Rules on People Relating to People

Our Love for God

God Commands Our Love, Respect, and Obedience:
Choose to Love and Serve God

Exodus 20:12-17 The Message

12 Honor your father and mother so that you’ll live a long time in the land that God, your God, is giving you.
13 No murder.
14 No adultery.
15 No stealing.
16 No lies about your neighbor.
17 No lusting after your neighbor’s house—or wife or servant or maid or ox or donkey. Don’t set your heart on anything that is your neighbor’s.

For Reflection

The rule about human relationships is clear and not difficult to follow. One is to love one's friends and enemies. Such love means we have to balance our self-interests with our interests in the well being of others. It is necessary that we follow our egoistic desires.  Self-interest is essential for survival.  However such interests should be balanced with an equitable interest in the health of our relationships with others.

No one accomplishes anything without the help of others.  No one becomes depraved, without the encouragement and consent of others. By action or inaction, we can be complicit in another's destruction. We are a network of humans who depend upon each other for all manner of life-supporting interactions.

Pray

Pray so that you will become more aware of your impact on the well-being of others.  Pray so that your relationships are life-affirming.

Forward to a friend