Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries
What it means to be initiated into the secret of the mystery. Part 88. The mystery of relationships. Part 4.
Sunday, September 11, 2005
1. Our relationship with Him or abiding in Him, verses 1-11.
2. Our relationships with one another, verses 12-17.
3. Our relationship with the world or the cosmic system, verses 18-27.
You cannot undo past failures, PHI 3:13-15.
This describes an experience that everyone has in relationships sooner or later.
When a believer harbors bitterness and that bitterness continues, the believer has a tragic flaw.
No one who is bitter should ever get involved in relationships while in a state of bitterness.
Relationship with God must precede any relationship with people.
1. When you are born.
2. When you are born again.
3. When you enter into relationships.
EPH 4:31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and verbal brawling and quarreling and slander be removed from you along with all malice.
Malice refers to spitefulness and revenge motivation.
COL 3:19 - husbands are commanded to love their wives and be not bitter against them.
Bitterness, jealousy, and the emotional sins, especially the emotional sin of anger, are the great enemies of relationships.
Many men become bitter in relationships because they don’t know how to handle nagging, tantrums, pouting, and the most embarrassing of all - abnormal public behavior in those around them.
All men have souls with areas of sensitivity.
Men are much more sensitive than women because men are prone to pride and arrogance and therefore insecurity and hyper-sensitivity.
The woman has been designed to be under the authority of the man, and therefore she can often take a lot more.
When a woman truly loves a man she will guide and protect his soul and that includes the protection of his areas of sensitivity which she should know well.
A woman who loves her man and responds to him will have a soul-relationship that will protect him.
In her protection, the male aggressiveness, the male initiative, the male love toward her becomes a fantastic thing.
HEB 12:15 See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled;
When “rebellion and independence” link up with “sensitivity and bitterness,” there can only be self-induced misery in the relationship.
1. Jealousy
2. Bitterness
3. Anger
Symptoms include problems about trust, sex, money, and faithlessness.
The problem in relationships is lack of virtue, lack of power, lack of efficacy.
A lack of three problem solving devices that can solve problems with relationships:
1. Personal love for God the Father, without which as a believer you can never have true human love.
2. Occupation with the person of Jesus Christ which is the legitimate problem-solving device.
3. Impersonal love.
The issue is the present not the past.