Be Kind and Compassionate to One Another
“Be kind and compassionate to one another…” Paul (Ephesians 4:32a NIV)
Love and Lordship in Focus (this is the focus for L&L LIVE) Being kind and compassionate with others requires The Holy Spirit…how are you doing when it comes to being kind and compassionate to others, especially to those who are not kind and compassionate to you?
Paul continues to the believers in Ephesus with more powerful “one anothers”. We find a couple of them in Ephesians 4:32 (one today and another next week) where he commands them to “Be kind and compassionate to one another…”
If you’ve followed L&L very long you know that the context of the Jewish culture in which the Bible was predominantly written, these words were given not just as advice or suggestions (as we tend to take them today, unfortunately). They were given and received as commands that were to be followed if you truly loved The Lord and others. They were totally about our love for Him and others rather than whether or not those who received them agreed with them and/or were comfortable following through.
We need to take seriously, even when it costs us, what each of these “one anothers” means and be just as serious about following through and living them out with others. It’s usually easy to be kind and compassionate to those who offer the same to you. However, we can often take those closest to us…spouse, children, family, church family…for granted and fail to follow through with kindness and compassion to them.
It is usually easiest to treat those in the middle (superficial relationships that are rooted in momentary conversations and times together) while failing to build deeper relationships and/or taking advantage of the closer relationships we do have.
On the other end of the spectrum, how are you doing in offering kindness and compassion to those who don’t treat you in kind? Jesus modeled and taught that we are to love all of our fellow human beings…from our spouse and family to those who can, nor will ever, repay us…even to our enemies (Matthew 5:43-48). While this “one another” is certainly first and foremost to believers and how we treat other believers and those closest to us. It then also moves beyond to fulfill all the law of love as we are kind and compassionate as Christ was, even to our enemies.
Who do you need to show kindness and compassion to today?
Food for Thought…Is Your kindness and compassion only for those who show you the same…or is it like Christ’s compassion for you and me even when we don’t deserve it?
Love in Action –
- Spend time with Him in His Word and prayer daily – read and study the Scriptures in this post as a way to start.
- Ask The Holy Spirit to teach you.
- What does Christ’s compassion and kindness toward you look like?
- Find at least one person that you struggle with and begin today to treat them with kindness and compassion in word and deed.
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Love and Lordship Prayer Focus…Heavenly Father, help me to bear with and make allowances for others in my life as You and so many have done for me. Forgive me when I reserve my kindness and compassion to those moments when it looks the best and requires the least. Help me to be obedient to these “one another” commands, first with those closest to me, then to all believers and finally, even to those who don’t treat me in this way, including any enemies. In doing so may I point them to Christ. In His Name. Amen.