The healing of our circle of relationships is connection to God. God is a healthy community in God’s self. We know God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Trinity is the model of healthy, loving social relationships.
Within the Trinity, there is no attempt to control or seek one’s own way. Dallas Willard says there is no subordination within the Trinitarian community because “Father, Son and Holy Spirit won’t stand for it.” The Trinity shows us we are created live in community. “Created in God’s image” (Genesis 1:26-27) we are at our best when we join God in this community of love.
Then we can be free from the positioning and intrigue of making a place for ourselves in our relationships. The legend of King Arthur and his Round Table is a good illustration of this. The story goes Arthur wanted his knights to consider themselves as no better than the other. He as King saw himself in this same light. In order to symbolize this community of deferring to the other, he had a round table built for them so there would never be anyone at the head of the table when they came together.
The key to living transformed lives in community with others is not a mystery. The difficulty is not in the understanding, but in the follow through. If we wish to have a life filled with richness in our relationships rather than hurt and betrayal, there is one way to live.
Philip. 2:3-5 (NLT)
Don't be selfish; don't live to make a good impression on others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourself. [4] Don't think only about your own affairs, but be interested in others, too, and what they are doing.
[5] Your attitude should be the same that Christ Jesus had.
As we are transformed by God to become the kind of people God can work through, we take on the mind of Christ. We begin to think as he thinks. Our actions, then, reflect his influence. We live in our circle of relationships as Jesus lives in the circle of the Trinity. We bring Jesus with us to our own Round Table because he is in us and we are in him.
1 John 4:15-16 (NLT)
All who proclaim that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God. [16] We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in him.
God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.
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