Transactional or Relational?

A lot of our connections and interactions in our modern day are transactional:  I pay for goods or a service, and the other party responds by providing it.  I bring stocked items to an associate, I pay money and then the items become mine.  People come to my door asking me to support a charity by contributing money they will use to further their aims.  What is never discussed is I will be placed on a mailing list that will likely endure long beyond my natural life.  The depth of our involvement with people is strictly transactional until we make things personal.  First we recognise an associate, begin calling them by name, or engage in conversation about something more significant than the weather.

It is entirely possible, because of modern society and personal desire, that we can dumb down the relationship God desires to have with us to one of merely a transactional nature.  Many adopt a formulaic approach to avoiding future judgment and receiving blessing from God.  Man's focus can be primarily on what we hope to obtain or for God to do what we want rather than Who God is, what He has done and freely given.  Want to go to heaven?  Believe on the LORD Jesus and you will be saved.  We want sins forgiven or help?  We need only repent and ask God.  When Simon saw the Holy Spirit was given by the laying on of hands, he foolishly offered money to Peter for the ability to do this too--like a party trick.  It does not seem Simon was interested to be baptised with the Holy Spirit himself, but he wanted the power the apostles had for himself.  He had a transactional mindset.

Rarely is our transactional tendency this blatant.  We can be more subtle, using Bible passages to support our desires.  Acts 2:46-47 describes the activity of the early church:  "So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, ⁴⁷ praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved."  People can read this passage as a biblical pattern of church growth:  if we practice what the early church did, the LORD will cause the church to grow.  A transactional view seizes upon this as a formula for church success, but a relational view sees it as simply describing fellowship of genuine followers of Jesus Christ.  People were born again by faith in Jesus and filled with the Holy Spirit.  They continued to worship God united by faith in Christ in the temple daily, shared meals together, were grateful to God for His provision, praised God and were of good reputation.  The lives of these people who knew Jesus as LORD produced a crop of new believers who also walked by faith in Jesus.  This is not a "to do" list but things genuine Christians do to this day, for God created sheep to beget sheep.

Some people might be content to just receive benefits or "get free stuff" from God, but His desires is for us to willingly enter into a relationship with Him founded on His love.  We love Him because He first loved us, and our love is not to be shallow as the world loves--feeling of loyalty or affection towards people because they have been kind or generous to us--which is transactional and based on them meeting or exceeding our expectations.  This can be a reason people who at one time profess Jesus Christ as LORD willfully depart from Him.  They feel God has not delivered on the benefits or blessings they hoped to receive by now--like someone who receives poor customer service and leaves a scathing 1-star review because a zero-star review is not possible.  Knowing we have been specially chosen and called into a loving relationship with the living God is the most amazing, satisfying life because He is awesome.  Praise the LORD Jesus unites us, provides our daily bread spiritually and physically, gives gladness, humility, simplicity and grace.  Having a loving relationship with Jesus changes us forever.