Love and purity

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ^©

Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father. Treat younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity.
(1 Timothy 5:1-2 (NIV))

Purity!

If we could only fulfill this simple command!

All too often we treat each other in ways that are less than desirable. We treat older men as if they are senile and foolish. We treat younger men as if they are not worth anything. We treat older women as if they didn’t matter. We treat younger women as objects. All of this is because of the way that society has taught us to look at people. Whether we like to admit it, we stereotype people.

What if Jesus had stereotyped people? What if He claimed that He did not need to go to the cross because no one was intelligent enough to make the connection between the prophecies and His life? What if Jesus had been stereotypical when it came to Saul? He could have easily looked at Saul and made the claim that Saul was a typical holier-than-thou person and would never change.

To put it simply, we need to treat each other with the respect, kindness and love that we would expect in return. There is a saying that Jesus loves each of us too much to leave us as we are. With this in mind, we need to respect the work in progress that God is doing within each other. You may be surprised at the calling that God is placing on that young man with the funny looking hair. You may be amazed at the spiritual warfare that nice older lady has been involved in. You may be caught off guard by the witness a young lady has on those around her, and you may be completely startled to learn that the older man who drives slowly is driving that way so that he may pray for those whom he passes.

Learn to look at people with the eyes of Jesus. Look at others as God is maturing them – with the love and purity that He has placed in their hearts and in yours.

Copyright 1998 – 2012 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
Subscribe to daily email delivery