Who Do They See?

March 7

The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good. Ann Landers

Ms. Landers is absolutely correct—as far as she goes, but God has another standard, another measure, that He expects of those who name the name of Christ. We are not to merely accord perfunctory courtesy to those who cannot benefit us in some fashion; we are to love them. Beyond that, we are to love our enemies; beyond that, we are to do good even to those who “persecute us and despitefully use us,” Luke 6:27.

The word tells us that even heathens will be good to those who are good to them (Matthew 5:47). Our measure in the Lord's eyes is how we are to those who trample the goodness we extend to them under their feet. The scripture is clear in the matter—we are not to be reactive but proactive. We are not to be responders to the treatment others extend to us but initiators of Christ’s love toward them—whether or not they deserve it.

Everything we say, everything we do must be motivated by what we have seen in Jesus, not by what we see in those who pit themselves against us. When our heart is controlled by the Lover of our soul; when our minds are given to the One who said, '’Let this mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus...'’ Philippians 2:5 then we allow ourselves to be vessels in the hand of our Lord in which He may carry and from which He may dispense upon a lost and dying and unlovely populace, the sweet perfume of Himself.

Is it easy to do? Indeed not! In fact, of ourselves, we can't do it at all (see John 15:5). But with Jesus in our heart and with our will surrendered to His, HE can achieve His purposes through us. He can use us, as we give our hearts, our minds, our attitudes, our lips, the entirety of our 'selfhood' to Him for His glory. May HE help us to be so completely surrendered to Him as His servant or His handmaiden that everyone who sees us—even our enemies—will see only the character, the nature, the love of Jesus.