Interpersonal Relationships

SPECIAL NOTE: Before studying this outline, we strongly suggest studying the lesson entitled: HOPE FOR YOUR CHALLENGES, as it is a preface to this specific challenge.

This world is replete with problems among people! We have an aversion to people who:

It is difficult for the human mind to accept people who are different.

We THINK we want everyone to look, think, act and speak like we do, yet we are really not excited about a world full of clones. God knew that and He gave us differences. However, regardless of our differences, He desires that we all choose to live in His principles and thereby demonstrate His incredible love.

. After you became a member of the family of Christ following your new spiritual birth, you became supernaturally related to all those who have also chosen Christ as their Savior and Lord. You are now brothers and sisters in Christ. As a member of God's family, you have an obligation to consistently support one another through the practice of biblical love.

God’s Word compares the body of Christ (professed believers) to the human body in 1 Corinthians 12:

"The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body…whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free…and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. …If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as He wanted them to be. …so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other." (1 Corinthians 12:12-13, 17-18, 25)

This unity is in the "love" of Jesus, accepting and honoring each other’s differences without accepting the sins in their lives. (We have an obligation to minister to those living a sinful life through a heart filled with love, the master principle.) This shows them God’s better way of life.

"Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay’, says the Lord. On the contrary: ‘If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.’ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." (Romans 12:17-21)