Hunger for Relationships_Advent
Passage: Genesis 1:26-27
Sections, Scripture Passages, Quotes
Hunger for Relationships
Thus from the most intimate relationship (marriage) to those on the largest scale (national institutions) we find the same thing: we all know we are made to live together, but we all find that doing so is more difficult than we had imagined. -N.T. Wright, Simply Christian
Created in relationship – why we have this hunger (Genesis 1:26-27)
So to be made in the image of God surely means that we are made for community. We are made to dwell in willingly dependent relationship to God and others. In the words “made in the image of God,” we have the seeds of the two Great Commands. I will fully live out of the image, which the Creator has stamped on me, only when I love God above all else and love my neighbor as myself. – Paul Tripp
The boys sat without talking, breathing heavily, exhaling plumes of white breath. Even now that they had stopped rowing, their breathing was synchronized, and for a brief, fragile moment it seemed to Joe as if all of them were part of a single thing, something alive with breath and spirit of his own…Joe gulped huge drafts of the frigid air and sat starting at the scene, watching it turn into a soft blur of colors as, for the first time since his family had left him, tears filled his eyes…He didn’t know where the tears had come from, what they were all about. But something inside him had shifted, if only for a few moments. – The Boys in the Boat
Corruption of Relationship – why hunger isn’t satisfied (Genesis 3:5; 7-13)
Rather than worshiping God, we insert ourselves into God’s position, and rather than loving people, we use people to get the things that we love. – Paul Tripp
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation…For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his crosss. – Colossians 1:15,19-20
For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. – 2 Corinthians 5:14-15
Cultivating Relationships (the highest value)
From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh…if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. – 2 Corinthians 5:16-17
The doctrine of the image of God in man places relationship as one of God’s highest design values for us. This means that success in life is not measured by the size of your accomplishments, your power, your acclaim, your money, or your possessions. Success is not about a great education, a great job, a great house, great vacations, and a great retirement. I think many of us who say we are followers of Jesus have bought the world’s definition of success. We chase those same dreams ourselves, and we pass those hopes and dreams down to our children. Meanwhile, our families are broken, many of us feel terribly alone, we are more consumers of what our churches have to offer than participants, and we live with constant anxiety that these right-here, right-now material success dreams will elude us. At the heart of living like you really do believe that you were made in the image of God is living a life of vertical and horizontal love. – Paul Tripp