Be responsible to our life

 16 Nov 25

Today's devotional: taken from YouVersion, Life Application Study Bible Devotion


Be responsible to our life

There is more to Christian living than simply loving other Christians. We must be responsible in all areas of life. Some of the Thessalonian Christians had adopted a life of idleness, depending on others for handouts. Some Greeks looked down on manual labor. So Paul told the Thessalonians to work hard and live a quiet life. You can't be effective in sharing your faith with others if they don't respect you. Whatever you do, do it faithfully and be a positive force in society.


“and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.”

‭‭1 Thessalonians‬ ‭4‬:‭11‬-‭12‬ ‭NIV‬‬

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Reflections

The famous saying goes “respect needs to be earned” (i.e. it is for those who deserves it not demands it). 


I’m sure you have come across people who demands respect and most of the time, it is someone of authority. And not surprisingly, the people who complained are usually the subordinates because they felt that the supervisors or the bosses didn’t care about them. But, how does one command respect?


Perhaps we can think of the people whom we respect and list down the attributes of that person. What makes them respectable? And if we reflect on our own character, do we also have the same kind of attributes that is deemed as respectable? If we don’t, then it is a good time we ask ourselves why and try to bridge that gap because it will only be a blindspot that we didn’t see but only used to judge the others. So by the same measure, it will be measured to us.


Some of the attributes I can remember are as follows:

  • never yelling for mistakes but gently speak and correct
  • being willing to do all the dirty work without complaints
  • never speak of past glory
  • being cool and calm (still) in times of chaos
  • not being afraid to speak up for what is right
  • being the voice for the poor or needy

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