Beautiful Relationships!
The greatest joy in life comes through our relationships--first with God, then with self and one another.
The Bible helps us in practical ways to have a beautiful relational life. Here are a some powerful principles to guide us:
- Acceptance: We are called to accept and welcome one another, just as Christ has accepted and welcomed us! (Romans 14-15). This requires that we avoid passing judgment on others (Rom. 14:1-4). We're not to quarrel over opinions (2 Timothy 2:14). A marriage counselor gives this suggestion: "when your spouse is doing something that bugs you, say this phrase to yourself: 'Not wrong, just different.'" We aren't the best judges of our own or others' spiritual progress. Judge not!
- Be controlled by Love: "If your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love" (v. 15). Love and don't condemn! Restore the broken, relieve the burdened: "Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." Bearing burdens is an act of love. When we help the hurting, we are "fulfilling the law of Christ," which is summed up in John 13:34: "A new commandment I give you, that you love one another; just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another."
- Repent from Bragging: God knows our relationships will suffer if we are too full of ourselves. Proverbs 26:12 says: "Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him." 1 Corinthians 10:12 gives us this warning: "Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall."
- No Condemnation! "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1). Remember that all of us struggle in the Christian life. Romans 7 is Paul's autobiography of his experience as a Christian believer. His honesty shows us we can be a totally committed Christian, as the Apostle Paul was, and we can at the same time struggle a great deal in our walk with God. There's an ongoing struggle between our desire to please God and the pull of the flesh.
Thank God, struggle is not the whole story, but it is a significant part of the story. There is a time to struggle. We have relationship difficulties, financial difficulties, personal difficulties, emotional challenges, marital challenges, parenting difficulties, struggles in our faith, problems in different areas of life. Probaby there's nothing deeply wrong with you when you're going through a period of struggle--it's just part of what it means to be a human living on this earth.
Christians struggle without condemnation! Paul is saying there is now no condemnation, no punishment, no coming into judgment, no penal servitude for the follower of Christ. You can struggle, but you're not condemned! You can fall, but you're not condemned! You can trip, but you're not condemned! You can stray off the path, but you are not condemned because God has said he will not condemn those who are in Christ Jesus.
- Live in Grace: God doesn't have us on a performance standard in order to earn his grace. God's grace is a gift, freely given to the undeserving. Unmerited favor, theologians call it.
Spurgeon said: "You may preach the demands of the law as long as you like, and tell men that they must merit salvation, and you will only make them worse and worse. But go and proclaim the dying love of Jesus; tell them that free grace reigns, and that undeserved mercy saves the sinner through faith in Christ, and that the moment he believes in Jesus there is no condemnation to him, and you shall see miracles accomplished."
If you are by faith "in Christ" your judgment is behind you, in the past. You've already been judged. You trusted that Christ by his death on the cross took the judgment meant for you.
When we live in a faith relationship with Christ, our relationship with self and others becomes invigorated and beautified with the grace and healing love of God!
With much love to you,
Duff
