Loving Jesus Style

  Scripture: Romans 13:13-14 (NIV) Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh. Devotion: There's a particular honesty that comes with daylight. Things done in the dark — words spoken in a drunken haze, appetites indulged where no one's watching, grudges nursed in secret — rarely survive the sun's exposure. Paul knows this, and he uses it to press his readers to decide. Paul has just said, in the verse before this one, that "the night is nearly over; the day is almost here" (v. 12). The point isn't a vague call to "be your best self." It's that the new day has already dawned in Christ's resurrection, and believers are told to dress—and live—like people who know it. Acting in line with the coming day, before it...

Scripture: 2 Corinthians 5:14-15 (NIV) For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. Devotion: Every life runs on some engine of motivation — fear, ambition, the need to be needed, the fear of being forgotten. Paul names his own engine plainly, and it isn't any of these. "Compels" translates the Greek synechei — a word with real physical weight. It's used elsewhere in the New Testament for a crowd pressing in on Jesus from every side (Luke 8:45), for a fever gripping a sick man (Luke 4:38), for a traveler hemmed in on a narrow road with no way to turn aside (Luke 19:43). Paul isn't describing a gentle nudge of sentiment. He's describing something that has closed in on him from every direction and left him nowhere else to go. For Paul, Christ's love isn't a fe...

Scripture: Proverbs 21:21 (NIV) Whoever pursues righteousness and love finds life, prosperity, and honor. Devotion: We spend our lives chasing something. Security, applause, comfort, the next promotion — the approval that always seems to sit just out of reach. Solomon, who chased more than most men ever will and found most of it hollow (see Ecclesiastes), leaves us this quiet, almost startling promise: The verb matters here. "Pursues" translates the Hebrew radaph — the word for a hunter tracking game, an army chasing down a fleeing enemy. It's not a leisurely stroll toward virtue; it's the language of someone who has decided righteousness is worth running after with everything they have. Proverbs never imagines goodness as something that simply happens to a person. It's chased. And notice what's chased: not righteousness alone, but righteousness paired with chesed — the rich Hebrew word variously translated "kindness," "steadfast l...

Scripture: 1 Peter 2:9-10 (NIV) But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Devotion: There's a peculiar ache in not belonging — in wondering if you're anyone at all to anyone who matters. Peter writes to scattered, suffering Christians who knew that ache well: exiles, strangers, easy to overlook. And into that ache he speaks one of the most breathtaking descriptions of the church anywhere in Scripture. Every phrase here is borrowed. Peter is lifting language God once used for Israel at Sinai (Exodus 19:5–6) and for the redeemed remnant in Isaiah, and laying it, without apology, on ordinary believers — fishermen and slaves and homemakers scattered across Asia Minor. This isn't a downgrade of Israe...

Scripture: Romans 8:1-2 (NIV) Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. Devotion: There are few passages in Scripture that speak with the clarity, finality, and comfort of Romans 8:1–2. Paul writes to believers who know their weakness all too well—Christians who feel the weight of their failures and wonder whether God’s patience has run thin. Into that fear, Paul declares a truth so strong it silences every accusation: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Not less condemnation. Not delayed condemnation. No condemnation. The verdict has already been rendered, and no one can overturn it. Paul wants the church to understand that this is not wishful thinking or emotional reassurance. It is a legal reality grounded in Christ's finished work. To be “in Christ Jesus” means to be united to Him by ...

  Scripture: Galatians 6:2 (NIV) 2 Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. Devotion: Christians as a people should be a people who share one another’s burdens. Not only the physical burdens but spiritual ones too. Each and every one of us carries some kind of burden. Whether it's a private grief, an unseen emotional burden, or some hidden pressure. The call of the Christian is to love your brother or sister in the Lord and to be there for them. Being a Christian means never walking alone. The word bear means to “lift, carry, shoulder” what is heavy for someone else. We must remember that everyone carries a burden of some kind. Some have been carrying the same burden for years. There are no perfect saints who live without something weighing them down. Common burdens in our modern society are: grief, anxiety, finances, family conflict, and spiritual discouragement. Paul is not addressing the light, easy burdens we each must bear alo...