SCRIPTURE:
“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
OBSERVATION:
Paul’s instructions to Timothy as a young Pastor and leader was essentially to treat all people as if they were his own family. He was to encourage older men as if they were his father, see younger men as brothers, older women as mothers and younger women as if they were his sisters.
APPLICATION:
I wonder what would happen in this world if we were to take on that approach. In every interaction we had with people, that we would treat them as our own. That we would treat them as if they were someone in our family. While it’s easy to love and treat people well who are nice to us, are we able to do it when others are not?
Over the years, there have been people in my life who have said and done things to me that the world would have easily cut ties with. The world would have said to sever all connections and just walk away. Yet, I know that is not what Christ calls us to do. While they were difficult conversations, I have always started them with this “I need to say this because I love you too much to let this go on.”
In my interactions with others, especially when it has to do with the tough conversations, when we can do so from a place of love, we can be sure that we are in fact doing as Paul calls Timothy to do here. God loved us too much to let us stay as we were (John 3:16). In everything I do, whether in speech or action, I must do so from a place of love.
PRAYER:
Father Almighty. Forgive me Lord for times when I have not done things from a place of love, choosing my pride instead. Thank You Lord for the call to love others as You have loved us. In all I do, may I do so from a place of love, this I pray, in Jesus’ name, Amen.
