Enormous Connecting Ability We Humans Have

Imagine what would happen if humanity did not have the capacity to relate to one another, find reasons for friendship and combat the threat of separation, war and hostility. How fortunate we are for being able to relate to others in many ways.

We can subdue the wildest animals, if we want, and make them friendly. We just need to prove to them how friendly and caring we are. When it comes to human relationships, we have an amazing rational power to reason with our fellow man. We have the rational and emotional power to influence the mindset of our enemies and persecutors. How many fascinating stories have we heard about the persecuted Christians who influenced their persecutors and tied their hearts to Christ?

When we research the foundational principles of other religions and philosophies, I am amazed that none of them other than the Biblical faith gives the responsibility to humanity to make decision based on understanding, dialogue and reasoning.  God calls people to reason together:

Come now, and let us reason together, says Jehovah. (Isaiah 1: 18a, MKJV)

Humanity is called to get out of narrow mindedness, use its full competence to discern the truth, discover the means of harmonious friendship and live in peace with fellow men and women.

Secular Humanism, New Age, Eastern religions focus on individualistic aspects of life, creating indifference in the minds of people towards community life.  Evolutionary atheism ranks humanity as substance, the product of the material world, which is unable to follow an intelligently established standard. Islam bases its social relationship on sectarian power of dominance and rejects sincere friendship with non-Muslims. It is only the Bible that says:

It is an honor for a man to cease from strife, but every fool exposes himself. (Proverb 20:3, MKJV). Follow peace with all, and holiness, without which no one shall see the Lord. (Hebrew 12:14, MKJV). The one who does not love has not known God. For God is love. (1John 4:8, MKJV)

The heart of the Bible is that we should try our utmost to connect with others for a long lasting friendship.

How can we cease from conflicts, but follow peace through loving one another despite differences in cultures and beliefs? The response is the openness to read the chapters of each other’s lives and choose the best.

God knows that diversity reveals itself with many faces in relationships. He also knows that relationships get better and better if we start to use our minds, hearts, and conscience in order to evaluate values and choose the best ones for our own personal lives and for our relationships with others. God is the relational God and wants us to be relational too. He desires us to see things happening in others’ or our lives, what others or we are missing and how life can be upgraded. It is only through consideration and evaluation that our deeper desire to have the best will grow and motivate us to choose the best for our life and relationship.

The reason that God revealed Himself in Christ was to communicate with us, show us what is stored for us beyond the limits of this world and what steps we need to take in order to have access to great things. He is God and able to give us everything we need.  But He has created us with freedom of choice and an abundance of abilities to get out of our own closed circles, be in contact with others and use our talents to choose meaningful values for our lives.

Building creative dialogue is very important for the God of the Bible. There were only two options for God concerning humanity: either to stay away from them and leave them in the kingdom of darkness or to pay a great price, build relationship with them and transfer them into light. He chose the latter, as the Gospel says:

And through Him [Christ] having made peace through the blood of His cross, it pleased the Father to reconcile all things to Himself through Him, whether the things on earth or the things in Heaven. (Colossians 1: 20, MKJV)

Christ went through the painful Cross and resurrected in order to connect us to God. The same Christ also asks us to go to others, connect with them and teach them what He taught us. One of His teachings is if we have faith the size of a mustard seed, we will be able to move mountains.  He is telling us that nothing is impossible for us.  If we do not go to others and teach them, how will they know that such great capacity is awaiting them and that they can overcome difficulties? That’s why the Gospel puts vital questions in front of us:

How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without preaching? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things!" (Romans 10: 14-15, MKJV)

Since we have been told of this Good News, since through faith we have the capacity to overcome all barriers in human relationship, we must now tell other of this Good News that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.