The people of Judah believed that God was not being faithful to the covenant he had made with them, so they ceased to be faithful to the covenant that they made with him. They started to neglect worship and began to accommodate behaviours that were against God’s will. But God hadn’t forgotten them and was grieved by their assumption that he had. In a way, they were using God’s alleged neglect as an excuse to give up and do what they wanted. Commitment to God is what holds every other commitment in life together. It is the basis of our commitment to other people. To love other people is to recognise their infinite sacred value as children of God. Without this divine perspective human value is reduced to an ‘instrumental’ value: other people become valuable only as they are valuable to me and contribute to my happiness. True love, however, is an expression of worship to God. It therefore requires sacrifice. The more we sacrifice for another person the more our love expresses worship to God. But if you treat another person as a means to your happiness you will be loath to sacrifice anything. You might even sacrifice the relationship itself if it ceases to make you happy. This is one of the most expressed reasons for marriage breakups: “He/She doesn’t make me happy anymore.” God wants you to find joy in your relationships. But you cannot get joy from a relationship if you don’t take joy to it. And true joy comes from God alone. This is why your relationship with God is the key to make all other relationships work.
Reflect on how you can worship God sacrificially in your closest relationships.
Read Malachi 2:10-17
