Connections

Relationships

What defines a relationship? For some, it means having a common interest such as a friendship around a hobby or sport. Other relationships are built around common responsibilities such as the same workplace or career field. All relationships are defined by some sort of interaction between two or more parties. Whatever facilitates this interaction is at the very heart of what it means to be in that relationship. All of us are in multiple relationships with different people that are cultivated around different parts of our lives. 

In the modern Western World, we are especially good at compartmentalizing our lives around these particular relationships. While these relationships can have wonderful and important meaning in our lives there are dangers that accompany this kind of compartmentalization. One of the dangers that comes along with this kind of disconnection in the different spheres of our lives is the danger that we will live according to contrary sets of values in these different facets of our lives. It is even true that we may be tempted to so greatly separate these parts of our lives that we lose a sense of commitment and fidelity when we move from one part to the other part. No doubt many people who have been caught in adulterous affairs have done so because they have become accustomed to the disconnection between their work life, recreational life, and home life. This is not an excuse for this wicked sin, but it does help us to understand the dangers of not having a holistic understanding of who we are as people made in God's image in relationships with other people made in God's image in every part of our lives.

Unequal

In 2 Chronicles 19:2, King Jehoshaphat is chastised by the prophet for his partnership with God’s enemies. At this point Israel was ruled by evil kings and Jehoshaphat had been their friend. Jehoshaphat was in some ways a good king attempting to follow Yahweh, but how could he be a follower of Yahweh and yet in partnership with God's enemies? 

The reality is we cannot be sometimes for God and at other times against God because of the circumstances of that particular realm. If we are truly going to follow the Lord with all of our strength, if we are truly going to serve Him with all of our mind, if we are truly going to love Him with all of our heart, then we must give Him all of our devotion. We must not hold back any area or any compartment for His enemies. 

The Apostle Paul also states that there is no way that the Christian or the church can be partnering with idols or unbelievers (2 Corinthians 6:14). Satan and demons and idols are God's enemies; our desire is to destroy them, not to partner with them. And the unbelievers are the ones that we desire to reach. They are the mission field, the ones to whom we must be proclaiming the glorious good news of salvation by faith alone in Jesus Christ. Light and darkness are not in partnership but rather distinction. 

In Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians he had already warned them that bad company corrupts good character (1 Corinthians 15:33). This is also a pattern seen in the Old Testament that the partnerships and even marriages of God’s people with those who served the false gods led away the hearts of Israel into idolatry. Christians also must realize that to think that we are strong enough to manage and not get pulled toward idolatry by ungodly partnerships is not a sign of maturity, but rather hubris. We must be humble enough to know that this is exactly the kind of attack that our enemy would use to cause us to stumble and fall.

Fellowship

Instead, God has called His people to center their lives around the fellowship of His people. This starts with our own homes. The Christian home ought to be a gospel saturated home where scripture informs all of the life of the family and prayer is the regular response in times of both joyous praise and fervent petition. 

Along with this kind of soul filling home life God intends for all Christian to regularly enjoy the fellowship of the saints in the local church meeting. For far too long we have made the church meeting about your individual worship and experience of God. However the church is by definition a gathering together of Christians to enjoy the life and fellowship of all the saints (Hebrews 10:24-25).

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