elationships exist because God the Trinity exists! Christianity is different from Judaism, Hinduism, and Islam because of the Trinity. Judaism and Islam are absolutely monotheistic; there is no personal differentiation in the Godhead. In those two religions god is lonely. He only has himself to relate to. Christianity says that God relates within Himself as three persons who are in an everlasting, eternal “dance” of joy. Hinduism says in one of its forms that all is god. Reality is all one, which is pantheism, or as Francis Schaeffer would say, paneverythingism. Ultimately, in Hinduism, personality and relationship is an illusion that will disappear.
Christianity teaches instead that relationship has preceded everything. God is One in three persons, therefore, God is relationship. In the first chapter of the Bible we have the Spirit of God hovering over the earth, and we have two members of the Trinity communicating over the creation of the “relaters,” Adam and Eve. We can relate because we are made in the image and likeness of God. Relationships, however, are at their greatest health when they are infused with the character of God.
The quality of our relationships are completely dependent upon our willingness to enter into a friendship with God. Scripture teaches us that we can love when we accept the love that God has for us. We love because He first loved us. We did not initiate any relationship with God. He did that for us. We are merely responders. Our great responsibility is to explore the depth of love that God has given through His Son Jesus Christ.
We are also called to relationships with others. It is having God’s kind of love in our lives, “agape love” the Bible calls it, for others. This love is emotional and profoundly sympathetic.
Probably the best way to describe the use of the Bible is that it is the Book of Relationships. The Bible is not an end in itself, but it is a tool to create healthy relationships with God and others. Evil attitudes and acts and ineffective communication is dealt with in the Bible because it is telling us what love is not. We are not left in the dark as to what God considers normal and healthy, nor is there little doubt within the pages of the Bible as to what is unhealthy. We have principles and models, with the greatest model being the Trinity, the eternal romance.
Reference: http://www.whatgodintended.com/content/theme-relationships.asp
