It seems that we often operate in relationships according to preconcieved ideas about how certain relationship is culturally defined, and thus deprive ourselves a great freedom to be found in Christ. A friend is only a friend, a brother is only a brother.

We do so out of fear, I believe, of having something on our hands that we cannot identify. Sometimes this is simply sound wisdom–desire to be transparent and not have our words and actions missinterpreted. Other times it can be stiffling.

In the body of Christ I see potential for relationships which, while retaining godly boundaries, also have a freedom to recieve whatever may be given, even if such the gift does not fit conventional definition of the given relationship. Case in point: David and Johnathan; friends? brothers? Or the opposite; perhaps one may have a relationship which does not ostensibly enjoy all or most of the benefits that relationships of that kind usually share–and yet this itself may be a source of peace and contentment. Case in point: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.” Hate is love? Love expressed as hate? Whatever Christ is describing here (which I continue to put a lot of thought into) it certainly is something that leads to blessedness as Christ’s disciple, and it is completely foreign to the respective definitions of worldly relationships.

Perhaps both of these things are brought about in various relationships in the body of Christ by a certain open-handedness, that is, a spirit of repentence that sees nothing as belonging to me, as I merit nothing, and everything to be a gift–insofar as it is given and not claimed–to be recieved with gladness as an expression of grace, but not sought after as the object of one’s desire. For there is one object and one goal in this life and the next: to “hold fast to the Head, through which the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments grows with a growth that is from God;” thus, the dynamic and otherwise ‘undefined’ relationships in the body of Christ.