Throughout man’s sordid history, people have mocked, rejected, and forsaken the Lord. They have chosen to look to gods that cannot save or help.
People in the world are generally quite self-centered. Even saved people are often lovers of their own selves instead of preferring one another.
Everything in the Christian life is dependent upon prayer. Thankfully, we serve a God who hears, answers, and has respect unto prayer.
In establishing His covenant with Israel, God promised them He would have respect unto them, make them fruitful, and multiply them.
Although there are times where God respects some while rejecting others, God’s acceptance of one and rejection of another is never a baseless respect.
Men tend to fret over the motives behind others’ actions. Instead, men should trust the Lord to deal with the motives at the judgment seat of Christ.
The world is driven by self-preservation and self-promotion. Individually, the natural man is guided by self-serving motives. This should not be true of saints.
One must choose his reward for actions taken. Would he rather receive eternal reward from God the Father, or temporary praise and recognition from his peers?
According to the Bible, before a man trusts Christ as Saviour, he remains the enemy of God (Romans 5:10; Colossians 1:21). But God, in His great mercy, saves His enemies as they individually choose to trust in Christ’s payment for their sins. Though a Christian has the indwelling Spirit, he never fully comprehends all that the Lord has done for him through salvation. This is why the Bible says that God’s love passes all knowledge (Ephesians 3:19). However, the more a man draws nigh to God, the more he learns about the kindness God has shown him through Jesus Christ. No matter how we learn in this life, eternity will continue to reveal to the saints the depths of the kindness of God. No wonder the greatness and marvellous nature of His love is truly beyond comprehension.
Our previous studies revealed that the word kind is connected to a term suggesting family relationships. Therefore, today’s passage associating kindly with brotherly love makes perfect sense. The book of Romans instructs believers to be “kindly affectioned one to another.” By being kindly affectioned, believers will naturally exhibit “brotherly love” toward each other. The Bible reveals God as the Christian’s Father. This relationship indicates that each believer is related as a part of the same family, the family of God. How should family members treat other family members? The context of today’s passage reveals that believers should prefer others before themselves (Romans 12:10), distribute to the necessities of other saints (Romans 12:13), and give themselves to hospitality (Romans 12:13). In other words, believers should treat other believers as members of one’s family. As many Christians soon find out, the relationships enjoyed between fellow believers will frequently be closer than those enjoyed with blood relatives.
