During the 1960s, Simon and Garfunkel came out with the
song, “I Am a Rock.” The lyrics went like this: “I have no need of friendship,
friendship causes pain, its laughter and its love I disdain. I am a rock, I am
an island.”

While most would disagree with the idea of not needing
friendship or love, there is, in the Christian world, the idea, “All I need is
Jesus.” But is this really true?

God did not create us to be Christians in isolation. God is
a relational being, and he made us in his image. So we were created for
relationship and to live and work in community. The Bible uses several
metaphors to make this clear.

Paul reminds us we are all part of one body. “The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I don’t
need you!’ And the head cannot say to the feet, ‘I don’t need you!’” (1
Corinthians 12:21). Then he goes on to say in verse 27, “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one
of you is a part of it.” Each of us is placed into the body of Christ,
making up a whole.

In another passage Paul asked the Corinthians, “Do you not know that your bodies are temples
of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not
your own” (1 Corinthians 6:19). The “you” here is plural, and “the
temple” is singular. Paul is saying, “All of you together are a singular temple
for the Holy Spirit.” God doesn’t have millions of little temples running
around, he has one temple – the body. Together we make the dwelling for the
Holy Spirit.

And in 1 Peter 2:5, Peter calls believers “living stones” who “are being built together into a spiritual
house to be a holy priesthood.” Again, the emphasis is not on the parts,
but on the one spiritual house.

God has not called us to be rocks or islands. He has called
us to be members of one body – Jesus Christ – who is the rock.