard, the Church shapes its life in due obedience; the pattern thus brought into being becomes in its turn a means of showing forth the Word. As individuals are healed and remade by Christ, so also are the relationships within which their life is brought to fulfilment. When, for example, the community of Christians at Philippi was told to have the mind of Christ, who emptied himself and took the form of a servant, this was not just an instruction to private individuals, but an exhortation for the benefit of their common life. Further still, it was not just for their own health and happiness as a community, but for a making known the Word to the world: it was a setting forth of the Word through an effective embodiment of the servanthood of the Incarnate One. One passage in the New Testament - 1 John 1:1-3 - dares to suggest that the life of the Christian community is a reflection of the life of the Godhead: thus the communal life of Christians has a vertical as well as a horizontal dimension. They do not merely enjoy fellowship with each other; their life together is a sharing in the life of the Father and his Son Jesus Christ.

   51. The Savior rescues us from loneliness and sets us within the infinitely diverse security of his friends. The images used in the Gospels and in the apostolic preaching give indications relating to the ordered life brought into being by Christ. The images are corporate as well as individual. They evoke the Bridegroom as well as the Bride, the Good Shepherd's care, the growth and pruning of the Vine, the manifold activities and talents of the Body, family life in the Home, good stewardship, the tender care of the Samaritan, the touch of the Healer, the watchful love of the Father. In the light of the Lord's Supper, the image of the Body has inspired profound insights and reflections on the Church as the Body of Christ.

   52. It must also be remembered that in the New Testament, the actions that allow the Church to grow in strength and ordered life - the setting apart of new ministers, or corporate decisions and teaching, for example - are always accompanied by the action of the Holy Spirit, who makes it possible for us to live in communion and harmony with one another (Acts 13:2; 15:28; 16:6-7; 2 Tim 1:14). The Spirit is the invisible thread running through the work of the Church in the world, enabling our minds to hear and receive the Word, enlightening them to understand the Word, and giving us tongues to speak the Word (Jn 14:26; 16:13-14; Acts 4:31). Relating us to one another and to Christ our Head, the Holy Spirit gives coherent shape and variety to the people of God. Within that people as they are, and for that people as they shall be, the Holy Spirit invites us all to share in the service of the One who came to serve.