RELATION vs RELATIONSHIP

Photo by Imam Fadly on Unsplash

Imagine a husband lying on the sofa in the living room, suddenly he yells for his wife asking for the remote control to change the channel on the TV, she fulfills his request and returns to the kitchen to finish her chores. Then he yells again asking her to bring him a coffee, she does. It doesn't take long, he asks for lunch, anyway, all day long he keeps asking, asking and asking. When finally his wife asks him for a favor, he protests and doesn't do it. You don't have to be very smart to know that surely this relationship won't survive for long.

Now, this is the picture of the relationship that many people have with God. They live asking Him to meet their needs and whims, when they approach Him it is only to ask, however, they do not care to know what God asks of them, on the contrary, when God asks, they get to the point of getting upset and denying His request. They are people like that man who is looking for a woman just to have a relationship, but does not want to invest in a marriage relationship with her. Relationship requires surrender, sacrifice on both sides, and not everyone is willing to do that, they just want to receive.

God institutes with man a model of relationship that consists of giving and receiving, and the first one who was willing to give was Himself: "For God so loved the world, that HE GAVE his only begotten Son, so that every man who believes in him would not perish, but have eternal life." (John 3:16)

And the question is: If the relationship with God consists of giving and receiving, when He has given such an Excellent Offering (His Only Begotten Son for a lost humanity), what does He ask in return?

The answer is: "And now, Israel, what does LORD thy GOD REQUIRE of thee, but to fear LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, to keep the commandments of LORD, and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good?" (Dt 10:12,13)

Would it be unfair of God to ask us to fear Him and walk in His counsels, since He is the Almighty and also All-Knowing? To ask us to love and serve Him if He first loved us to the point of serving us with His Son to pay for our sins?

God doesn't look for people to just have a moment with Him once a week when they go to church on Sundays—and only to ask for blessings—He is looking for people who are willing to invest in a marriage relationship with Him, who are not only interested in asking, but also in giving what He asks of them. This type of relationship is not only true, but pleasurable, and above all eternal.