What does the Bible say about relationships?

In all our relations two parties are involved. It is so here. The marriage relation is taken up as between wives and husbands; the family as between children and parents; the industrial as between servants and masters. Each of the three relationships, as instituted by God, involves this, that one party shall take the lead and the other shall be subject. What is more, this is not a point left for negotiation and arrangement between the various individuals entering the relationship. It is a matter settled by the Word of God.

Christianity, while bringing us into relationships above the relationships of earth, does not set aside the natural relationships while we are still in the body. They were instituted by God, sanctioned by the Lord, and are to be respected by the Christian.

He asks what Moses commanded; they answer what Moses allowed — whereas our Lord shows how plainly it was because of their hard-heartedness that he wrote so. In truth, the law made nothing perfect. Not the Gospel only, but the beginning of creation bore witness to the true thought of God, who made them male and female. How admirably the Lord applies not only the fact of Genesis 1 but the words of Genesis 2:24!

Take a third instance. "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her" (Eph. 5:25). What happy Christian homes there would be if this standard were carried out.

The subjection of children to their parents is part of God's order as seen in nature... Christianity takes up the obligation, but transplants it from natural to divine ground. Thus the obligation of children, as of wives, is connected with "the Lord." It is not merely what nature dictates, though that is perfectly right; it is the acknowledgment of the Lord's claims as represented in the parents. The blessed Lord Himself, who "learned obedience," was the beautiful example of this.

Fathers are to be gentle, so that their children's affections may not be turned away from them, and so that they may not be pushed to look for happiness in the world when they ought to find it in the shelter of the home circle. God formed that home as a safeguard for those growing up in weakness — the precious home, if Christ is owned there, of kind affections, where the heart is trained in the ties God Himself has formed.

As individuals we own Christ as Lord, and the responsibilities of every relationship are to be carried out in the fear of the Lord. The wife is to be subject to her own husband "as to the Lord" (v. 22); children are to obey their parents "in the Lord" (Ephesians 6:1); fathers are to bring up their children in the "instruction of the Lord" (Ephesians 6:4); servants are to serve "as to the Lord" (Ephesians 6:7); and masters are to remember that they have a Master in heaven.

The Christian company is not only loved by the Lord; it is His command that they should love one another. As with the earlier marks, Christ is the perfect pattern of what He lays on His people, so this love to one another finds its perfect expression in Christ's love to His people. We are loved as He was loved; we are to obey as He obeyed; we are to rejoice with His joy, and to love one another as He loved us.

If there is a Christian on earth with whom you have a quarrel, forgive him, and do it at once. If there is one who tries and irritates you, show forbearance; put on toward him compassion, humility, meekness and patience; let love cover all your actions.

Scripture is plain that the associations we choose, the ones we cultivate for our own pleasure, should be Christian. "Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God" (James 4:4). Again: "Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers" (2 Cor. 6:14).

This commandment clearly springs out of the first. No one can have the ability and the inclination to treat his neighbour rightly unless he is first right in his relations with his God.