Be devoted to one another in love
Romans 12:10 “Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.”
People usually talk about and focus on love on Valentine’s Day. Our Bible verse for this week is part of a portion of the Bible which speaks about how we as Christians are to show love all the time and in all circumstances.
Think about how for many people love is a very fickle and fluctuating idea. One moment people can be all nice and kind – saying and trying to show how they love each other. The next moment they are cursing and screaming at each other and love is the last thing on their minds.
With such a seeming unstable commodity as love can be, how can we possibly carry out the encouragement of our Bible verse for this week – “Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.”?
Doing something which God asks us to do requires that we look to God first instead of doing what so often happens – following the ways, ideas and opinions of the world.
If we look at the second part of this week’s Bible verse “Honor one another above yourselves.”, we can better understand how to carry out the first part of it. How often do we think of other people before ourselves? Just listen for an hour or so to many people’s conversation and you’ll quickly realize how often people use words like “I” and “me”. Think for a moment about how many arguments and disagreements often come about because something didn’t go our way or someone stepped on our ego or our selfish desires were not fulfilled.
Remember how God not only said “Honor one another above yourselves.”, but showed us what that truly means as he gave us his Son as our Savior. God was not concerned first and foremost about his Son, Jesus. Instead God’s love was, is and always has been first and foremost about us. If God had been concerned about honoring his Son, he wouldn’t have asked him to come to this sinful earth and then die on the cross to pay for our sins. If it was all about Jesus, God would have spared him the humiliation and let him stay in heaven.
So how often do we truly “Honor one another above yourselves.”? If we are honest about it, we often do whatever we can to save ourselves the pain and embarrassment and willingly embarrass and hurt those whom we say we love.
God forgive us for the ways we have miserably failed to honor and love those whom we say we are devoted to: our spouse, our family, our friends, our coworkers and others! Look to the cross and be assured that God will always honor and be devoted to you. At the cross and through God’s Word, the Bible, find the strength and power to work to be devoted to those around you in love and rid of the “I” and “me” in your vocabulary and work to honor others above yourself!
All of this is great guidance for us as we seek to carry out the mission of The Lutheran Home Association and “share Christ’s love as we serve the spiritual, physical, intellectual and emotional needs of those entrusted to our care and others whose lives we touch”.