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Do This, Don’t Do That When Teaching on Relationships

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Having healthy relationships matters for us as believers so teaching on relationships should be part of our classroom agenda. We might include this topic as part of our curriculum but it is also something taught informally by the way we interact and the kind of environment we foster.

When teaching on relationships, do emphasize love as the top criteria for healthy relationships.

When Teaching on Relationships Emphasize Love as the Top Criteria
Since Jesus identified love as the greatest commandments (Matt. 22:36-40), surely it must be critical to healthy relationships. Jesus used Himself as a pattern for how we should love one another (Jn. 15:12).

We’re to “be devoted to one another in love” (Rom. 12:10). And, “above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins” (1 Pet. 4:8). All the one another commands of Scripture are rooted in love. We won’t relate in those ways if we don’t love one another.

Love is so important that without it, anything we say becomes like “a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal” and we “gain nothing” by any good we might do if not done in love (1 Cor. 13:1-3). Love is so important that a whole chapter in Scripture describes what love looks like. These qualities in 1 Corinthians 13 are what we need to make relationships work. Love is so important that it’s an identifying mark of us being a follower of Jesus (Jn. 13:34-35).

Don’t teach one thing about relating with others and then treat students contrary to that.

Jesus was able to tell His disciples to “love each other as I have loved you” (Jn. 15:12) because He lived it. Do our lives demonstrate what we’re teaching students to do?

If we want students to “be devoted to one another in love” (Rom. 12:10), then lets make sure we’re willing to invest into their lives rather than simply do what’s convenient, easy, or least time consuming for us. Loving in this way takes sacrifice and commitment.

If we want students to relate with patience, kindness, humility, and all the other qualities in 1 Corinthians 13, then lets make sure the way we react to wrong answers, how we discipline, etc., demonstrate those qualities.

Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (Jn. 15:13). Are we making an investment into the lives of our students or do we merely show up to teach a lesson. The Apostle Paul told the Thessalonians, “Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well” (1 Thess. 2:8). If we said that to our students, would they believe us?

Resource: Does your heart beat with the love of God? Worksheet

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