Hey everyone I’m Gary Hoban and welcome to Refinery Life Church.

This week we continue our series titled “The book of Colossians”

A devotional study of the Bible, chapter by chapter and verse by verse, has the potential for bringing great blessings into the lives of those who participate.

These messages from Colossians will take us from now through to the end of the year on Thursday nights.

Today we are talking about Principles For Personal Relationships.

One of the greatest problems is the problem of personal relationships, getting along with other people.

We live in relationships with others and not as isolated individuals.

The terms we use to describe people are usually terms take from our social relationships.

We say a person is kind or harsh, warm or cold, honest or corrupt, sweet or sour.

All of these descriptions indicate how people behave or react to other people.

Does Christianity have anything to do with our personal relationships?

Indeed, it does.

The gospel of Christ has a practical application in the lives of believers.

Sometimes people make a distinction between theology or belief and social concern or activity.

This is a false distinction.

What we believe is going to determine how we act.

Paul had already expressed this in general principles in the earlier verses of Colossians 3.

He had shown us some things we should strip from our lives and some things we should add to our lives.

This passage applies these principles to specific needs.

And this application is made at the point of one of our greatest needs, our domestic relationships.

The real question of Christianity is not, “What does Christianity make a person within the church?”

But “What does Christianity make a person in the home, in the office, at the school, at the factory, on the ocean, or in the bush?”

This is exactly what Paul was doing here, showing the relationship of Christian living to some very practical areas of our lives.