Word for the day by Christian Education Forum

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Love Beyond Bloodlines and Sibling Rivalry: Shedding a New Light on an Old Commandment

Bible Reading: : 1st John 2:7-11

Key verse:  

Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light. (1st John 2:9,10)

DEVOTION

Recently I read about sibling rivalry in the animal kingdom in a science magazine. The naked mole-rats have nearly a hundred siblings from the same mother. The older ones usually force the younger ones to move out of the way in their dwelling place which are the underground tunnel systems. Birds like the cattle egrets take sibling rivalry to a whole new fatal level. When one chick grows stronger than the other sibling, it will actually go to the extent of killing that sibling, throwing it out of the nest while the parent bird is away hunting for food and the siblings are home alone. 
It turns out that animals and birds are not the only ones that struggle with loving one another. John wrote this letter not only to warn Christians about the dangerous false teachers who were trying to mislead them but also to demonstrate to them an important aspect. John exhorted them that the world will know we are Christians and are God’s children only if we love one another and obey the old, yet new, commandment. It’s considered old because it was given from the beginning, and still new because Jesus showed us how to live out this commandment in the most tangible way. True children of God walk in the light by loving others just as Christ loves us. Therefore, each day we have a choice to make: we can either walk in the light of love or we can stumble in the darkness of hate. 
When we choose to love others, even those who hurt us, God’s light shines in our hearts and His love will show through our lives. Love is not always easy, but as the words from the Peace Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi reminds us, let us be forgiving enough to sow love where there is hatred. Also to be prayerful and mindful that we may not so much seek to be loved as to love. For it is in giving love that we receive love; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned.
Let us embrace the commandment to love, this old yet ever new mandate. May the world know that we are Christians by our love, by our love. Yes, they'll know we are Christians by our love and know that we are His children.

PRAYER

God of love, light, and life, may we truly love You and others not only with our words and talks. Grant us willingness to use our love languages generously to continue to love all our brothers and sisters and everyone You place in our lives daily. Help us to love all the children of the world, since they are our siblings because You first loved us. Enable us to send out a message of love to the world that points people back to You, the source of all love. In Jesus’ loving name we pray. Amen.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

 Blest be the tie that binds
Our hearts in Christian love;
The fellowship of kindred minds
Is like to that above. 
(First stanza of the hymn written by John Fawcett, a Baptist clergyman in England. This hymn was included under the title of “Brotherly Love” in Fawcett’s Hymns Adapted to the Circumstances of Public Worship and Private Devotion).

Mrs. Neethi Prasad
neethiprasad@gmail.com
(wife of Rev. Christopher P. Daniel, Diocesan Program Manager and Vicar of Jerusalem MTC, Connecticut)

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