Relationship Problems

Turn on the news and it stares you right in the face: Domestic disputes, strife with neighbors, divorce, adultery, kidnappings, ethnic unrest, war…

Have you ever thought about the fact that just about every problem in the world has at its bottom line a problem of relationship?

Society seems to recognize this fact and offers us a wide variety of answers and solutions to keep relationships healthy and to mend broken ones. We have more sociology, psychology, sex therapy, books, magazine articles, seminars and TV shows on the subject then ever before, yet we continue to experience huge problems in this area.

I find it refreshing to see the profound and simple answer to relationship problems, provided in God’s Word. Jesus summed up God’s basic principle for relationships and calls it the “Greatest Commandment”

Jesus said, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.’ This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: ‘Love others as well as you love yourself.’ These two commands are pegs; everything in God’s Law and the Prophets hangs from them.” Matthew 22:37-40 (The Message)

This is a summary of the oldest message in the Bible: Love God—and love others as yourself!

It tells us, that relationship is based on value: We relate to God first, because He is the being in the universe with the most value. He is worth relating to!

We relate second to our neighbor. (To find out who your neighbor is, check out this story: Luke 10: 25-37)

Notice that Jesus doesn’t say: Love your neighbor instead of yourself, or love yourself instead of your neighbor—but love your neighbor as yourself.

If we love God but leave out loving our neighbor, we become mystics. If we love our neighbor but leave out loving God, we are humanists who turn the feeling of love itself into God.

The Good News is that through Jesus good relationships are possible. He brought us together through his death on the Cross; he tore down the wall we used to keep each other at a distance.