By David ReayTuesday 10 Nov 2015LifeWords DevotionalsFaithReading Time: 0 minutes
Transcript:
Read Philippians 2:3-4
3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. (NIV)
There’s an old rabbinical story about how the spot was chosen for God’s holy temple. Two brothers worked a common field and a common mill. Each night they divided whatever grain they had produced and each took his portion home. One brother was single and one was married with a large family. The single brother decided that his married brother, with all those kids, certainly needed more grain than he did, so at night he secretly crept over to his brother’s granary and gave him an extra portion.
The married brother realised that his single brother didn’t have any children to care for him in his old age. Concerned about his brother’s future, he got up each night and secretly deposited some grain in his single brother’s granary. One night they met halfway between the two granaries, and each brother realised what the other was doing. They embraced, and as the story goes, God witnessed what happened and said, ‘This is a holy place — a place of love — and it is here that my temple shall be built.’
Not a bad illustration of the power of love. It is all too human to be primarily concerned for our own interests. It takes divine intervention to cause us to reach beyond those interests and practically care for others. Where there is such love, God is present whether acknowledged or not.
Blessings
David Reay