When Karen and I moved to Indiana in 2004, we were hoping to buy a place with a little land where we could have an orchard, garden and a place for the boys to play. We were blessed to get a nice home out in the country with good tillable ground and some woods to hunt in. God truly blessed us in that area.
On top of that, we got some wonderful neighbors. Mike and Pat (his wife) have been really good neighbors. We know that they watch out over our place whenever we are gone and they have helped us in the past by tilling our garden (before we had a tiller), plowing our driveway and doing a myriad of other things. We have reciprocated in other ways. Overall it has been a really positive experience and I am grateful for the neighbors we have.
One of the most interesting passages of Scripture in the Bible is Matthew 22:35-40, where Jesus was asked, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” Jesus answered that the two foundational commandments in the Bible are, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind”; and “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Jesus was teaching us that the two greatest foundational commandments had to do with relationships. If you start looking through the scriptures, everything boils down to these two areas: relationship with God and relationships with others. It really is that simple.
Sometimes as humans we overlook simple things because we are always looking for things to be more complex, but have you really ever stopped and asked yourself: Who is my closest neighbor? Well, the answer is really quite simple. If you are married, your closest neighbor is your spouse. If you have children, that would also include them!
If one of the foundational commandments that Jesus gave had to do with loving our neighbor, and our closest neighbor is our spouse, then the Scriptures have a lot more to say about marriage than many people realize.
So when we read in Matthew 6:14-15 about our need to forgive others, we need to apply that to our marriage and family. When Colossians 3:8 tells us to put aside “anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from (our) mouth,” we need to examine ourselves and examine how we talk to and about our spouse and children.
As you read through the Scriptures over the next few weeks, look for ways to apply biblical truths to your relationships at home. After all, if your faith doesn’t work in the context of your family relationships, where will it work?
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