RELATIONSHIPS
By Brooks A. Harris
In the beginning when God created mankind, He created man in His image. Man was to be an example of God to all His creation. Mankind - the human race - was given dominion over all of God’s creation - nature. Humans were to be God’s visible representatives, ruling creation as God would rule it.
Before mankind sinned, by rebelling against God’s command, God and mankind had the ultimate loving, caring relationship. Mankind was created to be in relationship with God. The "created" was to continue a relationship of love and trust with the "Creator." But ever since man broke off his relationship with God by not trusting God, mankind has had difficulty maintaining proper relationships with God and with each other.
Our relationships - with God, with the world, and with one another - have been flawed and corrupted. Such breakdown in relationships are demonstrated by: the development of other religions, wars and conflicts between nations, the widespread breakdown of the Family (divorce, unwed mothers, single parent families, etc.), and crimes against each other (our not obeying God’s commandments).
Although God knew we would rebel and always have relationship problems, this was not His ultimate design and is not the way He wants us to live today. Throughout the Bible, it tells us how people are to relate to God and to each other. The Bible tells us how to relate to our parents, our children, our spouses, our neighbors, our government, and our God.
God wants us to learn to get along with each other, to love each other, and to care for each other. God loves each of us, wants each of us to love Him, and wants our loving relationship (God to us and us to Him) to be an example of how we are to love others. I believe that God’s ultimate goal for mankind is that we learn to love each other and learn to develop proper relationships with each other. We find this very difficult, living in a flawed corrupted world with unloving people. But I believe that the more you practice love and concern for others, the better prepared you will be to live in God’s earthly kingdom now and God’s eternal heavenly kingdom to come.
