"Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works.”
I woke up this morning with the word “consideration” running through my mind. I figured that God wanted me to write about it this morning, which I am obviously doing. It occurred to me that we are becoming an increasingly inconsiderate society. This inconsideration bleeds over into the church. The writer of Hebrews even detected this problem and reminded his reader to be considerate. If you wish to be a considerate person, you need to think about someone besides yourself. Now that I think about it, I have been praying for myself about this very thing. I want the Lord to instill in me a desire to always be considerate of other people. That is the least that we can do to be witnesses for Jesus. (You notice that with the “we” I added you to this thing.) To be considerate is a biblical command. We need to be careful what we say to people. Going back to my younger days, I remember that I would make cutting remarks. After awhile it finally got through to me that words can hurt people. Even before she was my wife, my late wife, Mary, used to tell me that what I thought was a “cute remark” was taken seriously by other people. I had to learn to be considerate in what I said. To this day, I remind myself of this. When you speak to someone, be considerate. We need to be careful that we do not let other people’s inconsiderateness get to us and cause us to be inconsiderate to them as well. We need to remember that we represent Jesus by what we say and do. When you feel like chewing out that rude clerk --- DON’T! That is just one example of what I mean, but I think that you understand that it reaches into all areas of our encounters with people. What is the aim of being considerate? “Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works.” Here is the NIV translation: “And let us consider how we may spur one another to love and good works.” Consideration is contagious. (Inconsideration is also contagious.) Think of what a witness your church could be if the members provoked, or spurred, each other to love and good works. Isn’t that the basic call of the people of God? Has what you said and did around people in your daily life, and in your church fellowship recently spurred people to love and good works? What about you preacher? What about you deacon? What about you Sunday School teacher? What about you choir member? What about you usher? What about you............etc.? I think you get the point. Let’s make it a point to “provoke unto love and good works.” Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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September 2021
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