Now we address some of the more difficult aspects when Christianity is viewed as a Relationship. One huge aspect are the requirements. And these we have to accept in order to be in relationship. So…. exactly what is required of us to be in relationship?
Interestingly, much of what our relationship with God entails relates to how we interact with each other. But that’s for Part 3 – this is looking at the requirements in terms of our relationship with God. He really gave us this answer thousands of years ago when He gave the 10 commandments to Moses.
Love is the primary requirement. Love does no harm, but love is also strong. Love speaks the truth and doesn’t mitigate it, but it doesn’t batter. And love is the basis of our relationship with the Father. We do that through having no other gods before Him. We do that through loving Him with all our heart, soul, mind.
Having no other gods is a gargantuan statement as we are all prone to placing other things and people as gods in our lives. Example: our job, money, status, our ‘toys’, our family, etc. Nowhere does it state that we can’t have those things, it merely states that those things can’t have us. When we make them our focus, our god then we are owned by them. This is not a simple thing for us to do but it is critical. Our God has to be God or we aren’t in relationship.
But love is an action word. We see love in action when we see that it was the Father’s love first when He gave His only son to be our entry into relationship. And we see love in action when we witness Jesus’s acceptance of that mission so that in Him we have redemption, we have restoration. We were loved first – the initiation to relationship came from God…. not from us.
