Scripture Reference: 2 Corinthians 2:5-16
Relationships – Continued
Dealing with people in general is tough enough. Dealing with problem people is next to impossible. Whenever I think about getting along with people, I recall something I read in the early 80’s from a little girl who was asked to write an essay:
People are composed of girls and boys, also men and women. Boys are no good at all until they grow up and get married. Men who don’t get married are no good either. Boys are an awful bother. My mother is a woman, and my father is a man. A woman is a grown up girl with children. My father is such a nice man, that I think he must have been a girl when he was a boy!
The essay captures the complexity of human relationships. We all become a little tongue-tied and confused when it comes to understanding and getting along with people. Yet, Scripture holds out the promise that each of us may triumph in Christ in the arena of our human relationships. The key to experiencing this victory is in modeling the way Christ dealt with people.
Jesus treated all people with dignity. He believed everyone was of equal worth, Jesus truly was impartial. While people are hardly equal in gifts as the parable of the talents makes clear (Matthew 25:14-30), they are of equal significance as the story of the Samaritan woman illustrates (John 4). We make the complexity of our own relationships all the more complex when we attach degrees of significance to people based on color, class, or condition.
In addition to this, humility is an attitude Jesus cultivated in all His relationships. In learning to triumph in this arena, it might help to humbly remember that, while we talk about the difficult people with whom we live and work, sometimes we are those difficult people ourselves. Think about how offensive Jesus was to many of the people of His day (Mark 6:1-6). It may help you to humbly accept your own offensiveness to others and keep you from being on the defensive.
In all of Jesus’ actions with people and reactions to people, His aim was always conciliatory. Even in His stern rebukes of the religious establishment, He held out hope of redeeming people and even prayed for that to happen. Read the “Woes” passage in Matthew 23. Notice, however, how the chapter ends with Jesus praying, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem. . . . How often I wanted to gather your children together . . .” (Matthew 23:37). Sometimes, the pain of confrontation is preferred over the ease of silence. In any event, since Christ has led the way toward our own reconciliation to God, can we attempt anything less in our relationship with others? Keep the promise before you, “Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ” in the arena of human relationships.
Choices
Paul wrote in his letter, “Furthermore, when I came to Troas to preach Christ’s gospel, and a door was opened unto me of the Lord, I had no rest in my spirit . . .” The apostle is letting us in on his struggles. Troas was the north westernmost city in Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey). Paul had traveled all the way from Ephesus to this coastal city when God opened a door of opportunity for him. Yet, he could find no peace in his heart at the thought of stepping through that door. Why? Because he could not find his Christian brother Titus. So, he chose another door of opportunity and departed for Macedonia.
Here is a man struggling between two alternatives. I know about this struggle. I suspect you do, too. Sometimes, I think we look at the apostle Paul as if he were a super-Christian for whom life always worked out perfectly with little effort. I have news for you, however. Life was not effortless for Paul. He struggled between choices in life just as you and I do.
To Be Continued
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD 
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