Tag: Positive human interaction

Individual Responsibility, Living in the Image of God

Individual Responsibility for Positive Human Interaction: Continuous Living

Living in the Image of God M04S10

Christ teaching regarding final judgment conveys a message of God’s purpose for human interactions in continuous living. He assigns responsibilities to every person as his representative among others and calls each person to seek to perform the responsibilities through their living and human interactions. He will accept into his kingdom those he judges as “performs their individual responsibilities” but will not accept those he judges as “declines their individual responsibilities.” He will judge a person based on how he sees their living and will not reveal the day or time of final judgment. Therefore, individual relationship with God requires a person to be committed to God’s purpose and seek to fulfill the purpose in continuous living and interactions with others.

M04S10 Individual Responsibility for Positive Human Interaction: Continuous Living 20:36

We discuss Christ teaching regarding God’s expectation of every person in everyday living and interactions with others. First, in the Sermon on the Mount, his teaching conveys a message regarding commitment to God’s purpose—that seeking to fulfill God’s purpose should be the only motivation for a person’s living and human interactions: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” [Matthew 5:8]. Second, his teaching on final judgment conveys a message of God’s purpose for human interactions in continuous living. God assigns individual responsibilities to every person, to represent him in human interactions with others, and will judge each person based on how he sees their living as they perform or decline to perform the responsibilities.

He calls every person to seek to perform the responsibilities as the only motivation for their living and human interactions. He will accept into his kingdom those he judges as people that perform their individual responsibilities in human interactions but not those he judges as people that decline theirs. Christ teaching regarding final judgment (Matthew 24:36–51) conveys a two-part message: first, that God will not reveal the day and time of final judgment and, second, he will judge every person based on their performing or declining their individual responsibilities in human interactions, as he sees their living. Therefore, individual relationship with God requires a person to be committed to God’s purpose and seek to fulfill the purpose in continuous living and human interactions.

We provide a two-part bible study to understand Christ teaching regarding continuous living and human interactions, under the title of Individual Responsibility for Positive Human Interaction. The first (current) study discusses his teaching in the Sermon on the Mount regarding commitment to God’s purpose and his teaching regarding the day and time of final judgment, to understand his message of continuous living and human interactions through individual responsibilities. In the second study, we summarize our understanding of the individual responsibilities based on previous studies in this program.

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Following God's Schedule

Following God Schedule by Living in His Image 2of2

Sermon on the Mount

The Sermon on the Mount provides guiding principles (The Beatitudes) and explains the essence of Living in the Image of God. The first three Beatitudes describe commitment to following God’s direction through humility and repentance in order to perform the responsibilities of representing him in human interactions. The third through eighth describe the value of humility, care and sensitivity to the needs of others, motivation for being good, and individual responsibilities in the pursuit of peace and righteousness. Further, Christ explains in the second part of the sermon that God creates every person with an intrinsic capability to be good to others and motivate and preserve their goodness. Similar to the intrinsic quality of salt to enhance and preserve the goodness of food. He expects every person to radiate positive impact in human interactions, similar to a light source radiating light, so that people may benefit and glorify God for each other.

Sermon on the Mount
The Sermon on the Mount wikipedia.org

The Sermon on the Mount [Matthew 5–7] was Christ’s formal teaching to explain God’s purpose for human interactions. He declared the guiding principles in The Beatitudes; described the essence of God’s purpose for human interactions using the Salt of the Earth imagery; and discussed several examples to explain God’s expectations in interactions among people.

Boy offers fish and bread
Boy offers fish and bread
LumoProject.com FreeBibleImages.org

As we discuss previously in Part 1 of this study (Following God Schedule by Living in His Image 1of2), God creates every person to represent him in interactions with others: to convey his presence and impact as if he was there physically in human form. Through formal teaching in the Sermon on the Mount and parables, physical examples, and interactions with his disciples and others during his human ministry, Christ provides guiding principles and describes the essence of Living in the Image of God—to fulfill God’s purpose for every person to be his representative (aka ambassador) in interactions with others. Those that live according to the principles will follow God’s Schedule and receive fulfillment of his promise. In contrast, those that depart from the principles will depart from the schedule.

We discuss the Sermon on the Mount to understand Living in the Image of God based on Christ teaching of the guiding principles in The Beatitudes and the essence in the Salt of the Earth teaching.

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The Gospel

Living in the Image of God: The Beatitudes

Christ’s Teaching on Positive Human Interaction

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The Beatitudes. wikipedia.org
The Beatitudes. wikipedia.org

We begin our study of Christ’s direct teaching with a two-part discussion of the Sermon on the Mount: Christ’s elaborate sermon recorded in Matthew 5–7. The sermon was a teaching on living in the image of God, which we have also described as “positive human interaction:” i.e., living and interacting with people for the purpose of representing God in everything we do and accomplishing the objectives for which he created us. The sermon consists of two parts. In the first part, he provides the principles of living in the image of God. In this study, we identify the principles as eight steps, which are described in the bible as the Beatitudes. In the second part, he describes specific examples of application of the principles.

THE BEATITUDES Part 1 of our two-part discussion focuses on the Beatitudes: the first part of the Sermon on the Mount. The Beatitudes describe eight steps (or principles) for living in the image of God. The first three Beatitudes describe human relationship with God, the third through eighth describe human interactions, with an overlap in the third Beatitude because it applies to both human relationship with God and human interactions.

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The Gospel

John the Baptist Message of Positive Human Interaction

Repent and Turn to Living in the Image of God

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The Sermon of St John the Baptist. wikipedia.org
The Sermon of St John the Baptist. wikipedia.org

The angel that foretold the birth of John the Baptist said of him [Luke 1:16–17]: “He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” We examine the message of John the Baptist in this bible study, to understand his approach to his mission and how his teaching applies to present-day human interaction. The state of human interaction as he saw it was dominated by predator-versus-prey type relationships, whereby people sought to cheat others if they could. He preached a message of repentance [Matthew 3:2; Luke 3:3], that people had to repent from the life of preying on each other and turn to God’s ways in order to be acceptable into God’s kingdom. We examine other parts of the Scripture to understand that “God’s ways” refers to a state of human interaction characterized by mutual provider-receiver relationships, in which every person is a conveyor of the image of God and a channel for God’s compassion.

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Uncategorized

Banking Blessings Example from Life of Joseph

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In a previous bible study (Banking Blessings through Positive Human Interactions) we learned about God’s promise to bless any person that provides selfless service to benefit others in need. This week we study an example from the wonderful testimony of the life of Joseph, the 11th son of Israel. An act of compassion that Joseph performed to two fellow inmates in jail triggered a sequence of events that culminated in grand blessing for him, the people of Egypt and their neighbors, and Joseph’s family in Canaan.

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Uncategorized

Banking Blessings through Positive Human Interactions

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God created every person with a blessings package, from which a person earns blessing by providing service to benefit other persons. When a need exists, God places someone in position to provide for the need. The chosen person may decline (like the priest or Levite in the Parable of the Good Samaritan) or obey by providing a fee or free service to address the need. If the service is for a fee, your reward is determined by commercial relationships. Additionally, you may earn blessing dependent on the service receiver’s feelings and faith. If the service is provided free and satisfies Matthew 6:1-4, then you will earn blessing according to Matthew 25:34-40.

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