Happy Tuesday Saints.
As we saw yesterday, we have complete control over how we treat others. Our treatment of other people doesn’t have to be determined by their actions or their behaviour towards us.
We can treat others, not according to their behaviour or their status, but according to how Christ wants us to treat them.
Part of our spiritual maturity is learning how to treat others respectfully, despite their treatment of us. We can still remain cool, calm, and peaceful, even when others lose their composure and behave poorly.
Philippians 2:3-5 tells us to “DO NOTHING OUT OF SELFISH AMBITION OR VAIN CONCEIT, RATHER, IN HUMILITY VALUE OTHERS BETTER THAN YOURSELVES, NOT LOOKING TO YOUR OWN INTERESTS BUT EACH OF YOU TO THE INTERESTS OF OTHERS. IN YOUR RELATIONSHIPS WITH ONE ANOTHER, HAVE THE SAME MINDSET AS CHRIST JESUS.”
Pride and selfishness cause us to mistreat others. Today’s passage says to “VALUE OTHERS” better than ourselves.
Because of “VAIN CONCEIT, pride doesn’t “VALUE” others. And people tend to mistreat and act harshly towards those that they don’t value. When someone has an elevated and puffed up view of their own importance, they mistreat others because they see other people as beneath them.
The key to controlling how we speak to others and to treating EVERYONE the same, is to “VALUE OTHERS BETTER THAN YOURSELVES.”
Whatever we value, appreciate and esteem, we treat carefully. We handle expensive items very differently from the way we handle cheap things. People are not commodities and they are certainly more valuable than things. If we can VALUE others better than ourselves and esteem them in our hearts – we can treat EVERYONE with respect and consideration.
Be the bigger person and let the love of God inside your heart inspire you to treat EVERYONE with kindness and respect today.
Have an awesome day. God bless and lots’a love,
Warren
