Poverty: Broken Relationship With Others

Matthew 22:35-40 Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” 

One of Zambia’s biggest problems is poverty. Any NGO or service operation will tell you this. We all know this. Nobody can say any differently, because we can all look around and see poverty. And we can see poverty in our own lives. The West would like you to think that poverty is all about money, or the lack of money. They say that all you need is money, which will solve your poverty problems. 

The problem with this approach is that it never addresses the root cause of poverty. Nor does it define poverty in any way other than financial. In this series, we have been looking at poverty in a far deeper way. Poverty is rooted in broken relationship. We know from Jesus’ words that the greatest commandment is to ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ Broken relationship with God is the first root cause of poverty. Last week we looked at the second great commandment: Love your neighbor as yourself.’ But we didn’t look at loving neighbor, as you might have expected. The second root cause of poverty is a broken relationship with yourself.

Today we will look at the third root cause of poverty: A broken relationship with others. In Romans 12:18, Paul writes If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. I love that he puts in those qualifying statements. He doesn’t just say live at peace with everyone. He recognizes that sometimes it isn’t possible. Sometimes there’s nothing you can do. Because relationships with others are sometimes irrevocably broken.

Our relationship with others has been broken since Adam and Eve sinned against God. In Genesis 3, when God asked them about what they’d done, what did Adam say? Instead of accepting his responsibility, he immediately blamed Eve (and God). “The woman you put here with me — she gave me some fruit and I ate.” (Genesis 3:12). God’s punishment for the woman included this “Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.” (Genesis 3:16b) 

Instead of being equals, now the relationship is broken. Further down in Genesis 11:1-9 we see  Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar (Babylon) and settled there. They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar.  Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the earth.”

But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing is impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand one another.” So the Lord scattered them from there all over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel — because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

So you can see that the basis of our broken relationship with one another goes back to the beginning. And this broken relationship is a root cause of poverty. Look at it. Instead of working together, now we are confused and we work against one another. Here in Africa, we’re supposed to have this concept called Ubuntu. I am because we are. But do we really experience this? Not really. When someone starts to succeed, everyone else tries to bring them down. “You’re nothing. What makes you think you are so much better?” 

I don’t think I need to go into great detail to show that our relationships with others are broken. Some of Jesus’ words demonstrate just how broken these relationships are and how that causes poverty in us. Listen to these words from his Sermon on the Mount: Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God. Matthew 5:9

This presupposes the fact that we won’t get along. That we will have broken relationships. Otherwise there is no need for peacemakers. Jesus knows that relationships are broken, but he says that those of us who restore and reconcile broken relationships will be called Sons of God. This is to say that we are adopted into God’s family as full members, as those who would receive an inheritance.

This peacemaking ministry is described by Paul in different terms in 2 Corinthians 5:18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. How do we make reconciliation? How do we make peace? 

First, we must recognize that relationships are indeed broken. Sometimes we pretend like everything is fine when it isn’t. When our relationships have been broken, it is our duty to recognize and admit it. We will never restore broken relationship if we do not acknowledge the brokenness. The next part is to admit our blame. Sometimes relationships are broken because of what we did. Remember Romans 12:18? If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. But we recognize that we haven’t. In fact, in our prayer of confession we acknowledge that we have failed to love our neighbor as ourselves. So if those issues stem from what you have done, it’s your responsibility to seek forgiveness and, if possible, reconciliation.

What about when others have wronged you? This is honestly a bigger topic than one sermon will allow, but extending forgiveness is a major key. Many times we hold a grudge. Holding a grudge and withholding forgiveness is like drinking poison and hoping the other person dies from it. It will never help us to withhold forgiveness. Forgiving is not about how deserving the other person is — it’s the degree of freedom we want in our lives.

Truly, however, what we need is the Holy Spirit to fill us. The Fruit of the Spirit, in other words, what naturally grows from having the Holy Spirit in your life, the Fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Listen to those — how many of those traits will help you get along with others? How many will help you restore broken relationships? 

Many times we pastors urge you to work harder to develop these traits. Work harder to love people. Work harder to be kind and good and gentle. Work harder to find self-control. I have even been guilty of this myself. Preaching sermons saying, “just work harder.”  This is not the Gospel message at all! If you’re growing a garden, sure, you keep it watered and weeded, but how much hard work will actually make the fruit come out? It is called Fruit of the Spirit for a reason! 

Our role in this is to work with the Spirit. To practice the Fruit as the Spirit fills us. It is impossible to love our neighbor on our own, especially to love our enemy, as Jesus instructs us. But with God, all things are possible. And we will experience shalom.