OTHERS

Read Romans 15. 

If God is our Father, that makes all His children to be our brothers and sisters.  We are in the same family and are to relate to each other in love.

Those who are strong ought to bear with the tender souls of the weak.  “We then who are strong ought to bear with the scruples of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, leading to edification.” (Rom.15:1-2). We are not to drive the sheep like cattle, but lead them like lambs.  Those mature in faith are not meant to be arrogant and indifferent to the immature, but to lovingly lead them.  Our concern is to build others up in faith.

Those whom Christ has received need to be received into the church. “Therefore receive one another, just as Christ also received us, to the glory of God.” (v.7). The compassion of Christ has reached out to sinners with grace and mercy, and He has embraced us.  Even more, He has come to dwell in us.  When we receive others, we receive Him.  This, in turn, brings us into the purpose for which we have been redeemed—to glorify God. 

Those God has brought together in His family are meant to admonish one another. “Now I myself am confident concerning you, my brethren, that you also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another.” (v.14). To admonish is to inform and correct, or as some translations render it, “instruct.”  As we grow in moral goodness and Biblical knowledge, we are meant to help others do likewise.  Someone else in the body is always farther along than us and can instruct us, while someone else is behind us and we can instruct them.

Those in the church can be at peace through the presence of the Prince of Peace. “Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen.” (v.33). Here is the source of our unity.  The God of peace who has given us His peace can now enable us to abide in peace with one another in the church.

The Christian life is about others, not about me.

OUTLAWS OR IN-LAWS?

and Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, came with his sons and his wife to Moses in the wilderness, where he was encamped at the mountain of God.  (Exodus 18:5)

What is the difference between outlaws and in-laws?  Outlaws are wanted!  We laugh because it is too often true.  The real difficulties dealing with blood relatives may be even more immense in having a good relationships with those connected through marriage.  Exodus 18 shows the way to productive rather than painful relationships in family life.

ENJOY your family (v.1-6).  Jethro desires to see Moses.  We should find it a blessing to be around our kin, instead of a burden.  Love is a choice.  Jethro and Moses chose to love one another.  You’ve heard the old definition of mixed emotions?  Seeing your mother-in-law drive over a cliff in your new car!  That wasn’t true with my late mother-in-law, Louise Crayton.  She loved me like a son.  We enjoyed each other and now that she and husband Bob are in heaven, I still miss them so much!

Don’t ENVY other family (v.1).  Are we excited or envious when other family members succeed?  Jethro was thrilled over what God had done through his son-in-law.  Recall how Joseph’s brothers envied him (Gen.37) and wanted to kill him, setting off a chain reaction of heartache?  Thankfully, there was reconciliation in their relationship.  Can we celebrate the achievement of other relatives?

ESTABLISH your family (v.2-5).  Jethro brought his beloved daughter and precious grandsons to Moses.  He knew the Biblical command, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife…” (Gen.2:24).  We have to love enough to let go.  We cannot form secure bonds of love in marriage, until we loosen those with our parents.  It isn’t that we ever stop loving and honoring them, but that our priority becomes the establishment of our new home.  Parents can help or hinder that process. 

EDUCATE your family (v.3-4).  The names given to Moses’ sons were full of meaning.  They conveyed the Scriptural truth and testified to Moses experience that we are pilgrims in this world, and that to make it through we need God’s help.  As God had guided and guarded Moses, so He would be faithful to his sons.  Don’t leave the instruction of your children with the church.  We can support parents in teaching, but cannot supplant them!

EMBRACE your family (v.7). Their was a genuine affection expressed.  Make it a point to tell your family that you love them and hold them close.  There will come a time when distance—and ultimately death—will separate you.  Love them while you can.

EDIFY your family (v.8-27).  You can build each other up, or tear one another down.  Moses’ family was bound together in worship (v.8-12).  The family that prays together stays together.  They were bound together through wisdom (v.13-27).  Jethro is concerned for his son-in-law, but doesn’t come across as a know-it-all. The result would be that Moses would not be a “workaholic,” and damage his family relationships, as so often happens.  Be a loving in-law and not an outlaw!

CONNECTED THROUGH WORDS: Helpful Speech

 

 

Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.  And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. (Ephesians 4:29-30)

Our words should be honest.  But, they should also be helpful.  You can be brutally honest.  As a child I can remember having someone walk up to me and say, “You have big ears!”  They may be elephantine, but there is no value in sharing that assessment!  It is like the fellow who was asked by his wife, “Does this dress make me look fat?” who replied, “No, dear, it’s your hips that make you look that way.”  He then could see nothing because of his black and blue eyes, swollen shut from the punch she gave him!

We are to be honest—and helpful—in what we say.  Truth needs to be told, but we do not have to tell everything we know!  Someone may respond, “I’m transparent—I just say what I think!”  Perhaps you shouldn’t think things like that, when it comes to being demeaning about others.  If you allow that prickly attitude to be nurtured in the soil of your soul, then you aren’t likely to stick others with the thorns of hurtful talk.  The weeds of wicked words need to be uprooted at the source

Helpful speech is when GODLESS TALK IS SILENCED, “Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth” (Ephesians 4:29a).  Our hearts are corrupt—and out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.  That is where the corrupt language spews forth.  But, the child of God has a new heart—the Divine nature of Christ has been implanted by His indwelling Spirit.  The old, polluted fountain can be plugged by the Cross, and a fresh, flowing stream of life-giving waters can be spoken.  If the vileness of foul language is predominant, we should rightfully consider if the Cross has been applied!  Yet, even so, there is the possibility as long as we are in this world of sin, and inhabiting this body of death, that a trickle of corruption might leak out.  Beware lest a trickle become a torrent!  One of the first things I noticed about my new birth is that a new vocabulary developed.

Helpful speech is when GRACIOUS TALK IS SPOKEN, “what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.”  In contrast to godless talk that is harmful, gracious talk is helpful.  It is not enough to silence evil words, we must speak good words.  Jesus Christ has put grace in our hearts, but we are not to be reservoirs—we are to be rivers.  My life is to be a channel of blessing, and my words are often the pipeline dispensing that grace to others.  Just moments ago, I e-mailed a missionary we support, living in a distant and dangerous place, a brief word of encouragement.  It may be the sip of refreshing water that enables him to press on in a dry and barren wilderness of the pagan place where he ministers.  Gracious words build up—that is the meaning of “edification.”  Someone you know needs building up today!

Helpful speech is when GRIEVOUS TALK IS SHUNNED, “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.”  (Ephesians 4:30)  There are numerous ways that we can grieve the Holy Spirit, but surely sinful speech is meant in this context.  He is the Spirit of Truth who comes to build up His church, so if we speak in ways that are dishonest and divisive, that grieves Him.  He is faithful to seal us as God’s children—and He will not abandon us.  When our speech repels others from the fellowship, how it wounds the Spirit!  God’s Spirit sees what even the struggling saint will become in the day of redemption, and assures him or her of the end result.  When I am too busy picking our failures and magnifying flaws in my fellow church members, can I not see how that breaks the Spirit’s heart?  He is not a hoot owl, or a shrieking war eagle, but the Dove of Peace.  Words that disturb the peace of the believer and beat the drums of war among the people of God are grievous to Him!  That ought to grieve us and drive us to our knees in repentance and then rise and run into the arms of each other in reconciliation.

I am taking the time to share these words because they are helpful!  But, the potential aid of these truths will only become powerful as they are applied.  My prayer is that I will be an example of this with my family and to my flock.  I desire that as I encounter the lost souls in my world today that my words would be winsome that I may win some.

Is that your prayer?