Do you long for the perfect community where humans live in complete harmony and mutual support? One of the most fascinating passages in Scripture is Revelation 21:1-22:5, where our destiny is explained. One part of this destiny is the idea that we will live in a city, the New Jerusalem. This will be our future perfect community.
God will dwell with us in this city: “The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads,” (Rev. 22:3b-4). And Rev. 21:3 emphasizes God’s presence by stating it three times!
The New Jerusalem is also the Bride of Christ (Rev. 21:9). Thus, we have the mysterious description of the New Jerusalem as both the Bride and the dwelling place of the Bride and God! Perhaps these are two different ways of viewing the city: the place where we all live is collectively referred to as the beautiful body of Christ, which is joined to him. Our future identity is to be the city.
This is what I want to emphasize most: the fact that our future dwelling place and identity is a city. And since we will be a city we will be a community. Ancient cities were often tight-knit interdependent communities. Consider how important the city of Jerusalem is in the Bible. Jerusalem was supposed to be a community that dwelt with God in His temple. In the New Jerusalem God will create this future perfect community. We will finally have the human relationships we were meant to have and long for so much.
All humans long for perfect communities. Even unbelievers put huge amounts of effort into improving cities and communities so that people can live in peace and harmony. But in the New Jerusalem the future perfect community will finally come to pass. We will finally be free of our corruption, able to love one another perfectly, and live productive lives. In fact, in the New Earth, “The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it.” This is our certain hope and future joy.
How often do you think about the future perfect community where you will spend eternity?
