Monday Reading: Philippians 2:1-4
Key Verse: Philippians 2:3
3 Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than themselves.
Devotion:
If there is any one things that we should learn from the observations of Christ’s human existence it should be that He loved everyone; He did not separate those that did not believe from those that believed when it came to showing His love and preaching. His compassion was for all of humankind and not just those that said that they would follow Him; and when He went to give His life on the cross, it was for everyone so that we all have the ability to accept Him as our Saviour – He did not leave anyone out.
We are reminded here by the apostle that we need to be like-minded; having the same focused love to all men. That does not exclude us from having best friends or from having partners because that in itself is a show of our affection to others. What it does exclude is leaving people out just because they don’t like you or you don’t like them. Let’s take a step back and think about why that is so – why do we not like them or they not like us? Does this not come back to the fact that we have judged them not to be fit for our love in some manner? Is it simply because we have cut them off because of something that we do not like? Is it because we don’t like something they have done? Who says we are right? Who says we have the right to judge them by our own standards?
Jesus had every right to judge others because He is the Son of God. He has every right to shut us out because we are sinners. Yet He is the one that has shown us by example how we should love those that we think are not good enough for us! He knew we were not good enough, but He continued in going forward to that cross out of choice – because of His love for us! Far too often we act on personal feelings of vanity, pride and greed or react to those same feelings. We trap ourselves by our own bad judgements done through trying to promote our own ways or thoughts! We need to put aside our own corruption and take on the perfection that Christ has laid before us.
Points to Ponder:
How often do you regret your actions?
How often do you still do things against God that He forgives?
