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I find the original Greek words in this text very enriching and enlightening. The word translated devoted means the affections that a person has for their natural families; to cherish other family members, especially between parents and children. This verse is still in close context with the previous description of the body of Christ and the gifts given to each person in that body.
The purpose of these gifts is here being clearly delineated – to cultivate healthy family bonds of love, to learn to cherish one another in the body of Christ like family. Of course most of us are unfamiliar with many of the true feelings experienced in healthy bonded families. We too often don't even know what being cherished by parents feels like and consequently we usually fail to help our children feel truly cherished. But this verse is the plan of God for us to learn and grow into relationships where we can be recovered from our dysfunctional lives and learn how real families can and should live. These verses are describing the atmosphere needed for our hearts to thrive and grow.
The original word for brotherly love is not the same word for love used in the previous verse. In verse nine we are told to agape love genuinely, without faking it. Now we are being told to also have the kind of love that goes on between humans that may look somewhat different than agape love. Of course agape love will include all other kinds of love but God wants to show us different facets of love and describe it from different angles. So what is being described here is maybe something like taking a slice of agape love and examining it more closely. It is like tuning into to a specific and targeted portion of a bigger concept and unpacking it more fully.
I believe it is very important to keep clearly in mind that each of these verses in this section are describing the attitudes with which we are to exercise the gifts previously mentioned in verses 4-8. It is all too easy to allow pride, desires for control and selfishness to distort the nature of how we exercise our roles in the body and so we need to be constantly reminded of the purity of the love we need to maintain while we interrelate with each other. It would be well for us to take each individual role or gift from the previous verses, particularly any that we have been given, and with that role in mind apply these verses describing the spirit in which that gift must operate. Anything outside of this description then is going to be, in essence, a prostitution of that gift. It will be an embezzlement of the sacred trust that God has given to us to bless those around us.
When I look at the Greek words used in the last part of this verse I find something very different than what shows up in English. There are three words and they read something like this:
Lead the way, set an example by considering those around you very valuable.
Again, the gifts that God has given to each of us to use in the body of Christ are for the purpose of reminding others of their immense value, but value not based on any performance but on how God feels about them. Our gifts and talents are primarily to be used for encouragement in specific ways to increase other's sense of worth and value in God's eyes. This phrase suggests that in doing this with our gift we are setting an example of the proper use of gifts as well as building up the confidence and hope of those who feel full of shame, worthlessness or humiliation.
The value that God wants us to become intensely aware of is the real value that is counterfeited by pride. But there is no place for pride – the counterfeit – in the proper exercise of the gifts from God in building up the true body of Christ. Whenever pride or shame become mingled into the exercise of our gifts we have polluted the body and need to return to these instructions and be restored to our proper function and a right spirit. Feelings of shame and worthlessness are actually another form of pride, for pride is based on a concept of value based on comparison with others. So any feelings or beliefs concerning our sense of value or lack of value that is based in any way at all on any other measurement outside of God's view of us is a falsehood, a counterfeit and will confuse and corrupt our hearts. Our real identity and value can only be discerned in the presence of the One who designed us and created us for His purposes.
As we grow into a proper relationship with God and begin to sense our true worth and value in His eyes, then we will be better prepared to exercise our gifts and function within the body to help others grow into the same sense of value and identity that we are learning. We will be building up other's confidence in God's good plans for them and will be modeling to them how to exercise their own gifts in building up the body from their vantage point and with their unique gifts.
One thing that must never be lost sight of when reading instructions like these is that it is impossible to love in any meaningful and life-changing way without experiencing an ongoing transformation of being loved ourself. It is only as we receive from God and also receive from the ministry of others that we can be empowered to love and be channels of the grace that others need to experience. Without a solid realization of our need to receive before giving we will fall into performance-based religion and will miss the real power that God designs for us to experience in proper relationship with His body.
The more I contemplate this arrangement and let go of the ideas most often seen functioning in typical churches, the more excited I get about how powerful this will be when it begins to really work. Each individual may be firmly connected to God's heart with a personal, vital, daily time of communion. Then utilizing their gifts in love and freedom and filled with the Spirit of God they will encourage others through instruction, example and positive reinforcement of what God is wanting to do in their lives. As this takes place the body will begin to flourish and bond and become compelling in ways never yet imagined. This will not come about by any human leader putting a program in place or inventing rules to facilitate it; this will only happen when each person is led by the same Spirit and receives the unselfish love and compassion and confidence from being linked to the same Father who has redeemed us all.
Father, I want to be filled with this family love that I just only get a hint of when I read this verse. I want to have a much stronger sense of feeling valuable in Your eyes and being able to inspire others with that same sense of immense value and worth because of Your feelings toward us. Train me to exercise my gifts to encourage and build up Your body without the contamination of selfishness, pride and self-importance. I will cease to try to achieve self-importance when I become aware of how much more important I am to You. But I need to have a much keener awareness of how You really feel about me. Open my heart today and fill me with Your presence, Your assurances, Your thoughts and emotions. Help me to perceive as You perceive and love with Your love.
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