Post by Cindy on Aug 31, 2015 11:03:16 GMT -5
Do You Realize That God's Concerned About Your Relationships With Others? In fact, He's so concerned about our relationships with other people, that if we have a problem with someone and don't go to them to resolve it and reconcile with them, but carry on with our life as usual, He won't accept our worship and our prayers won't be effective! Rather then quote the many verses that show us this, I'm just going to share some of the scriptures and hope you'll look them up as they explain a lot. (Matthew 5:23–24; 1 John 2:9–11; Matthew 6:14–15; Isaiah 59:2; John 9:31; 1 Peter 4:8; Psalm 66:18; Zechariah 7:13; Proverbs 17:9; )
Satan absolutely loves it when people throw away a friendship and refuse to reconcile, because it puts those people out of commission for awhile. Remember his main tactics are to cause strife and division and what better way then that? Look at the things in one of the lists that tell us what kind of character traits will keep people out of heaven and compare them to what Satan does: “idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.” (Galatians 5:20–21) Now let's look at what Jesus said about being angry: “But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.” (Matthew 5:22) He obviously takes it quite seriously, and so should we.
Let's look at this logically though. Jesus tells us we're to love other believers, and the unsaved as well. He says we're even to love our enemies and even go out of our way to help them. His main teaching was and is that we're to first love God with all our heart and mind and strength, and then love all others the same way; that we're to put our self last. When we are not acting toward another person in love, then we are sinning against God. When we hold a grudge, when we don't forgive (God's way, not the world's way; see: Forgiving & Forgetting The Lord's Way) when we allow our self to continue to be angry or become bitter, all of these are sins against God and means that we are cherishing sin in our hearts. In other words, it's something we won't let go of, therefore it's the same as living in unrepentant sin.
Loving someone does not mean that we're supposed to tolerate sin. Tolerating sin is not love, regardless of what the world would like us to believe. Because you love your child, you wouldn't allow them to stick their hand in a fire, therefore you also should not allow them to harm themselves spiritually with sin which will cause them harm spiritually and physically!
So what does God expect from us concerning our relationships with others? He tells us, “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.” (Romans 12:18) That seems so impossible, we tend to not pay too much attention to it, but the Lord tells us this because it's what He expects from us. Notice that He says, "if it is possible". He realizes that we cannot control how other people will always react toward us. Sometimes they are simply going to be unwilling to reconcile. Sadly, this is even true of other Christians, although it shouldn't be. Next notice that he then says, "as far as it depends on you". In other words, we're not to leave it up to the other person. We are to do all we possibly can to reconcile and live at peace with others, be they believers or unbelievers, or even enemies. Doing all we can could mean giving up our right to "be right" and letting the other person think they "won" the argument or debate. We're told to always put the other persons needs and desires before our own. So if it's so important to them to be right that they're willing to ruin a relationship over it, let them be right.
We are to love others unconditionally, which again goes against what the world teaches us. That means we don't stop loving them because they don't agree with us about some things, or because they don't like our friends, or because they don't love God, or because they've done something really stupid or even evil. We are to still love them and we are to still do all we can to live at peace with them. Now, if they have done something truly evil, and/or are unbelievers, they most likely are not close friends, since we wouldn't have anything in common with them. When I say we are to love them, that doesn't mean we have to spend a lot of our time with them. We can love someone and not like what they've done or how they normally act.
Think about how God loved (and still loves) us before we were saved. God didn't wait until we'd cleaned up our act and were living a holy life to save us. He loved us while we were His enemies. Really think about that for a moment. We were actually His enemies when He loved us and saved us. Then He cleaned us up! (and still is) We are to be holy like He is holy, and that's why He calls us to love our enemies, because He did and does. It doesn't matter how rotten and evil a person is, we have no way of knowing when that person could fall on their knees, repent and be saved. It may seem impossible to us, but then if it is, then it would be impossible for any of us to be saved too. God knows who belongs to Him, we don't. So we're to treat everyone as either a believer or a potential believer - not because of them, but because of our God.
There's another problem though. In today's age many people, including Christians, run away when there's a problem or potential problem. They get hurt or angry (usually both) and after saying their peace, they leave. So how do we handle that? In some cases, there's not much we can do, especially with so many relationships now days being had on line and not in person. We can pray for them, forgive them, and ask the Lord to reconcile us with them and then follow His lead on any other possibilities. In some cases, if the person hasn't cut us off from any communication with them, we can send them a message letting them know we love them and that we're sorry they were hurt. If they have cut us off from communication though, we may simply have to wait on the Lord to work in their heart. As long as we've done all we can, then we're fine with the Lord and He will accept our prayers and worship. We do need to be careful though not to fool our self into thinking we've done all we can when we really haven't.
Remember, God lays the responsibility for reconciliation and for living at peace with them squarely on our shoulders, not theirs. He does not want us to sit around and wait for them to come to us. Certainly, if they are saved, they have the same responsibility and ideally we should both be actively working to reconcile, but that rarely happens because most Christians don't know God's Word. Sadly, whether they realize it or not, their relationship with the Lord will remain damaged until there is repentance on their part and a movement toward reconciliation. The point is, if you don't want this to get between you and the Lord, then you need to take care of it.
I cover a lot of this in the article about forgiving that I gave the link to as well as the longer study on it, if you want to know more about it.
What I really wanted to get across today was simply that our relationships with others is a big concern to the Lord and that He holds us responsible to love others and live at peace with them. Secondly, I wanted to make sure people understood that when we don't do that, it has a negative effect on our relationship with the Lord, which in turns negatively affects us.
Satan absolutely loves it when people throw away a friendship and refuse to reconcile, because it puts those people out of commission for awhile. Remember his main tactics are to cause strife and division and what better way then that? Look at the things in one of the lists that tell us what kind of character traits will keep people out of heaven and compare them to what Satan does: “idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.” (Galatians 5:20–21) Now let's look at what Jesus said about being angry: “But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.” (Matthew 5:22) He obviously takes it quite seriously, and so should we.
Let's look at this logically though. Jesus tells us we're to love other believers, and the unsaved as well. He says we're even to love our enemies and even go out of our way to help them. His main teaching was and is that we're to first love God with all our heart and mind and strength, and then love all others the same way; that we're to put our self last. When we are not acting toward another person in love, then we are sinning against God. When we hold a grudge, when we don't forgive (God's way, not the world's way; see: Forgiving & Forgetting The Lord's Way) when we allow our self to continue to be angry or become bitter, all of these are sins against God and means that we are cherishing sin in our hearts. In other words, it's something we won't let go of, therefore it's the same as living in unrepentant sin.
Loving someone does not mean that we're supposed to tolerate sin. Tolerating sin is not love, regardless of what the world would like us to believe. Because you love your child, you wouldn't allow them to stick their hand in a fire, therefore you also should not allow them to harm themselves spiritually with sin which will cause them harm spiritually and physically!
So what does God expect from us concerning our relationships with others? He tells us, “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.” (Romans 12:18) That seems so impossible, we tend to not pay too much attention to it, but the Lord tells us this because it's what He expects from us. Notice that He says, "if it is possible". He realizes that we cannot control how other people will always react toward us. Sometimes they are simply going to be unwilling to reconcile. Sadly, this is even true of other Christians, although it shouldn't be. Next notice that he then says, "as far as it depends on you". In other words, we're not to leave it up to the other person. We are to do all we possibly can to reconcile and live at peace with others, be they believers or unbelievers, or even enemies. Doing all we can could mean giving up our right to "be right" and letting the other person think they "won" the argument or debate. We're told to always put the other persons needs and desires before our own. So if it's so important to them to be right that they're willing to ruin a relationship over it, let them be right.
We are to love others unconditionally, which again goes against what the world teaches us. That means we don't stop loving them because they don't agree with us about some things, or because they don't like our friends, or because they don't love God, or because they've done something really stupid or even evil. We are to still love them and we are to still do all we can to live at peace with them. Now, if they have done something truly evil, and/or are unbelievers, they most likely are not close friends, since we wouldn't have anything in common with them. When I say we are to love them, that doesn't mean we have to spend a lot of our time with them. We can love someone and not like what they've done or how they normally act.
Think about how God loved (and still loves) us before we were saved. God didn't wait until we'd cleaned up our act and were living a holy life to save us. He loved us while we were His enemies. Really think about that for a moment. We were actually His enemies when He loved us and saved us. Then He cleaned us up! (and still is) We are to be holy like He is holy, and that's why He calls us to love our enemies, because He did and does. It doesn't matter how rotten and evil a person is, we have no way of knowing when that person could fall on their knees, repent and be saved. It may seem impossible to us, but then if it is, then it would be impossible for any of us to be saved too. God knows who belongs to Him, we don't. So we're to treat everyone as either a believer or a potential believer - not because of them, but because of our God.
There's another problem though. In today's age many people, including Christians, run away when there's a problem or potential problem. They get hurt or angry (usually both) and after saying their peace, they leave. So how do we handle that? In some cases, there's not much we can do, especially with so many relationships now days being had on line and not in person. We can pray for them, forgive them, and ask the Lord to reconcile us with them and then follow His lead on any other possibilities. In some cases, if the person hasn't cut us off from any communication with them, we can send them a message letting them know we love them and that we're sorry they were hurt. If they have cut us off from communication though, we may simply have to wait on the Lord to work in their heart. As long as we've done all we can, then we're fine with the Lord and He will accept our prayers and worship. We do need to be careful though not to fool our self into thinking we've done all we can when we really haven't.
Remember, God lays the responsibility for reconciliation and for living at peace with them squarely on our shoulders, not theirs. He does not want us to sit around and wait for them to come to us. Certainly, if they are saved, they have the same responsibility and ideally we should both be actively working to reconcile, but that rarely happens because most Christians don't know God's Word. Sadly, whether they realize it or not, their relationship with the Lord will remain damaged until there is repentance on their part and a movement toward reconciliation. The point is, if you don't want this to get between you and the Lord, then you need to take care of it.
I cover a lot of this in the article about forgiving that I gave the link to as well as the longer study on it, if you want to know more about it.
What I really wanted to get across today was simply that our relationships with others is a big concern to the Lord and that He holds us responsible to love others and live at peace with them. Secondly, I wanted to make sure people understood that when we don't do that, it has a negative effect on our relationship with the Lord, which in turns negatively affects us.