Naked and Unashamed - how church should be

In Genesis Chapter 1 we read the story of how God created the world. We read how He made the sun and the moon, and the land and the sea, the birds of the air and the fish in the sea, and after every day of creation there was one comment that God made - it is good. Everything that He made was good. Now if we read in Gen 1:26 we see these words,Then God said, "Let us make man in our image..." Have you ever wondered who He was talking to? Well, He was talking to Himself really - He was talking to Jesus and the Holy Spirit. God is not separate, He is three persons in one. He is three persons living together in perfect harmony. He is three persons who exalt each other above themselves. The Father glorifies the Son, the Son glorifies the Father, the Holy Spirit glorifies the Son. They all raise each other up, they all glorify each other, there is no hierarchy, there is no selfishness, there is no me, there is only WE.

Read on a little further in Genesis 2 we see in verse 18 that God utters these words for the first time - "It is not good for the man to be alone..." Everything so far has been declared good by God, and now there is something that He declares is NOT GOOD. What is that thing? How can something which has been created in the image of God be 'NOT GOOD'? Well, the thing that was not a true reflection of the person of God was that man was alone. God was three persons in one, together, connected, in fellowship. He realized that the man He had created was alone, separate, isolated. That was NOT GOOD.

The story goes on that God causes man to fall asleep, takes a bone out of his side and creates a helper. God created woman - named because when Adam saw Eve for the first time he exclaimed, "Woah!! Man!!! Look at that!!!!" This was shortened to woman.

Man was now like God, man was in fellowship, man was together with someone, man was no longer isolated. Now here is the greatest verse in this story - Genesis 2:25 says this, "The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame."

What does this mean? Well, for the first time (and pretty much the last time) men and women were together with nothing between them. There was nothing separating them, they had nothing to hide behind - and they were not ashamed. This moment in time saw perfect relationship between men and women, there was no hierarchy, there was no shame. They were also for the first time naked before the Lord. There was nothing between men and God. There was only perfect communion. There was perfect relationship. This was VERY GOOD.

Sin entered the world - relationship was fractured, separation occurred.

Jesus entered the world, destroyed sin and made a way for us to enter into that perfect beautiful, unencumbered relationship with God again. We can once again approach Him naked to all the things in the world, we do not have to hide any part of our lives from the Father. Our relationship has been restored.

But what about our relationship with each other? What about our relationship with our brothers and sisters in Christ? Have we not been set free? Have we not been made whole? Have we not been restored once again? Isn't it time we were able to have relationships with each other where we prefer one another above ourselves? Isn't it time when we should stop putting each other down, or assuming the worst, or standing on top of each other? Isn't it time to lay down ALL of the hurt from the past and stop laying it on top of anyone we think owes us something? Isn't it time that we had relationships that were 'naked'? Isn't it time when we had relationships with our brothers and sisters in Christ and we would not be ashamed because, "If only they knew who I really was?" Isn't it time we were the church?

Well, maybe you need to put yourself in a group where you can develop authentic friendships, where you can take off some of the layers that you hide behind. Maybe it is time that you carved a portion of time out of your busy week and joined with other people to learn how to have authentic relationships together.

Maybe it is time to join a small group.

Just maybe.