By Pst. Fejiro Soweto
Relationship rules the world, there is no life without relationship. Life is all about relationship. And your joy, happiness, destiny and fulfilment depends on it as well. You are a product of both divine and human relationship, although our focus here is centered on human relationship. Rick Warren in his book “Purpose Driven Life” said humans have only five deepest needs; Purpose to live for, Principles to live by, People to live with, Power to live on, and Profession to live out.
One of the major problems of man has always been how to effectively live with people. Your destiny could either be made or marred by relationship. This subject is so important to our physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual life that God gives even more priority to it. “Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven images, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Honour thy father and thy mother; that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thyGod giveth thee. Thou salt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house….” (Ex. 20:3, 4, 7, 8, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17).
Careful study of this scripture reveals that the summary of the Ten Commandment is simply “Relationship”. Verses 3, 4, 7 and 8 deals with our relationship with God, while 12-17 talks about our relationship with one another. Do you notice that six out of the Ten Commandments are pointing towards peaceful co-existence between human beings? Jesus when asked what the greatest commandment is, has this to say. “Thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul and with all thy might and the second is likened unto the first; thou shall love thy neighbour as thyself”. (Matt. 22:37-39)
The summary of the whole bible is very simple; “live in peace with God and Man”.
