“Two people can't be wrong with each other here and be
right with God.”
David Gallimore, Evangelist at the Louisiana District Camp
Meeting
Over the past few weeks my
mind has not been far from what it takes to have healthy, Christian relationships. This quote put my thoughts into a succinct focus. Why is it that the Body of Christ is so full of
relationship difficulties? The question
comes up often as to why there are so many denominations, indeed, so many
churches of the same denomination in a local area. While I believe there are legitimate reasons
for multiple Church groups (notice the capital C) I believe too many times it
is not God’s will but man’s broken relationships that lead to their creation.
Have you ever disagreed with someone
on how something was done or a decision that was made? I think we all have! So what did you do with that
disagreement? Did you hold onto it (grudge)…did
you talk to everyone else about it (gossip)?
Did you go to the person and work through it (good)? Do you know that anything less than working through
it is placing your opinion over God’s?
It’s making you master of your life instead of Him!
I am finding as I mature both
in life and in Christ that there is very little, actually nothing, that is
worth losing eternal life over. Satan
would have us believe that we have rights…God’s Word says we give them up. Satan would have us believe that some things
are worth fighting over…God’s Word says there is only one thing worth losing our
physical lives over and if we do we are still assured of eternal life! Satan would have us believe the color of the
carpet or how money is spent is so important that we should take a stand and
maybe even sever relationships over it…God’s Word tells us to work it out!
God’s Word is full of
relationship directives. Man was created
because God wanted someone to relate to.
Relationships are important to Him!
When we allow worldly, selfish “stuff” to interrupt our relationship
with each other we are living in disobedience to God and it’s a short step onto
the wide road to destruction. It is
incumbent on each of us who call ourselves Christian to decide not to allow
anything of this world to get in the way of our relationships with each other
and ultimately, our relationship with God.
So, do you believe this
statement? Whether you believe it or not…indeed,
whether you like it or not, God’s Word declares it as well. Read the following scripture and spend some
time with God allowing Him to speak to your heart.
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another:
just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.
If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a
liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God
whom he has not seen.
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another:
just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people
will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another
in showing honor.
Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one
another.
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and
whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does
not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest
among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live
through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us
and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love
covers a multitude of sins.
And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.
But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in
need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him?
You shall love the Lord your God with all your
heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
1 John 3:18
Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.
For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your
freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.
Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one
who loves another has fulfilled the law.
John 15:13
Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his
friends.
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that
whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits
to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into
the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that
Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not
confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you
heard was coming and now is in the world already. Little children, you are from
God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in
the world. They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and
the world listens to them. ...
But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting
nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the
Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not
love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers,
and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as
to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I
have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain
nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not
arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or
resentful; ...
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born
of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him.
By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and
we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the
sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.
Remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and
labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a
manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility
and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to
maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and
one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—
one Lord, one faith, one baptism, ...
For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments.
And his commandments are not burdensome.
“So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also
to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.
“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the
one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.
You cannot serve God and money.
Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he
sat down, his disciples came to him. And he opened his mouth and taught them,
saying: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed
are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. “Blessed are the meek, for
they shall inherit the earth. ...
Because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have
toward the Lord Jesus and for all the saints,
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
