Scripture: Romans 12:10 (ESV) "Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor."
Devotion:
We continue the quick-fire applications Paul gives in Romans 12. Today he deals with how we treat each other in as church members. How should we treat other Christians? Paul’s answer is both simple and really hard at the same time.
On the one hand it is simple, because he says “Love one another with brotherly affection”. That’s simple right? Many of us grew up in a family with siblings and so we instantly know what it means to have affection for a sibling. We are to treat each other as family, because that is ultimately what we are. We are people, who by the virtue of our adoption into God’s family, have become brothers and sisters. Therefore we are to treat each other as family.
Simple.
But how well do we actually treat our family? Most people treat others far better than we treat our families. When a child visits a friend’s house for dinner, they are polite and say please and thank you and “oh that was delicious” even though they didn’t like it. When they are home, they say “Mum, not to be rude, but I didn’t really like the cheesy gloop you made”. (Actual quote…) The point is, we don’t often treat our families the best.
Part of the reason for this is that our families are meant to be safe places. We know we have to accept one another, we don’t actually have a choice in the matter, because we are bonded by blood. That is the hard part of being a Christian. You are bonded to every other believer by Jesus’ blood. It means we have no choice in the matter, we have to accept our brothers and sisters in Christ as our brothers and sisters. It doesn’t matter what they have done to us, whether we like them right now or not, or whether they are living up to the standard God requires of his people. They are blood, and so they need to be loved as such.
So how do we do it? How could we possibly love like this in a world that teaches us to look out for number one? To write off the people who stand in our way? To move on from other people once we fall “out of love” with them?
We do this by following Jesus. He lived out this kind of love perfectly. He showed us what it means to love others with a pure heart, putting their interests even above His own. When He washed His disciples' feet, He was doing much more than cleaning off some dirt, He was showing the utmost honour to those around Him.
And if our Lord could do that, shouldn’t we also?
Prayer:
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