Relationships...

As we live our Christian Faith, one thing becomes abundantly clear: Relationships are important!

I think that as we live our faith, relationships are perhaps the most important thing. Specifically, there are three different relationships that we need to cultivate and keep current as strive to live as God’s people.

The first important relationship is our relationship with God. Perhaps this is the most important of the three, but we can’t neglect the others without harming our relationship with God. This is a relationship that we were created to have. Adam and Eve walked in the garden with God. We were created to have that close relationship, too. Our sin created a barrier to our relationship with God – God cannot look at sin. But Christ’s death on the cross paid the penalty for our sin, removing sin as a barrier to our relationship with God. We are once again able to choose this relationship. And living without this relationship leaves a whole in our hearts that can’t be filled with anything else. This is a necessary relationship.

The second important relationship is our relationship with other believers. Those who trust in Jesus – together – are the Body of Christ. And you can’t expect to be part of the Body of Christ, apart from the Body of Christ. The church is the manifestation of the Body of Christ. I often hear that people don’t have to go to church to be a Christian. I’m not so sure… No where in the New Testament do I see people living a life of faith apart from other believers. On the contrary, the early church “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. All the believers were together…” (Acts 2:42a, 44a). Other passages from Paul’s letters suggest they met daily to study scriptures and to pray together. Church is very simply a community of believers. Our faith cannot be lived out outside that community.

The third relationship that is so important is our relationship with those who are outside our faith. The lost. The un-churched. The un-saved. No matter what you call them, God loves them. Only by showing them God’s love, can we ever expect them to come to a life saving faith of their own. Only when they see God’s love acted out can they be opened to thinking of this faith for themselves. It is true that we must “love them in.”

In America today, we are all about the individual. Whatever makes us feels good. Whatever we want. It’s all about us. But that kind of thinking can destroy relationships. For the Christian, relationships are just too important!