http://bible.com/events/38881650
We are kicking off a series on relationships
- To be clear…we are taking about ALLof our close relationships – friends, family members, church family, spouse, etc.
- Jesuscommandedthat we love each other. (John 13:34-35)
- This series will look at 4 specific qualities needed for healthy relationships. In other words, you can’t “love one another” without committing to these four things.
- We are sharing these attributes as rules, especially 4 rules to guide you in your relationships
Rule #1
When it comes to relationships, it’s not about me.
Philippians 2:1-8
Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love,if any common sharing in the Spirit,if any tenderness and compassion,2then make my joy completeby being like-minded,having the same love, being onein spirit and of one mind.3Do nothing out ofselfishambition or vain conceit.Rather, humility invalue others above yourselves,4not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.5In yourrelationshipswith one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:6Who, being in very natureGod, did not consider equality with Godsomething to be used to his own advantage;7rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very natureof a servant, being made in human likeness.8And being found in appearance as a man,he humbled himselfby becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!
- This letter is written to a church that was experiencing disruption within their relationships, and ultimately the source was a focus on self.
- Selfish ambition…working to advance self
- Personal prestige….thedesire for the attention and applause
- Often we see the example of someone looking for the interests of others above themself as extreme, but that is not the example of the extreme, but rather the standard.
- Why is this the standard? Because it is what Jesus did.
- Why did Jesus do it? Because that’s what love is. (John 15:13)
Almost every sinful act begins with a focus on self.
- The truth about selfishness is it’s a trait we hate in other people but justify in ourselves.
- God wants to liberate us from the “me first” way of living and transform our relationships.
- Imagine what a relationship could look like when each person has the other’s best interests in mind.
Other Texts for Study/Reflection:
1 Corinthians 13
If I speak in the tongues[a]of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.2If I have the gift of prophecyand can fathom all mysteriesand all knowledge,and if I have a faiththat can move mountains,but do not have love, I am nothing.3If I give all I possess to the poorand give over my body to hardship that I may boast,[b]but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4Love is patient,love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.5It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking,it is not easily angered,it keeps no record of wrongs.6Love does not delight in evilbut rejoices with the truth.7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies,they will cease; where there are tongues,they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.9For we know in partand we prophesy in part,10but when completeness comes,what is in part disappears.11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhoodbehind me.12For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror;then we shall see face to face.Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.But the greatest of these is love.
Ephesians 4:29-32
Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths,but only what is helpful for building others upaccording to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.30And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God,with whom you were sealedfor the day of redemption.31Get rid ofall bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.32Be kind and compassionate to one another,forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
John 15:13
Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.