Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. (Romans 12:10, ESV)
The casual golfer usually chooses whom they play with, but competitive golfers are paired with those who shoot the same score. At the collegiate level, the young women get excited or sometimes become frustrated at seeing who they get paired with from other teams. They have their friends and preferences of people they would prefer to play with, but it is not up to them!
Similarly, when it comes to our friends, family members or co-workers, we also have our preferences. Some people are a joy to be around; others can be hard to share even a few minutes with. Nonetheless, God’s Word does not mince words in commanding us to “love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.”
Really? Love one another with brotherly affection and outdo one another in showing honor? This is not what my flesh wants to do. Here’s my flesh’s “better plan”: Love those who love you, treat others the way you think they deserve, and get even with those who hurt you.
However, I am not God, and what God says is what we are to do! He is perfect, loving, just, gracious, and all-knowing. On the other hand, I am imperfect, self-serving, biased, unforgiving, and limited in knowledge. Not what I think, but what he commands is what I pray my heart desires to do and until that time, even if I don’t desire it, I pray for strength to obey in loving the people God puts in my life.
What else does the Bible say about how we are to treat fellow image bearers of God? In Luke 6 Jesus told his followers to love our enemies, do good to those who hate us, bless those who curse us, and pray for those who mistreat us! May our eyes and ears not grow blind and deaf at familiar passages, but may we heed what God’s Word is asking of us. We can choose to love, choose to do good, choose to bless, and choose to pray for people. How beautiful does our Savior look to others when we love and live like Christ loved and lived?
Jesus is our example of how Luke 6 should be enacted. He loved perfectly, always putting others above himself. He died for us, when we were enemies of God (Romans 5:10); he treated others with goodness, even when they did not deserve it (read the gospels!); he became a curse for us so that we could be blessed (Galatians 3:13-14); and he prayed for those who were persecuting him (Luke 23:34).
We will have a natural drawing to people that we readily click with, but my prayer and hope is that we would choose to love, do good, bless, and pray for people in our lives, especially those who are most difficult. As Jesus said, “If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same” (Luke 6:32-33).
No matter whom we get paired with on the golf course or in life, may we share the love of Christ with them in word and deed.
—
Aimee Neff
March 15, 2018
Copyright 2018 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.