Yielding Not Grieving, 3/1/2023
/Romans 12:10
Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another;
Kindly affectioned
The concept that when the brothers saw the Cameo, they remembered their mom correlated to the concept that when believers see another believer it should remind them about the Lamb, because the Lamb shed His blood for my brother or sister in the Lord.
Maybe that illustration doesn’t dig deep enough, so let’s try this. The brother or sister in the Lord belongs to God right? I’m talking about a saved person, and whatever interaction you have with them, you imagine, well, “I’m blessed and highly favored of the Lord.” Okay, yeah, but they’re not? Come on man, get off your high horse and quit thinking you’re the darling of heaven. God wants this person ministered to, not destroyed!
So many people are full of the lusts of the flesh in their hearts but they ignore their stuff and focus on how bad other people’s stuff is and then feel better about themselves. We better let God search our hearts church. So maybe here is a better illustration to help us understand what God may feel in all of this when He tells us to be kindly affectioned to cherish our brother.
We gossip and slander and lie on our taxes and we’re critical about others and we’re self righteous. And maybe we wound a brother or sister in the Lord. It’s maybe the self righteous way we said things. It’s the way we made them feel less then. Whatever we did, I don’t care whether we meant to. I don’t care whether they overreacted. It doesn’t matter—they were wounded. Something is about to happen to this child of God and we weren’t part of the solution, we were part of the problem, and God is grieved!
She’s wounded and ventures away from the Lord. You’re not thinking about her anymore. She’s been gone for 10 years. You forgot about her, but her daddy thinks about her all the time. She was his little girl. She hasn’t called in a while. Last he heard she had fallen into a life of addiction and things got even worse. She started selling herself to pay for the habit. Daddy tries to not think about it but he grieves and he prays and he asks God to intervene. At times he has joy at others he hurts.
One day she returns to town, “Dad, I’m home now (prodigal son…), God brought me home, and I have to tell you that He showed me that it wasn’t anyone’s fault. I understand that now that God has revealed His love to me. It’s just that the way all the Christians in my life growing up acted and treated me, I couldn’t see the Lord. What they said was right, but the way that they said it was wrong. They probably didn’t mean to, but it caused confusion.
The devil used it to offend me. No-one means to do it but they do, and the devil uses it. God dealt with me one night a month ago, and He showed me this, and He told me to come home and tell you and forgive you because you did it too dad, but can I please come home, He said He would heal me daddy please I’m sorry, can I come home?”
Imagine the heartache and pain that would cause you if you thought that someone had done that to your child. Now, imagine that you hurt a brother or sister in the Lord. You just shrug it off as, “They’re too easily offended, but hold on a second. You don’t even care that you offended God’s daughter, God’s son. You didn’t even consider how your attitude or your tone of voice could have made them feel unwelcome and now they’re gone. They have pulled away from the presence of the Lord. Your heart is hard. You know that you did something, but it’s not really that big of a deal to you, and this grieves the Holy Spirit, and
God weeps. He weeps, because your heart is too hard to even realize that it’s a big deal. He weeps because a sister or brother in the Lord was offended. He hoped He could trust you. If your heart was softer, you would feel conviction. You would say you were sorry and more importantly, you would pray and ask God to draw them back.
Honor
g5092. τιμή timē; from 5099; a value, i.e. money paid, or (concretely and collectively) valuables; by analogy, esteem (especially of the highest degree), or the dignity itself: — honor, precious, price, some.
AV (43) - honour 35, price 8, sum 1, precious 1;
Valuing the price fixed. This means that I recognize the value affixed by God towards Valuing the price fixed. This means that I recognize the value affixed by God towards my brother or sister in Christ! What is that value? The life of Jesus-- what does that even mean to us? What it means to me is that in the Father’s eyes ______________ is worth the life of Jesus. Psalm 133 tells us tha it’s a beautiful thing when brothers in unity dwell
Preferring one another
g4285. προηγέομαι proēgeomai; from 4253 and 2233; to lead the way for others, i.e. show deference: — prefer.
AV (1) - prefer 1;
to go before and show the way, to go before and lead, to go before as a leader
e it stirs, I will roll out that way and stop them, every time they beat you they come from that direction, so I will roll out and stop them, and then you can get your healing.”
Defer, prefer-- “Please you go first!”
Imagine the story a little differently, just to make a point at the pool of Bethesda. Let’s just pretend for a second for the purposes of teaching the concept of preferring your brother or sister greater than yourself, and what we will imagine is the the Lame man had a friend who was also lame, and he said, ‘I have a plan-- the next time you jump into the pool first.’
‘Wait what,” the lame man responds, “What about you, what about your healing?” The Lord spoke to me last night in prayer and he showed me that if I would quit thinking so much about myself and love you this way, then He would send what I need.”
Corinth: 1 Corinthians 4:6
6 I have applied all these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brothers, that you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up in favor of one against another (chapter 11–selfishness in communion) vs (Acts 2:45_47 & Acts 4:32-35)