Rules or Relationships

The kinds of people who get rewarded in the workplace are typically those who work hard, who do the right things. There’s nothing wrong about this in a system based on merit and what a person can do for the organization.

Aren’t we tempted at times to conclude that what is good for an organization and what brings “success’ is therefore the same characteristics that God is seeking in us? We transfer our organizational mindset to our relationship with God and conclude that I am to be busy doing for God, being religious and pious.

What happens in any relationship when the relationship is based on merit and what a person can do or earn from the other? Someone in the relationship is always behind in doing for the other and feeling the obligation to “earn” the other’s favor.

If our salvation were based on earning it, then we would need to be doing something for God, being religious and pious; however, the writer of Psalm 40:6 indicates that God does not want this from us. - “Doing something for you, bringing something to you—that's not what you're after. Being religious, acting pious—that's not what you're asking for. You've opened my ears so I can listen.”(1) God did not provide a salvation by merit and based on what I can do for God. Rather, it is a salvation based on what He did for us and it is a gift from Him.

When one accepts this free gift of salvation, then what is it that God expects of us? The writer of Micah 6:8 says, “But he's already made it plain how to live, what to do, what God is looking for in men and women. It's quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbor, be compassionate and loyal in your love, And don't take yourself too seriously— take God seriously.”(1)
This list seems to indicate that God is highly interested in my relationships with people.
- Am I fair and just?
- Am I compassionate and loyal in my love? (Do I really care?)
- Am I more serious about my relationship with God than I am in my own self-image?

Rules tend to stifle and hem things in as well as being impossible to follow in every situation. Relationships are definitely more amorphous and organic than religions based on a set of rigid rules. Change is a part of relationship – there’s always room to grow.

(1) The Message (MSG) Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson