As I See It

Christian experience is primarily relational, not simply intellectual. An individual self enters by faith commitment into a new relation with God and, as a consequence, an entirely altered relation to others.



Christian commitment begins with a total capitulation to the claims of God upon one's life. The individual confesses and determines with God's help to forsake one's sins, receives God's forgiveness, and is encompassed with his love. God, who was formerly ignored, avoided, or openly rejected, now takes residence in the individual's live, replacing the self as its value center. Other people, who were formerly resented, envied, opposed, hated, or at best viewed in terms of what contribution they could make to one's own life, now become objects of concern.



Note how Paul writes: "Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us . . ." (Eph 4:31-5:2). "Imitate God. Live in love" says it all.



The Christian therefore finds oneself in a relational triangle of God, others, and self. All purpose and meaning in life derives from the dynamic of complete self-giving love. We are to imitate that.



To love as God loves is humanly impossible apart from the motivation and strength and grace which this relationship supplies. "Abide in me as I abide in you," Christ said. "Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me" (Jn 15:4). The true Christian goes in Christ's name, not one's own, draws upon the strength which God provides, and sees life become a profound adventure.