Devotion #2: Honor Competition

“Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.” Romans 12:10 

I am a competitor. I have a competitive spirit within me. If I am going to play a game with you, I am in it to win it. It can be anything like ping pong, Euchre (this California boy has learned to play), Phase 10, basketball, relay games, miniature and real golf, bobbing for apples, or wrapping someone up with toilet paper to look like a mummy. If I am playing a game, I am playing to beat you. I always told my girls that when they finally beat me, if they do, they will earn it. Seriously, I never let them win in Candy Land or Chutes and Ladders. I am in it to win it! 

This can be a good thing and a bad thing. It is a blessing and a curse. This has helped me to be a driven person in life and accomplish some hard things, but it can also lead me to despair when I feel like I am not winning or when I fail. It can also lead to some hurt feelings when my competitive spirit gets the best of me and I forget I am the adult. It is not always about winning and losing. 

Paul has now shifted his writing to the Romans, focusing on how Jesus’ followers should respond to the great salvation that Jesus gives us. He has spent eleven previous chapters of this letter telling all of the great things that God has done and how salvation from God works. He calls us to offer our lives as living sacrifices to God, to worship Him, and to give all of ourselves to Him. 

Now, we are called to love each other and to be devoted to it. We are to outdo each other in honoring the other person. Basically, we are called to compete with each other in how we give honor to each other in the body of Christ. If two people get to the front door of the church, each person continually stands there saying, “No, after you.” “No! After you!” and no one gets to actually go in the building! Okay, maybe it is not that serious of a competition, but you get the idea. 

Jesus told us how the world around us would know that we are His disciples in John 13:35, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” 

The world around us is shaking. I write this devotion as my home state of California is on fire, and thousands are losing their homes. Often, the first thing that is heard from Christians is that God is judging Hollywood. Seriously? People are losing relationships over the smallest things. Families are being torn apart over political differences. 

Tell me, does the world around us see that we are following Jesus in how we love each other in the body of Christ? There is no way that we can love people around us if we cannot love each other well. Loving each other the way God has called us to could very well be the thing that helps people actually see Jesus. 

The world around us is hurting. There are people sitting next to us every Sunday that are in pain. Will you reach out and love that person with the love that God has shown you? Will you honor that person with your time, presence, and care? Will you seek to love others first rather than only seeking to get your own needs met? Will you love your neighbor as yourself? 

Let us all be in it to win it by loving each other well.