Living Out Christ's Love in Our Friendships
Daily Scripture
Colossians 3:9-15
9 Don’t lie to each other. Take off the old human nature with its practices 10 and put on the new nature, which is renewed in knowledge by conforming to the image of the one who created it. 11 In this image there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all things and in all people.
12 Therefore, as God’s choice, holy and loved, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. 13 Be tolerant with each other and, if someone has a complaint against anyone, forgive each other. As the Lord forgave you, so also forgive each other. 14 And over all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.
Daily Reflection & Prayer
The Apostle Paul described for Colossian Christians how they should treat each other in community. The virtues he listed—compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, and forgiveness—weren’t qualities a hermit would need in isolation. They were about loving and living well with others. Paul knew these qualities produced a strongly bonded community and, as Christians followed Jesus’ perfect example, would draw others to him.
- When we love one another by showing compassion, kindness, forgiveness, and more, we show others that we care about them, and that builds trust. Can you recall a time when someone treated you with any of the qualities in this passage? How did that affect the way you saw or related to that person? Did it shift the way(s) you treated other people?
- Paul set this as the standard for how all followers of Jesus should treat each other. As one scholar noted, there’s an expected way to live that bears witness to the gospel’s truth within a person—a visible standard for Christ’s followers. * Yet Romans 3:23 reminds us we all fall short. What relationships in your life could use more compassion, kindness, patience, or forgiveness? What good results might follow if you lived this way?
Prayer
Lord Jesus, thank you for being our perfect example of love. Forgive me when I fall short of treating others with love. Help me become more like you each day. Amen.
GPS Insights
Lauren Cook
Lauren Cook, who serves as Director of Online Engagement & Entry Points at Resurrection, wrote today’s Insight. She is a self-proclaimed foodie, a bookworm, and is always planning her next trip. She has the sweetest (and sassiest) daughter, Carolina Rae, a rockstar husband, Austin, and a cutie pup named Thunder. She loves connecting with others so let her know the best place you've ever eaten, best book you've ever read, or best place you've ever been!
We all have those people in our lives. You know the ones—the ones who seem to wake up with the goal of getting under your skin. They make sure you know they don’t like you, and they never miss an opportunity to point out your mistakes.
For a long time, I felt justified meeting their frustration with my own. Eye for an eye, right? But recently, I had a wake-up call: Sometimes, I am that person.
While leading a complex project recently, I dropped the ball. I made mistakes, overlooked details, and frustrated my team. I was certain everyone was rightfully angry with me. But then, a volunteer responded in a way I didn’t expect. Instead of blame, they offered compassion. Instead of anger, they offered patience.
They reminded me that while the world operates on “getting even,” Jesus calls us to something higher. He taught us to turn the other cheek (Matthew 5:39) and to never repay evil with evil (1 Peter 3:9). Most importantly, He called us to be “tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave us” (Ephesians 4:32).
Here’s our challenge: People can be hurtful, frustrating, mean and just plain annoying—and so can we. The next time you want to lash out, remember a time when someone met your failure with gentleness. What if we changed the narrative? What if we traded “eye for an eye” for “heart-to-heart”?
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Scripture quotations are taken from The Common English Bible ©2011. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
References
* Andrew Purves, study note on Colossians 3:1-17 in The Renovare Spiritual Formation Bible. HarperSanFrancisco, 2005, p. 2143.
