Each other

DEVOTION

ROMANS

EACH OTHER

Rom 12:9-13

9 Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10 Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. 11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 13 Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality.

NIV

 And now we look at being devoted to one another in brotherly love and honor one another above yourselves. This is instruction as to how we are to behave as well as how we are to think regarding others in the body of Christ. There is a difference in our relationship within other believers than with the rest of the world. However, we are not confident the word devoted is totally the right chose for translating the Greek. Other translations use kindly affection and that seems to line up better with the meaning of the Greek word. However, it still would mean that with kindly affection love each other with brotherly love. Treat other believers as dear brothers and sisters. This would assume that in the nature family settings, brothers and sister have a kindly affection toward each other. Sometime in the natural family setting we find siblings may not have much affection for each other, yet as they say, blood is thicker than water. For the most part when it comes to family, we stick together, sticking up for each other. Even in cases of siblings having only one parent in common, there is a closest in the relationship that does not exist with none siblings. Yet this is the type of closeness we are supposed to have with others in the body of Christ. That seems nearly impossible in the post-modern church. It would seem totally impossible in those mega churches for the most part we do not even know every other believer. That might even happen in the smaller churches as we may only see each other on Sunday morning when we smile, shake hands, and then go our separate ways. There might be a few that we get to know a little bit more, like in a small group or Sunday school class. But still we do not spend much time, if any, outside of church developing deeper relationships. Maybe some do, but some are also more private individuals and do not share much of their personal life in any interactions with other believers. So, how do we be devoted, or have kindly affection toward other believers? What does that look like? We would think it would include never saying or thinking anything badly about them. Instead we would always see them as one of our own siblings, having the same parent in common. This common parent in the Lord God Almighty. We are all his children and as such should treat one another as loving siblings. This goes hand in glove with honor one another above ourselves. That should be how siblings are supposed to act toward each other. We know not all families may have that kind of relationship, but we believers do not have any other manner toward each other because we are instructed by God. If we do not prefer the other believer before ourselves then what would we call it? Sin! If we are selfish it is sin. If we behave poorly toward each other, sin. If we gossip about each other, sin. If we have do not forgive any offense, sin, If we harbor any ill feelings, envy, jealously, bitterness, it is sin. This kindly affection as a brother or sister and thinking of them before ourselves may be one of the more difficult ways to live. We say we are believers, but do we actually carry out all the instructions God has for us to live with each other? This would mean there would not be any division within the church. That is a hard pill to swallow, so to speak, because it seems that exists all too often, and churches split up because of some ill feelings within. It even happens in believing families, spouses dividing over ill feelings. it would seem the more intimate we are with each other the more we see the others faults and then it makes it more difficult to prefer them over ourselves. We have to put this to rest. It would appear we have no other choice but to love each other as Jesus loves us. It comes down to not looking at others to see if they are loving us, but to look at ourselves and see if we are loving them. We cannot judge them as to how they treat us, we must judge ourselves as to how we treat them.