Serve and Honor

KEY VERSE: “We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let every one of us please his neighbor for his good to edification.” —Romans 15:1,2

SELECTED SCRIPTURE: Romans 15:1-13

OUR KEY VERSE gives us an important lesson. We are to sympathize with, and be merciful toward, the infirm and weak among the Lord’s people. All who come to Christ have weaknesses of the flesh, physical and mental. And some of God’s people are stronger than others due to maturity in Christ.

Very often those who have been following in Jesus’ footsteps along the “narrow way” many years are stronger spiritually as a result of having developed the fruits and graces of the Holy Spirit. However, the fact that God has called any person, whether strong or weak, and invited them to be his children, is sufficient indication that we should accept them sympathetically, as brethren.

Certainly this does not mean that we should only choose the weak and under-developed brethren, spiritually, as our intimate friends in order to be of support and benefit to them, and should shun as dose associates those who are strong in the Lord. It does mean, however, that we should be patient with the infirmities of the weak ones—sympathetic, merciful, kind, and loving to them as brethren. Our Heavenly Father, who searches the heart, counts each of us according to our development in the precious fruits of the Holy Spirit, not necessarily how many we possess by nature.

God has opened to us a variety of doors of opportunity for service—or talents—to the benefit of our brethren. The Lord measures our degree of love for them by the zeal with which we use these opportunities which he has put under our control. Realizing this should motivate us to greater energy and faithfulness in the joyful service of the Lord through zeal and devotion in service to the brethren, thus testifying to the Master the degree of our love and zeal for him.

“Let every one of us please his neighbor for his good to edification,” is the second half of our Key Verse. The quality of being gracious and pleasing to others is a good trait, especially when properly used. If we offered a prayer each day for peace and harmony between ourselves and all with whom we have dealings it would be something like this: “Dear Lord, may we be pleasing to you this day; and may we be pleasing to one another.”

Occasionally we may be blessed with the opportunity to discuss God’s Word and plan with our neighbors. At such times our approach should always be pleasant and gentle. This does not mean that we should deny or compromise the truth; or go anyplace, or do anything contrary to the Spirit of the Lord, simply to be pleasing to somebody. God’s principles of honesty and truthfulness must always rule, but tempered with kindness and courtesy so far as loyalty to God will permit, and with the desire to bring happiness to all. We should follow our Master’s advice and seek to be as “wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.”—Matt. 10:16

Paul said that we are to please our “neighbor for his good to edification” (Rom. 15:2), and: “Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another.” (Rom 14:19) To emphasize this matter, Paul again wrote: “Comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.”—I Thess. 5:11

The word edification has the thought of instruction. In our relationships with each other—neighbors, relatives, or the children of God—our priority must be to help each one to grow in the knowledge of God’s ways. We are exhorted by the Apostle Jude to build one another up in the “most holy faith.”—vs. 20

| Home Page | Table of Contents |