Weekly Devotion no 50
18 June 2021
Bible reading – 1 Peter 3:8-9, 17-18[1]
8 Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble. 9 Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.
17 For it is better,
if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. 18 For
Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring
you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit.
Reflection
The interesting thing about being sympathetic is that it’s hard to do if you’re focussing on yourself. To show sympathy, we need to identify ourselves with the pain and sorrow of others. To be sympathetic we need to love others and show compassion and humility. If we’re focussed on ourself, it’s easy to retaliate when someone hurts us. It’s easy to get into a tit for tat situation, feeling that the other person deserves the equivalent of what they’re dishing out to us. But Peter encourages us not to focus on ourselves, but to care for others, that instead of giving people what we think they deserve in response to their hurtful actions, we should seek to bless them.
This is hard to do on our own and we will often get this wrong. It is only really possible to do if Christ reigns in our heart. And it is possible because ultimately we know that only God is the judge and he will judge all actions. But he sees us through the righteousness of Jesus and so we need not fear. We, like Christ, are alive in the Spirit, in the presence of God. And we will inherit the blessing that is seeing the face of God.
So, as we find
ourselves maybe short in temper, irritated, or with heightened frustrations due
to not being able to see our loved ones, let us not take out our emotions on
those around us day to day, but seek to give these emotions to God, who will help
us to love those around us and have compassion for them. Let us pray for those with whom we live and
for those who care for us, that we might show the love of Christ to all and
that God would continue to transform us into his likeness. And may we be
assured of our relationship with God, secured for us once and for all by
Christ, the righteous one.
Hymn
Verse 1
Love divine, all loves excelling,
joy of heav’n, to earth come down,
fix in us thy humble dwelling,
all thy faithful mercies crown.
Jesus, thou art all compassion,
pure, unbounded love thou art.
Visit us with thy salvation;
enter ev'ry trembling heart.
Verse 2
Come, Almighty, to
deliver,
let us all thy life receive.
Suddenly return, and never,
nevermore thy temples leave.
Thee we would be always blessing,
serve thee as thy hosts above,
pray, and praise thee without ceasing,
glory in thy perfect love.
Verse 3
Finish, then, thy new
creation;
pure and spotless let us be.
Let us see thy great salvation
perfectly restored in thee.
Changed from glory into glory,
till in heav’n we take our place,
till we cast our crowns before thee,
lost in wonder, love and praise.
Prayer
Gracious
God,
we who
were baptised into Christ Jesus
were
baptised into his death:
we pray
that, as you raised him from death,
so by
the power of the Holy Spirit
we may
live the new life to your glory,
knowing
ourselves to be dead in sin
but
alive for you in Jesus Christ;
who
lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one
God, now and for ever. Amen.
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