Power of 10 - Day 30

Dr Jim Brown's TruNorth Devotional
The POWER of 10
Day  30 | HOW TO TREAT ONE ANOTHER 
HOW TO TREAT ONE ANOTHER

Ephesians 4:32
“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other.”


Here, the Apostle Paul is teaching us how to treat one another in the church positively:  to be kind, compassionate, tender-hearted and quick to forgive one another.

But the verse right before this gives us the negatives to avoid:
“Stop being mean, bad-tempered, and angry. Quarreling, harsh words, and dislike of others should have no place in your lives.” (Ephesians 4:31, LB)

When raising our children, it fell on us, the parents, to teach the right and wrong ways to treat others, whether children or grown-ups. We tried to be consistent with our training and raised some fabulous (now adult) children of whom we are proud!

But as with all parents, it started with us.

Paul is the spiritual father of the church at Ephesus, to whom he wrote this letter. He is writing a personal, kind letter that includes both things to DO and things NOT to do.

One of the takeaways I get from this is that proper behavior from one to another is NOT necessarily automatic and is something we – even as adults – need to learn. Thus, one TERRIFIC reason for the Bible, aka the Word of God.

Consider for a minute those you talked to yesterday and today. How were those conversations? Which of the above verses would your conversations mostly be from verse 31 – “mean, bad-tempered, and angry” … or verse 32 – “kind and compassionate”?

Every day, we get to CHOOSE. We choose our words, our attitudes, and more. The Power to Choose is pretty fabulous for most. So, if Paul was talking to you today, which of these verses would he say you need to pay attention to?

Every day you open your Bible or read or listen to a devotional like this, you get to decide: am I going to be a DOER of this verse or do my own thing?

Prayer: LORD, help me remember this verse and strive to DO IT: be kind, compassionate, and forgiving, just like Jesus. Amen.
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