The Word To Live By: 7-27-26
Phil Waggoner
Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. Ephesians 4:32
The Word To Live By: Scripture has a lot to say about the way we treat people. If we have been saved by God and shown the mercy and goodness of God by Him, then we should show mercy and goodness to other people. What you believe will determine how you act. Personally, without the mercy, grace and goodness of God, I wouldn’t be where I am today enjoying my life. Without the instructions of the Bible, I would be a nervous, worried (as my daughter would say), “A hot mess.” As we have received freely from God, we should also extend that grace and mercy to others. This idea is spread across the New Testament. “Dear friends, since God so loved us, we ought to love one another,” (1 John 4:11). “All of you, be like-minded, sympathetic. Love one another, be compassionate, just as your father in heaven is compassionate to you,” (Luke 6:36). Compassionate means feeling deep sympathy, concern and a genuine desire to relieve the suffering or hardship of others. Not just understanding another person’s pain (empathy), but being actively motivated to help and show kindness. Showing other people compassion is one of the primary ways that we can communicate God’s love to other people. If we fail to love others (and by love I mean unconditional love), we also fail to show them God’s love. Paul also says we should forgive other people in our lives, just as we have been forgiven by Jesus (again, unconditionally). Forgiveness and compassion go together. When we don’t forgive others, we fail to show them the same compassion Jesus has shown us. Remember what the last words of Jesus were as He hung on the cross, “Father forgive them - they don’t know what they are doing.” We should be careful that we don’t deny others the same love we have been given. Today is a great day to forgive and show the love of God to someone in your life who doesn’t deserve it.
Read through the Bible in a year: 1 Corinthians 13; 2 Kings 7:3-20; Jonah 2;
Read through the New Testament and Proverbs: Proverbs 27, Matthew 14:1-18, Acts 27:
The sum of Thy Word is Truth Psalm 119:160