Cherishing and Honoring

 DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS

CHERISHING AND HONORING

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

Now that we have looked at loving, hating, and clinging, we need to ponder on this idea of being devoted to one another in brotherly love, alone with honoring one another above ourselves, which seems to go together. First, we need to see this as the Philadelphia love, which is the way we cherish each other as brothers and sisters in the Lord. It would seem to us that if we did indeed cherish each other there would be absolutely no striving or envy, jealousy, or judgmentalism which would include gossip of any kind. All those plus more internal feelings are harm-causing which is the complete opposite of cherishing. It is interesting the Greek word translated here as cherish, filostorgos, has this meaning of affection love, prone to love, or loving tenderly. As we examine this word, it appears to have a similar prefix of filo, which is from the phila prefix of this brotherly love, yet storgos, although is not actually used alone within the scriptures is the type of love between spouses. This is why together this word carries this affectionate love concept. Once again, if we cherished, or affectionately loved each other, we would never do any harm in any way whatsoever to each other, nor would we have any feelings, secret or shared regarding another believer. This seems almost too difficult to live out within the mixture of personalities that make up the local church. We have heard, and perhaps even said that we love them, but that does not mean we have to like them. How is that thinking correct in any way? If we cherish those others within the body of Christ, then we would exhibit an affectionate love toward them, and how could we do that if we did not like them, or like their personality, especially if it appears they are definitely not exhibiting any kind of affection love toward us or that they honor us above themselves. But then again, we are looking at how they treat us, rather than how we are required to treat them. Paul is not saying that we should cherish others, only if they cherish us, that we should honor them only if they are honoring us. There is still one more thought that we should explore, or at least consider, and that is if another believer says something to us, which is not honoring or showing any affectionate love at all regarding another believer, what are we supposed to do. How do we respond? Would it be appropriate to correct them, bringing their attention to this portion of the scripture that tells us to cherish and honor others? Would that be cherishing them and honoring them above ourselves? Still, the point is directed at our heart and mind and if there is going to be affectionate love and honoring other believers before ourselves, then it must start with us.