Bible League: Living His Word Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another;Jesus said, "'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself'" (Matthew 22:37-38). In our verse for today, the Apostle Paul gets more specific with respect to how we should love our neighbors. With respect to those neighbors who are also fellow members of the Christian community, our love should be "brotherly love." Put more inclusively, our love should be like the love between the siblings of a family. Since members of the Christian community are children of God and members of God's family (I John 3:1-2), the love they express to one another should be like family love. It is not, of course, identical to natural family love, but it should be like it. As a result, this brotherly or sibling love, Paul tells us, should be "kindly affectionate." It should have the same strength, warmth, and tenderheartedness as the love siblings have for one another. It should be a bond that is not easily broken, just as the bond between siblings is not easily broken. Further, the sibling love of the Christian community should be love that is willing to honor the other members of the family. Human beings in general deserve a certain amount of honor, simply because they have been made in the image of God. Human beings who have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb deserve even greater honor, on the other hand, because they have also been included in God's family. Since God Himself is willing to honor them in this way, we should also honor them accordingly. One way that siblings can give honor is by giving preference to one another. To give preference is to let others have the best, or let them go first. Paul also said, "Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself" (Philippians 2:3). This kind of humble preference-giving was exemplified in a profound way by Abraham when he gave Lot the choice of land to settle (Genesis 13:9). Today and every day, then, let us exhibit the kind of Christian family love that honors by giving preference to one another. Bible in a Year Old Testament ReadingPsalm 10, 11, 12 Psalm 10 -- Why do you stand far off, O Lord? NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Psalm 11 -- In the Lord I take refuge NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Psalm 12 -- Help, O Lord; for the godly man ceases NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB New Testament Reading Acts 17:16-34 Acts 17 -- Paul at Thessalonica, Berea and Athens NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Reading Plan Courtesy of Christian Classics Etherial Library. Tyndale Life Application Daily Devotion If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but are yourself lost or destroyed?Insight Nothing material can compensate for the loss of eternal life. Jesus' disciples are not to use their lives on earth for their own pleasure—they should spend their lives serving God and people. Challenge If this present life is most important to you, you will do everything you can to protect it. You will not want to do anything that might endanger your safety, health, or comfort. By contrast, if following Jesus is most important, you may find yourself in unsafe, unhealthy, and uncomfortable places. You will risk death, but you will not fear it because you know that Jesus will raise you to eternal life. Morning and Evening by Spurgeon Jonah 4:9 God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry?Anger is not always or necessarily sinful, but it has such a tendency to run wild that whenever it displays itself, we should be quick to question its character, with this enquiry, "Doest thou well to be angry?" It may be that we can answer, "YES." Very frequently anger is the madman's firebrand, but sometimes it is Elijah's fire from heaven. We do well when we are angry with sin, because of the wrong which it commits against our good and gracious God; or with ourselves because we remain so foolish after so much divine instruction; or with others when the sole cause of anger is the evil which they do. He who is not angry at transgression becomes a partaker in it. Sin is a loathsome and hateful thing, and no renewed heart can patiently endure it. God himself is angry with the wicked every day, and it is written in His Word, "Ye that love the Lord, hate evil." Far more frequently it is to be feared that our anger is not commendable or even justifiable, and then we must answer, "NO." Why should we be fretful with children, passionate with servants, and wrathful with companions? Is such anger honorable to our Christian profession, or glorifying to God? Is it not the old evil heart seeking to gain dominion, and should we not resist it with all the might of our newborn nature? Many professors give way to temper as though it were useless to attempt resistance; but let the believer remember that he must be a conqueror in every point, or else he cannot be crowned. If we cannot control our tempers, what has grace done for us? Some one told Mr. Jay that grace was often grafted on a crab-stump. "Yes," said he, "but the fruit will not be crabs." We must not make natural infirmity an excuse for sin, but we must fly to the cross and pray the Lord to crucify our tempers, and renew us in gentleness and meekness after His own image. Daily Light on the Daily Path 2 Timothy 1:12 For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day.Romans 8:38,39 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, • nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. John 17:12 "While I was with them, I was keeping them in Your name which You have given Me; and I guarded them and not one of them perished but the son of perdition, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled. Psalm 149:4 For the LORD takes pleasure in His people; He will beautify the afflicted ones with salvation. Proverbs 8:31 Rejoicing in the world, His earth, And having my delight in the sons of men. Ephesians 2:4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, John 15:13 "Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. 1 Corinthians 6:20 For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body. Romans 14:8 for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord's. New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. All rights reserved. For Permission to Quote Information visit http://www.lockman.org. |
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