Vertical Living

Tell me, please, if you’ve discovered how to run a copier without paper or a car without gas. How silly, you say! True, yet countless numbers of Believers attempt to have good earthly relationships without a proper relationship with The Father. When asked what was the one greatest commandment, Jesus gave two: “The most important is The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:29-31). Not only did Jesus identify the principle of relationships, He identified the proper order of them! Paul David Tripp writes, “We can know the true joys of human love only if love for God first rules our hearts.” A right vertical relationship (with God through Christ) must be the foundation of all our horizontal relationships (with others). Never imagine an earthly relationship will do what only a godly-divine-heavenly-spiritual relationship will do: God is Perfect, people are not. Take care to live-out the greatest commands and in proper order.  Live vertically!