Title: Treat Each Other Right/Topic: Holy Living

Today’s Reading: 1 Chronicles 16; Psalm 106; Matthew 19
Scripture: Matthew 19:16-19
16 Now a man came up to Jesus and asked, "Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?"
17 "Why do you ask me about what is good?" Jesus replied. "There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments."
18 "Which ones?" the man inquired.
Jesus replied, " 'Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, 19 honor your father and mother,' and 'love your neighbor as yourself.'"

Observation: I find it very interesting that when this man asks Jesus which commandments he has to obey to enter life (the clear inference is that he is referring to eternal life), Jesus responds by quoting the commandments that have to do with how we humans treat each other. Jesus completely leaves out the commandments that have to do with loving and respecting God. We know those commands are important because Jesus says so in other places, but here he is stressing only the ones that govern our interaction with each other. Clearly, how we treat each other is vitally important to God.

Application: The majority of the 10 commandments that God gave to man have to do with how we treat each other. We cannot live a holy life by loving God alone; it is God himself who requires us to love our fellow man as well. He even goes so far as to tell us that we must love our enemies. This is impossible to do without the power of God working in us to enable us to do so.

Prayer: Father, perfect your love in me. My desire is to follow the golden rule at all times and to “do unto others” as I would have them do unto me. I want to honor you by how I treat my fellow man.
This I pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.