What do relationships teach us about God's goodness?

What do you think about when you think of God’s goodness? Do you picture the beauty of a snow-capped mountain or a hillside covered with blooming flowers? Do you think of the joy of tasting good food or listening to waves crash against the shore? Perhaps God’s moral purity is the first thing that comes to mind when you consider His goodness.

Indeed, God’s overflowing goodness, generosity, and wisdom are seen all around us. But one aspect of His goodness that we may not consider as often as we should is the gift of human relationships. Friendship, marriage, family, and the church are all part of God’s good design—meant to reflect His nature and to spread His goodness throughout the world. But what exactly do relationships teach us about God’s goodness?

Relationships create an environment in which God’s goodness is both experienced and expressed. Let’s reflect on how this happens in friendships, marriage, family, and the church:

• Deep friendships reflect God’s goodness by teaching us about unconditional love, loyalty, trust, and encouragement.

• Marriage teaches us about covenant love, faithfulness, and mutual service, mirroring Christ and the church.

• The family unit reflects God’s goodness through nurture, discipline, and fatherly affection.

• The church reflects His goodness through unity in diversity, mutual care, service, and edification.

God often accomplishes His purposes in our lives through others. He frequently dispenses His grace through the words, presence, correction, comfort, and love of His people.

Yet relationships are also where we most feel the effects of sin. From the beginning, sin has fractured our relational world. In the garden, when Adam ate the forbidden fruit, the consequences rippled outward: his relationship with God was severed, his relationship with Eve was strained, and even his relationship with creation was cursed. Instead of the ground yielding its fruit to Adam, it began to produce thorns and thistles. Sin disrupts relationships on all three dimensions—with God, with others, and with creation.

But God, in His mercy, did not leave us in this fractured state. In Christ, each of these relationships is being restored.

When we receive and rest upon Christ alone for salvation, we are declared righteous and have peace with God (Rom. 5:1). Through His death and resurrection, Christ reconciles us not only to the Father but also to one another. The gospel forms a new humanity (Eph. 2:15–16), where former divisions—Jew and Gentile, male and female—are overcome, and all are united in Him. The gospel doesn’t just save individuals; it creates a new community, marked by love and holiness (Col. 3:12–14).

God’s design for relationships is both for our good and His glory. Christian relationships reflect the love of Christ to one another and to a watching world. They also serve as a means of our sanctification. Through relationships, God teaches us patience, forgiveness, humility, and joy.

As we saw Sunday, God has created us for communion with Him and others, not isolation. In Christ, a new community is formed. He restores what was once broken, and by His Spirit, He empowers us to live in love.

In a world increasingly marked by isolation, confusion, and division, the church becomes a powerful witness to God’s goodness when His people live in grace-filled, Christ-centered relationships.