PSALM 100:3 – Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.”
THEME OF THE DAY: REMEMBER HOW JESUS TREATS US. Allow me to start today’s nugget with a question that likely makes me not look very smart or observant, but here goes . . . “Are there, or have there been in your past, Christians in your life that just ‘rub you wrong’, caused you pain, been difficult to connect with, and frankly, just tempt or tempted you to be impatient, irritable, unkind, insensitive and critical toward them?” Now I want to add another question which I hope is not or has not been true of any of us . . . “Have we ever left a church over relational conflict or disagreement with other believers?” If so, with all due respect, we were wrong. There are few reasons to leave a church, and those two, relational conflict or disagreements are not on the list. But let me qualify something. If it is a theological disagreement of the fundamentals of the Gospel and clearly heresy, then leave. Fast. But in my twenty plus years of pastoral ministry, almost all departures from good churches are over disagreements in non-theological areas – like music, like style of worship, like not agreeing with leadership decisions, and like preferences not being followed. All these unbiblical reasons for leaving damage a church’s and Christian’s testimony for the power of the gospel to overcome all things.
But back to the main issue . . . and that in dealing with people. When tempted to be impatient, irritable, unkind, insensitive, and critical toward fellow sheep in the Lord’s pasture, immediately stop and remember how the Lord always treats us. Does He get impatient with us? No. Irritable? No. Unkind? Never. Insensitive? Impossible. Critical? Not in His nature. So when the temptation comes upon us to act in a manner unlike Jesus, get control of our emotions and refuse the temptation to mistreat fellow sheep in speech, attitude, thought or action. In not yielding to the temptation, we will avoid the need for confession and repentance of the sins that will follow if we do. Now, there are times treating those who have mistreated us, intentionally or not, as Jesus treats us is hard, very hard. It takes a lot of grace and the control of Christ’s love to respond in the right manner, but we may because of Christ in us. The power is there. The power must be used by us, by faith.
Basically, what we are talking about is being Christians among Christians, and the 19th century man of God, J. C. Ryle, offers us sound advice in our sheep-to-sheep relationships. He said, “Our Lord has many weak children in his family, many dull pupils in his school, many raw soldiers in his army, many lame sheep in His flock. Yet He bears with them all, and casts none away. Happy is the Christian who has learned to do likewise with his brethren.” May we do so with all sheep, yes, even the difficult ones. After all, we are probably a difficult sheep in the lives of other Christians too!.
PRAYER: “Father, forgive me when I treat people opposite the way You always treat me.”
QUOTE: “When tempted to mistreat people in word or attitude, stop and remember how Jesus treats us.”
In the affection of Christ Jesus,
Pastor Jim