From the beginning of Scriptures, we discover that God is a relational
God. The Triune God exists in relationship--God the Father, God the Son, and
God the Holy Spirit. What has made some churches and Christian life more
difficult to live and share is that "we are more concerned with winning
arguments and battles than with winning friends and losing the self in truces
of truth" (Quoted in Sweet, 103). When this happens we turn people off
instead of drawing them to Christ. Ordinary people and sinners drew closer to
Jesus because they saw Him as a friend, not a prosecutor and judge. The difference
between Jesus and the Pharisees is that the people found out that they could
approach Jesus unhindered whiles they were forbidden to come closer to the
Pharisees. In the Gospel of John chapter 1 when John and Andrew came to Jesus
and realized or discerned that He was the Messiah, they went to call their
brothers and fishing partners to come and see for themselves. "Philip
discerns that Nathanael will be transformed, not by an argument, not even
an idea, but by a personal encounter with God's self portrait in Jesus"
(quoted in Sweet, 103). The Christian life is about building relationship with
others and helping them to encounter Jesus in a personal way.
