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Friday, September 12th, 2008

Verse of the Day and my thoughts on it - September 12th, 2008

“[Suffering for Doing Good] Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble.”- 1 Peter 3:8

This verse speaks volumes in one very short passage. This verse speaks exactly of what Christians are called to be to the world, and to each other. A Christian should not be a divisive person, though they should stand their ground in what they believe and call on others to follow Christ. But regardless a Christian is respectable to all peoples, as they are all God’s children and that is something we need to honor as well, no matter the specific view of that person on whatever issue.

Obviously we need to love each other and lift other Christians up. It can be hard to be a Christian in the world without the support of other people of the same faith and belief, that is why the Bible calls on us to go to church, to gather, to discuss Him, but more importantly to lift up one another and help out our brothers & sisters in Christ.

And obviously, compassion and humbleness are two of the characteristics that Jesus Christ demonstrated most as He walked this Earth. The compassion of God is not a respecter of persons. It differentiates between the sin that is in man, of man and that man creates (as a result of the vile work of Satan and the disobedience of Adam and Eve) and the person himself, who has an eternal soul and spirit that will live on for eternity. As such, it’s our calling to show compassion and be sympathetic to every person, even those who commit evil deeds. We are supposed to pray for them, and to do what we can to spread the gospel of Christ. Because the world won’t hear without a preacher, and in the end justice is the Lord’s and they will get their due in the end.

I’m reminded of a Demon Hunter verse that says, “Broken. Or so you say. Nobody bought that fable anyway. So calloused, and so naïve, to wear a heart of fiction on your sleeve. Bury every sign of life in filth and hollow trend, and push against progression on the path of logic’s end; like tears flowing upward.” To me that is how a lot of non-believers believe towards God and things of Christianity. They either cry out that they are broken and need help, but then refuse it when it comes to accepting Christ, or they flat-out are against it and “push against progression on the path of logic’s end”. They use their “thinking skills” to come to the conclusion that they don’t need God.

But that’s where compassion really must kick in. Even to those that reject God, you can show them what real faith and life in Christ is like by shining it from yourself. A real Christian doesn’t even have to say a word about God, all they have to do is be “Christ-like” and believe me, people will notice. As for me personally, everyone at work knew I was a Christian and I didn’t even have to say it. In fact, I constantly got comments that I was “too nice” or “too happy”, but it was obvious that my co-workers envied it in a lot of ways.

And that leads to the last characteristic, we need to be humble. Don’t boast, don’t show off, if you are right, don’t brag, etc. People get so much of that in the world, that they will notice someone who shows these characteristics. In fact, you’ll stick out like a sore thumb. And that is EXACTLY what Christians need to be doing.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 12th, 2008 at 10:59 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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