MARCH 5, 2015
Start
With Me
Let
each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests
of others. —Philippians 2:4
Read:
1
Corinthians 13:4-13
I call them Mell
Notes—little comments my daughter Melissa made in her Bible to help her apply a
passage to her life.
In Matthew
7, for instance, she had drawn a box around verses 1 and 2 that talk about not
judging others because, when you do, “with the measure you use, it will be
measured back to you.” Next to it she wrote this Mell Note: “Look at what you
are doing before you look at others.”
Melissa was
an “others-oriented” teen. She lived the words of Philippians 2:4. Her
classmate Matt, who knew her from church nursery through her final days in the
eleventh grade when she died in a car accident, said of Melissa at her memorial
service: “I don’t think I ever saw you without a smile or something that
brightened up people’s days.” Her friend Tara said this: “Thanks for being my
friend, even when no one else was as nice and cheerful as you.”
In a day in
which harsh judgment of others seems to be the rule, it’s good to remember that
love starts with us. The words of Paul come to mind: “Now abide faith, hope,
love, these three; but the greatest of these is love” (1 Cor. 13:13).
What a
difference we’ll make if, when we look at others, we say, “Love starts with
me.” And wouldn’t that be a great reflection of God’s love for us?
Lord, thank You for the great love You lavished on us when You
sent Your Son to die and be resurrected so that we could be with You eternally.
In response, help us to love others. Lord, we want to be like You.
Embracing God’s love for us is the key to
loving others.
INSIGHT: In 1 Corinthians 13 Paul is extolling the
value of love, but it is not just any kind of love. In Greek, there are a
variety of words for love that range in meaning from physical to fraternal.
Here, the word translated “love” is agape, which speaks of supreme love—the kind that
sacrifices itself for the one loved. This is the love God demonstrated for us
by giving His Son to pay the price for our sins (John 3:16; Rom. 5:8).
Source: Our Daily Bread 2012
