PCEA

What are the implications of all that we have seen in these earlier articles? The first thing to be said, and said loudly and clearly, is that church is about God, and relating to God. The ongoing attacks we face target first this relationship. If we think there is no danger of the church losing its focus on God, its relationship with God, then we simply show how little we know ourselves, and how little we know the Scriptures.[1]

Why highlight that Scripture is full of relational language now? The answer is that the relational nature of the church is under attack from the unholy trio of what is commonly referred to as ‘the world, the flesh and the devil’. It has always been under such attack, but today it is attacked to an extent, and in ways, that may not have been true before. Consider the nature of the attack from these three, reversing the order.[1]

I suggest that the motif of relationship is a very helpful one as we seek to bring church, and our understanding of church, and our being church, into greater conformity to the Word of God. So let me take a moment or two to give an overview of Scripture focusing on this motif of relationship.[1]

We start in eternity with God alone. But God reveals himself as Three-in-One; more, he is a God of love. Now love is a relational word, so who was God relating to before he created this world and all that is in it? He was relating to himself; he was loving himself. The Father loved the Son and the Spirit, the Father lived in relationship with the Son and the Spirit, as similarly did the other members of the Godhead.

Why state the obvious? Surely there is no point.

I disagree, so let me give two reasons why stating the obvious is sometimes necessary. The first was described by Dr William Cunningham—

“A very large experience has fully proved that doctrines which can be shown to be taught in Scripture have been overlooked or disregarded by the church in general, until events in Providence brought them out—pressed them upon men’s attention—and led to a more careful examination and a more accurate apprehension of the Scriptural statements which relate to them.