Re: Horizontal relationship

When all is said and done, Christianity comes down to two major relationships, the relationship between man and God(vertical relationship),and the relationship between man to man(horizontal relationship).

According to Jesus, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang the law and the prophets."- Mathew 22;36-40.

Which of these two relationship is easy to deal with? My guess is that a good number of people will understandably find it easy to deal with God rather than fellow human beings. But a close look at what Jesus and some New Testament writers wrote and said, seem to place more emphasize on horizontal relationship. Take a look at some of the following examples:

1. In Mathew 25:31-46 Jesus taught clearly that at His coming, rewards will be given depending on how we treated his children while on earth. He went as far as saying that whatever little was done to his children is like it was done to him.
2.The deciding factor that drove away the rich young ruler of Mathew 19:16-21 was his failure to go sell all that he had and give to the poor.
3. The story of the good Samaritan(10:25-37) was told with the intent of helping us understand how to deal with God's children.
4.The story of the persistent widow(Luke 18:1-8) exposes ill attitude of some of God's children, towards their own.
5. In John chapter 13:34-35, Jesus again appealed to His disciples to love one another as this was the only way that the world would take note that indeed they were His disciples.
6. The beloved disciple, John sums it all up when he reminds us that there is no way we can love God, if we hate our brother that we mingle with daily.-1 John 4:20

So which relationship is more important? In my opinion, both of them are. We can not choose one and ignore the other. Let us therefore pray that the good Lord can open our eyes to see and do right that which our salvation will depend on. I promise to pray for you. Will you pray for me as well?

Just a thought.

Your friend & fellow traveler

Pr Absalom N.Birai-612-386-4608
www.maranathadventist.org