Outdo One Another In This...

In what should we try to outdo one another?

Many people try to outdo other people in one thing or another. Sibling rivalry is exceedingly common in families. Students at school try to get ahead by getting better grades, excelling in sports, or becoming more popular. Workers compete to get promotions. Politicians seek to get more votes to get elected.

However in the Body of Christ there is (or should be) more emphasis on loving and serving one another than competing with one another. Just like in a human body, things go much better when both eyes look in the same direction and when neither foot tries to get too far ahead of the other.

Nevertheless there is a benefit for members of the Body of Christ to compete with one another in one area. Paul wrote about it in the second half of Romans 12:10:

Romans 12:10  ...Outdo one another in showing honor.  ESV

Outdo one another in showing honor. The NIV translation renders it "Honor one another above yourselves." The Greek conveys the meaning of taking the lead in honoring others. Doing so isn't easy for us, but that never stops God from requiring it because it is what is right. It is humbling to honor others rather than seek to get others to honor us. As it happens, that is a good thing because "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble." (James 4:6)

If a person is to excel in any activity he or she needs become committed to it. For believers that should mean praying for God's help, and giving thought to what God has said in Scripture that can assist them to do what is required. God doesn't expect us to depend on our own strength and determination. He knows how weak we are and knows we need Him to accomplish what He commands us to do. He even gives us the faith to believe and do what He says is true and right.

So let's give thought to God wanting us to outdo each other in showing honor. Let's think about how doing so will please our Lord. Let's consider what it will be like when the Holy Spirit enables us to do better at honoring others. Then let's do it. Then do it again. And again.

How shall we honor others in ways that please God? Well, doing things for them and with them in a humble manner. Checking Scripture for instructions on both our attitudes and actions, and not getting ourselves all puffed up when we do a few things Biblically.

Honoring others does not mean always agreeing with others about everything they say and do, but it does mean that when correcting or rebuking is necessary that it be done without a "I'm better than you are" kind of attitude.

I hope all of us in the Body of Christ will seek God's help in obeying the call to outdo one another in showing honor. Let's go to it!

What Kind of Love Should Abound?

Philippians 1:9-11  And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment,  (10)  so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ,  (11)  filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.  ESV.  

God has much to say to us about love in the Bible. The two great commandments are to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, and to love our neighbor as our self. (Mark 12:30-31)  It also says that "Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love" (1 John 4:8)

Jesus gave His disciples the highest standard of love that could ever be given. He told them to love one another just as He had loved them. And He told that by their loving one another people would know they were His disciples.(John 13:34-34)

Although we cannot love as perfectly as Jesus, we should be so thankful for how He loved us in going to the Cross and enduring the wrath of His Father in our place that we should seek to do whatever he enables us to please Him and express love to Him and others.

Of course not everything that people call "love" is what God means by love. In the name of "love" there is adultery, fornication, and the tolerance and acceptance of many other things that offend the one true holy God. In order to love in ways that actually please God we need to see what He says in His Word.

In Paul's letter to the Philippians quoted above, he not only prayed that their love would abound more and more, but that their love would be with knowledge and discernment. Only by gaining the knowledge that God has given us in the Bible can we properly discern what expressions of love are godly and which are not.

The love that God wants us to have is not what may feel good to us. It is not necessarily what we or other people consider to be acceptable expressions of love. God's love is perfect. God's love is excellent. When He teaches and enables to love His way we can know it is excellent. Abounding more and more in loving God's way can help us be pure and blameless as we progress toward the day of Christ.

Jesus is altogether righteous. He loves purely and perfectly. We don't have to settle for loving with corrupt motives and methods. We can turn to Him and to His Word and He can fill us with the fruit of righteousness that will help our love to grow in ways that will truly be to the praise and glory of God.