The third prong of godliness is reflecting God to others. This daily devotional reviews how we relate to others while we imitate God by loving and serving them.
To read devotions in the Redo for Godliness series, click the appropriate button below.
- The focus has to be on God and on others, not us. We renew ourselves by becoming more like Him and serving others (Renewing the Inward Person).
- Reasonable service should be equated with intentional. We need to choose to follow God with every fiber of our being (Transformed to Service and Worship).
Imitating God
- God’s priority is our spiritual condition, not our physical condition. He wants us to witness to others to expand His kingdom (Improving Our Discipleship through Right and Wrong).
- As we grow in godliness, we become the personification of God. Others can see God because we are reflecting His character (What Is the Power That Can Make Us Godly?).
- We are to open ourselves up to others. We need to let them in, and they need to see the real us. If we do that, they see the God we are imitating (Attributes of God: Loving).
- God wants us to support each other. That is especially true in our support of each other’s relationship with Him (How Are Disciples of Christ to be Merciful to Others?).
- We have to make daily choices to follow God. Unfortunately, sometimes we make the wrong choices. God will forgive us when we ask (The Morality of Good Report).
- Unlike the worldly hope, disciples can truly believe that the object of our hope is permanent. It will last throughout eternity (The Morality of Being Hopeful).
- We are to be the outward expression of God’s holiness because we were made to worship Him (Attributes of God: Holy).
- Religion on its own can’t save us. Church attendance — the ceremony and pageantry of it — means nothing without the personal relationship with God (Belief in the Christ of the Cross is Essential).
Ways to Relate
- Our inner character is shown through the decisions we make. Possibly one of the best ways to show that is in how we treat others. How we treat others either makes the situation peaceful or causes strife (The Morality of Being Lovely).
- We were created to interact with each other (The Law of Getting Along).
- Following the Golden Rule helps us treat other justly (The Morality of Being Just).
- We are also to be burdened with the sins of others. We are given our marching orders to help them see the need to confess their sins (Transformed to Love).
- We have to make sure we are doing the hate right. It says hate sin. It does not say hate the sinner (Transformed to Love).
- Pride means that the picture that we have of ourselves is faulty. It also usually means that the picture we have of others is also faulty. This stops us from fulfilling the second greatest commandment: love others (Guarding Our Hearts from Prideful Thoughts).
- God does expect our relationships with Him to be visible to others. They have to be able to see what we believe. But that stems from the inside and touches on the how aspect (How Do Morals Improve Our Discipleship?).
- For I was hungry for the Word of God and you introduced me to it and helped me understand.
- I was thirsty, and you took me to the well of Living Water and gave me drink.
- I was a stranger searching for God, and you welcomed me and guided me to find Him.
- I was naked, and you clothed me. “I rejoice greatly in the LORD, I exult in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation and wrapped me in a robe of righteousness …” (Isa. 61: 10 CSB).
- I was sick because sin is an illness, and you visited me with the cure.
- I was in prison because all sinners are prisoners to sin, and you came to tell me how to break out (Improving Our Discipleship through Right and Wrong).
- Disciples of Christ are to be known by their compassion. A major component of our religion must be mercy and compassion. We are to have compassion for the poor. We need to have the compassion to determine what they need from us and how we can point them to God (What Are Acts of Mercy?; Practicing Love; How Are Disciples of Christ to be Merciful to Others?).
- We can have compassion for others because of similar life experiences. Kindness is fueled by the desire to do good to others. Part of this fuel is our humility and our holding others in higher esteem than ourselves. Meekness and patience/longsuffering are related as both address self-control (What Are Acts of Mercy?).
- Judgment without mercy is not showing them compassion. It is showing moral superiority (How Are Disciples of Christ to be Merciful to Others?).
- God doesn’t want us to think we are superior to others — or consider others superior to us (How Are Disciples of Christ to be Merciful to Others?).
- Jesus drove home the point that disciples must be compassionate to all (Practicing Love).
- We are to treat those over whom we have authority as God would treat us. Bottom line is, regardless of their position in life, we are to treat others as equals. We start by giving others the respect they deserve as creations of God. We give them their due. But we are to go beyond that and love them (The Morality of Being Just).
- If mankind does not love mankind, the equity will not be there. The worldview definition of tolerance as love does not get down to the personal level. It stays on the action level. It can’t be a surface love (The Morality of Being Just).
- When we are describing our relationship with God to someone who we are witnessing to, we need to make sure we are being honest. We have to faithfully represent Who God is and what He has done for us. We damage our relationships with others when we lie (The Act of Standing Morally; Why Lying Is a Moralities Issue for Disciples of Christ).
- If we hold others with a higher esteem, we are more apt to share with them. That makes us less selfish (The Manner in which Disciples of Christ Are Merciful).
- We must act with mercy immediately when the situation requires (The Manner in which Disciples of Christ Are Merciful).
- We show our gratitude to God by being merciful to others (The Manner in which Disciples of Christ Are Merciful).
- Disciples are to disciple others mercifully when they sin. It is difficult to speak with someone else regarding their sins. We are to do it with gentleness and love (How Are Disciples of Christ to be Merciful to Others?).
- We should show mercy to all, regardless of how successful we believe they are (How Are Disciples of Christ to be Merciful to Others?).
- We are to show mercy to those who are enduring persecution (How Are Disciples of Christ to be Merciful to Others?).
- Considering the poor God’s way is going to start with our acceptance of God’s principles. We should supply the needs of others after we have ABCDed (God’s Blessings for Merciful Disciples of Christ).
- Our love stems from God. It doesn’t come from us. It definitely doesn’t come from this world (Transformed to Love).
- Loving God and others lead to eternal life. Loving our neighbor talks more of morals than affection (Learning about Love).
- Loving others should have the same emphasis as loving God — and loving God should have the same emphasis as loving others. If loving God and loving others leads to perfection, we have to embrace God’s love upon conversion and keep it at the forefront of our redo for godliness (Learning about Love; Attributes of God: Loving).
- Love is a distinguishing mark of our being disciples. It does have to be part of our character. God wants us to love all. We are to teach others about God’s love for us. It is expressed by considering others family. Love is expressed by holding others in high esteem. Living in harmony with others allows for God’s love to shine through (Are Disciples to Ignore Sin Because of Love?; Who Do We Please?; Transformed to Love; Transformed to Harmony).
- We are all the same. Regardless of our race and ethnicity, we are all children of Adam. We are one big family.
- Disciples are to love one another, especially our brothers and sisters in Christ, so that we can support them in their needs (Transformed to Harmony).
- It is easy to love people when they are lovable — i.e. fit into our expectations and beliefs. We need to love the hard to love people anyway (Transformed to Harmony).
- By being in constant communication with God, we are devoted to Him and serve Him and others. God calls us to serve Him by loving and encouraging others. Whatever way God chooses for us to serve Him must be holy (Transformed to Perfection; Transformed to Service and Worship).
- We think of God’s work as the missionaries, preachers — some full-time job. But what did Jesus say when He talked about separating the sheep and the goats? “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me” (Mt. 25: 35-36 ESV). Those don’t have to be full-time jobs. They don’t even have to be an everyday occurrence. The point is, when God puts someone in our path, we respond in His way in His name. We do it sincerely and promptly (Living the Life).
- We don’t know how long we will have the opportunity to serve. The opportunity may be available for a limited time. We may be facing death before we know it. God wants us to act when He calls (Living the Life).
- God wants us to be unified with others (Transformed to Harmony).
- We are to rejoice with others in their joy and encourage them in their hardships (Transformed to Harmony).
- We need to support and encourage others. In this way, we show them God (Transformed to Harmony).
- Having pride isn’t the way to go. God wants us to be humble and submissive to Him. We can’t think more highly of ourselves than we are. We have to acknowledge that, without a relationship with God, we are nothing. The submissive part means that we don’t sin and give Him the glory He deserves (Transformed to Harmony).
- If we look at the Sanctification Road as a continuum, we could be anywhere on our continuum. That means we could be either strong in our faith or weak. But others could be anywhere on their continuum, too. When we are at differing ends, it can be challenging at times (The Law of Unity).
- The problem is that people interpret Scriptures to mean different things. Some say abstinence is the way to go. Some say faith allows us to do whatever we want (The Law of Unity).
- We are not to give rise to contentious feelings among disciples (The Law of Unity).
- We can’t force someone to believe the same way that we do. We shouldn’t make our opinion of the law. This is especially true if it is over something trivial. We shouldn’t break our unity over something that, in comparison, is not important (The Law of Unity).
- None of us is going to know everything. We shouldn’t force our opinion on someone else when we can be wrong (The Law of Unity).
- We are not to judge those we consider are spiritually weaker than us. Though they are weak, they are still disciples (The Law of Unity).
- Sometimes, it is just as easy for the weak to judge the strong (The Law of Unity).
- God wants all of His children to be unified. Disciples should be patient with each other. We have to remember we are all still capable of sinning. We can still sin — and we will sin (The Law of Unity).
- A uniting factor should be our sincerity. We should each be genuine in our being a disciple of Christ. It should be our goal to do the do’s and not do the don’ts in order to grow our character to be like God’s. That alone should be a tie that binds us together (The Law of Unity).
- If Jesus accepts someone — we should, too. When we don’t accept them, we are using our standards, not God’s, on which to judge (The Law of Liberty).
- God wants us unified with His character. He wants us treating each other as if we were interacting with Him (The Law of Liberty).
Father God. You call us to love You, but You also call us to love others. Help us to portray Your love for others to worldview people to show them how much You have sacrificed for us. Amen.
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