How To Get Along with Others: Pt. 2 — Morning Devotions

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It’s not always easy to get along with people, is it? Especially if there’s been hurt or misunderstanding. It reminds me of the story about Jack and his little sister. And Jack’s mother ran into his bedroom when she heard him screaming and found his 2-year-old sister pulling his hair. So Mum gently released the little girl’s grip as she comforted Jack by saying, they’re there. She didn’t mean it. She doesn’t know that hurts. You know, she doesn’t know it hurts. Mum was barely out of the room. The little girl started screaming and rushing back into the bedroom, she asked Jack what happened. Well, she knows now, he said.

How To Get Along with Others: Pt. 1 — Morning Devotions

We know what he means. It’s difficult not to retaliate sometimes when we’ve been hurt or mistreated. Yesterday in morning devotions, I looked at Romans 12, and in this New Testament part, Paul has some excellent advice about how to get along with other people. And if you want some advice, here it is from Romans 12 verse 16 says: be friendly with everyone. Don’t be proud and feel that you’re smarter than others. Make friends with ordinary people.

Make friends with ordinary people

Now another translation of the Bible says there live in harmony with one another. And in Romans 15:5, God is the one who makes us patient and cheerful. I pray that he’ll help you live at peace with each other as you follow Christ.

There are lots of other verses in the Bible that make it clear that we’ve really got to do our best. No-one’s perfect, but we can do our best as God helps us. The only way that can be achieved, I think, is to be humble. There’s really no place for conceit in the Christian faith. Why? Because we’re all made in God’s image as equal people. No one’s better than anyone else.

Well, what about the business of resisting repaying a wrong, because in verse 17, there’s a warning about what comes. It says, don’t repay anyone evil for evil. Now the idea here is we really shouldn’t pay back a wrong that’s been done to us. Is there someone that you’d really like to pay back today? Do you want someone to hurt like you felt hurt? Well, I think here’s the deal. Don’t retaliate when you’ve been wronged. It’s something a lot of people don’t want to hear.

1 Peter 3:9 says, do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing because it’s to this that you are called.

Make sure the scripture says that nobody pays back wrong for wrong. Always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else. It causes conflict to escalate. And there’s a quaint verse here from Proverbs. Proverbs is a really interesting part of the Bible to read. Have a look at it some time, but chapter 30 and verse 33 says, for as churning the milk produces butter and as twisting the nose produces blood, so stirring up anger produces strife. There you are. There’s an interesting verse.

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So retaliation is often and usually excessive. When we do pay back, it’s often done with interest.

So I guess it’s true that you can’t always stop people from hating you, but you don’t have to hate them back. You can’t always make people love you, but you can always love them back. There’s a good book called Love Dare, and, one of the chapters is called Love Forgives. It says this Imagine you find yourself in a prison-like setting. As you look around, there are a number of cells visible from where you’re standing, and you see people from your past incarcerated there, people who wounded you as a child.

You see people that you once called friends who wronged you. You see one or both of your parents there, perhaps a brother or a sister or someone in the family, even your spouse is locked in, trapped with all the others in this jail of your own making, and the prison, you see, is a room in your own heart. This dark, draughty, depressing chamber exists inside you every day, but not far away, Jesus is standing there, extending you a key that will actually release every person.

No, you don’t want any part of that. These people have hurt you too badly. They knew what they were doing, and yet they did it anyway. So you resist and turn away. You’re unwilling to stay in here any more. Seeing Jesus, seeing the key in his hand, knowing what he’s asking you to do is just too much.

Well, there it is, it’s true, isn’t it? Sometimes it is very difficult.

Let’s Pray

Heavenly Father, we own up. We know it’s hard to get on with people, but we need your grace and your peace. Amen.

(How To Get Along with Others: Pt. 3 — Morning Devotions)

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