Mentoring Minutes

“Be kind and compassionate to one another…” Paul (Ephesians 4:32a NIV)

Love and Lordship in Focus…Look at the traits necessary to bear with others from last week’s post…Humility, gentleness and patience…all fruit of The Holy Spirit! Being kind and compassionate with others also requires The Holy Spirit…how are you doing when it comes to bearing with, and being kind and compassionate, to others?

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.

Food for Thought…Who do you need to show kindness and compassion to today? Those who deserve it because they are kind to you? What about those who are not kind to you? Jesus showed it to everyone and He is our model.

Love in Action –

1. Spend time with Him in His Word and prayer daily – read and study the Scriptures in this post as a way to start.
2. Ask The Holy Spirit to teach you.
3. How can you show kindness and compassion to those around you, even those who don’t always treat you well?
4. Find at least one person that you struggle with and begin today to treat them with kindness and compassion in word and deed.

Contact us at loveandlordship@gmail.com.

Love and Lordship Prayer Focus…Heavenly Father, forgive me when I reserve my kindness and compassion to those moments when it looks the best and requires the least. Forgive me when I fail to show kindness to others because they don’t show it to me. 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 they see Christ. In His Name. Amen.

“Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.” Paul (Ephesians 4:2 NIV)

Love and Lordship in Focus…Look at the traits necessary to bear with others…Humility, gentleness and patience…all fruit of The Holy Spirit! Being kind and compassionate with others also requires The Holy Spirit…how are you doing when it comes to bearing with, and being kind and compassionate, to others?

It just makes sense that how we treat “one another,” lovingly or unlovingly, reveals how we are walking with Christ as His disciples and His Church. So it follows that all the “one anothers” of Christian living and relationships come from Christ and in the letters to the churches and believers…and to us today as well.

Paul shares most of these “one anothers” and so we continue in His letter to the Ephesian church where he gives us a positive command but one that’s often difficult to follow through. As a matter of fact, as with all of these, the only way we can consistently follow through in love is by the power of The Holy Spirit. In

Ephesians 4:2 he encourages (and commands) us to “…Be completely humble and gentle, be patient, bearing with one another in love.”

In the King James Version it is said as follows, “With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;” If we’re honest with ourselves this is another “OUCH!” Let me go one step further as in the New Living Translation where it states, “make allowances for each other’s faults.” Yet another translation uses the word “tolerance.” This is not the tolerance of this age where you must agree with others or you’re not “tolerant.” This is true tolerance where we continue to be patient and bear with one another in love even when we disagree. OUCH again!

In my flesh I don’t care for the words “lowliness, meekness, longsuffering, forbearing or making allowances.” I can be patient and bear with others for a little while (I know that’s a contradiction but that’s how we often apply these words and commands in Scripture) but in my flesh “enough is enough.” It’s time to get with it and move on people.

As with every “one another,” in order for us to truly walk these out in our lives as Christ’s disciples and together as His Family, we must recognize and surrender to The Holy Spirit or our flesh will cut short any patience, longsuffering or forbearing with others. We must follow through on these in order to be more like Christ and show the world and culture His Love. In order to do so we must once again “die to our flesh.”

Food for Thought…When you claim to have patience and bear with others, how long does it usually last? Are you relying on your own flesh (maybe because in comparison with others you seem much more patient)…or are you relying on The Holy Spirit to give you grace and strength to “be patient and bear with one another in love?”  

Love in Action –

1. Read the Scriptures in this article and ask The Holy Spirit to teach you Who Jesus is.
2. What does it look like for you to cast your burdens on The Lord? Can you testify to how God has carried your burdens? 
3. Out of His love for us, how can we show that love to others? What patience do you need to carry the burdens of others?
4. How might carrying others’ burdens cause you to fall into temptation?

Love and Lordship Prayer Focus…Heavenly Father, thank You for forgiving me and in Your love for me carrying burdens that I am unable to carry. May I show Your love for me and others by helping to carry their burdens and I ask that You help me to develop more patience and also keep me from temptation and sin as I do so.  In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

“Bear one another’s burdens, and you will fulfill the law of Christ.“ (Galatians 6:2)

Love and Lordship in Focus…Christ’s Law is the Law of Love. We must first love God with all that we are and the overflow of that is love for our self that causes us to love just as Jesus did…giving ourself away to love and bear the burdens of others.

So after telling us to serve one another in love, stop biting and devouring each other, and to not become prideful, provocative and envious of others, Paul closes out his “one anothers” in Galatians 6:2 with this wonderful reminder of love…”Carry each other’s burdens…”

Remember, as we have just celebrated Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday, that Christ carried the greatest burdens that we could ever have…and that we could never get rid of on our own…sin, death and hell. We are to love as He loves us (John 13:34-35)! What does that look like?

May each of us be willing to reach out and lift the burdens of others through serving, giving, prayer and encouragement… however we are able and given opportunity and access to do so let us follow through. That may be simply listening and praying. It may be actually helping and serving with physical labor. It may be Godly counsel and mentoring and more.

However, be sure to heed the warning given right before the command to carry each other’s burdens…be careful that when you are helping to restore (part of burden bearing) that you don’t fall into temptation. Part of this burden bearing is reaching out to help restore those who’ve sinned while also being very careful that we don’t become prideful and fall into sin (Galatians 6:1).

I pray that we would cast all our burdens on Christ because He cares for us (1 Peter 5:7) and then look to Him to show us what burdens He wants us to help carry for others in His love for all of us and through us to one another.

Food for Thought…Burden bearing is a major part of God’s love for us and ours for one another. It is certainly not easy but as with every part of our obedience out of our love for Him it is worth it.  

Love in Action –

1. Read the Scriptures in this article and ask The Holy Spirit to teach you Who Jesus is.
2. What does it look like for you to cast your burdens on The Lord? Can you testify to how God has carried your burdens? 
3. Out of His love for us, how can we show that love to others? In what ways can you carry the burdens of others?
4. How might carrying others’ burdens cause you to fall into temptation?

Love and Lordship Prayer Focus…Heavenly Father, thank You for forgiving me and in Your love for me carrying burdens that I am unable to carry. May I show Your love for me and others by helping to carry their burdens and I ask that You keep me from temptation and sin as I do so.  In Jesus’ Name. Amen.