Relationships

Eph. 1:3

I thank my God in all my remembrance of you.

 

What an example of love and fellowship! Paul initially thanked his God for them whenever he remembered them. As it should be but often isn't, his default was thankfulness. I know and care for the believers that are in my body, but can I say I thank God for them when I think of them? My life is often focused on my family relationships, but still do I even thank God for them when I think of them? What a great lens with which to view personal relationships! Perhaps there would be less interpersonal strife and indifference if the people that God has sovereignly placed in my life would instantly trigger thankfulness. I should be thankful for people, fellowship, and relationships not just for things! Did Paul just think or even verbally express this thankfulness? No, His thankfulness was housed in his prayer life. How could he feel so strongly about these people? First, it was because they were partners in the gospel with him. Their focus and their objectives were centered around the proclamation of the gospel. A focus like this grounds the relationship on the eternal rather than the temporal. When Jesus is what bonds, what is weak and fleshly becomes strong and spiritual.

 

Secondly, Paul stated that they were in his heart, for they all were partakers with him of grace. Once again the relationship was based on the eternal, on the great grace God imparted to them through His Son. Such grace is the believer's sufficiency given by an all-powerful God. I can no longer operate in weakness because His power is within me. When this grace and thankfulness are resident within my heart and life, then like Paul, I will yearn for others with the affection of Christ Jesus. Paul's affections had been transformed. As a believer, his affections were replaced by Christ's affections. His fleshly yearning for the pride of life, the desires of the eyes, and the desires of the flesh had been defeated and replaced with a yearning for believers centered on thankfulness and the great grace and strength of God. How glorious is this!

 

It really makes me think of my relationships with my local body of Christ. How many times have people attended my church and then left because it was too unfriendly,  the music was not quite right, was too small, or did not meet their needs? But do I ever hear people say that they can worship here because we are all grace-filled and united as partners in the gospel? Or for that matter, what about me? How often have I felt unnoticed and lonely? Is it because I am thinking with my fleshly desires and expectations instead of being focused on the partnership we have in the spread of the gospel? Am I thankful and rejoicing at the grace we all experience in common?   Perhaps it is because the visitors as well as members are still operating in in the flesh where relationships never quite meet the expectations. Am I wanting the same friendships the world has but with a twist of Christ? Sobering thought!

 

Paul's great love for these people was nurtured by prayer. And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. If I prayed this consistently for my self and for my fellow believers, I think my relationships would be vastly different. Talk would no longer be about trivial pursuits but about the gospel, abounding love, approving what is excellent, being filled with the fruit of righteousness. Am I nurturing the relationships that God has placed in my life? Am I others focused and not self-absorbed?

 

Father,

I confess that many times my relationships do not resemble this pattern. Draw me closer to You and fill me with grace so that I can reach out to others as you would have me. Help me live for Your glory and with Your priorities.

In Jesus name,

Amen