Behind The Behavior

Sunday, ‎September 10, ‎2023

Good morning, Lord

Verse of the Day: Acts 4:12 Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

Memory verse: Philippians 4:8 ►Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

Today's reading: PROVERBS 8-9 2 CORINTHIANS 3

Behind The Behavior

It is understood that the "fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom". It says it right there in Proverbs 9, verse 10. There is a short definition back in chapter 8 of Proverbs, verse 13:

13 The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil.

Pride and arrogance and the way of evil

and perverted speech I hate.

Put that together and it says that that the beginning of God's wisdom, the fear of God, is a hatred for perverted speech, arrogance, and pride.

Perverted speech comes from the arrogance of an inflated ego.

'Judge not' comes to mind. How do we separate God's wisdom from our judging someone for being wicked? It is not a tightrope we walk. There is a difference and we must learn how to use God's wisdom and love the sinner as we love ourselves.

Let's look at this. Say we experience someone who is loud, proud and nasty and we all have. They come dressed as all men and women of all colors, shapes, sizes, social standings; they come from everywhere. Our scriptural directive is to hate the evil and at the same time love our neighbor. Really? Yes, that is what the Bible says.

How? How do we do that? These people are obnoxious and angering if we let them control us. Read that again, please. These people are obnoxious and angering if we let them control us. The key, then, is to not allow our reaction to these people to be in hate. But we are supposed to hate evil. Yes, we are. But we are to love the people.

This is about them and it is about us but mostly is about what God says. The fruit of the spirit-the Holy Spirit that indwells all Christ-believers number nine in all. The very last is self-control.

Galatians 5:22-23

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

If the Lord is on the throne of our life we are under His control and leading. If He is not, we are under natural control or carnal control and in sin and allow our emotions to control our thinking. We must 'die' to natural control. Paul said, "I die daily", 1 Corinthians 15:31

It is about them because we are to allow God to love them through us into the kingdom. It is about us looking past the sin and loving these 'hard to love' with the mind of Christ. The Bible says this is what Jesus did for us:

But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8

Isaiah 1:18 ►"Come now, let us settle the matter," says the LORD. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.

Sin is evil and we are born into it. Jesus sees past the sin always. He went to the cross knowing our sin but also knowing our souls. We will never know the souls of the wicked but we know they all need to be saved by Christ Jesus. The wicked will never see God's love in us as long as we walk away disgusted.

The moment we experience evil in a personality is the moment we should start to pray for that soul behind the behavior.

Yes, you can. You have the mind of Christ, 1 Corinthians 2:16. The old coach used to say, "You gotta brain-use it!"

Well, you have the mind of Christ, so use it. How many will ever get to this point? The ones who devote themselves to loving God with all they are. No one will ever wake up and say they love God completely because we are all growing toward this daily. Growing-running the race-being diligent-seeking God-surrender.

We all have work to do and God always has whatever it takes for you.

...because He loves us...

Father in heaven,

Forgive my shallow sight. Let me see behind the sin the way You do and love the soul.

Merciful and gracious God and Father!

In the name of Jesus,

Amen