If you had a plate in front of yourself with two separate types of cookies, but you could only choose one, which would you pick? Well whatever your choice is, you would say that is what you “prefer.” And that is the subject of our verse today.
Romans 12:10 “Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another;”
To prefer something means that you are in the habit of choosing something rather than something else, or to favor, or to like better. In the case of those cookies, your preference is shown by the choice that you made.
And when used in the verse above, to prefer another means that we choose to put others in a more important position than ourselves. We put their needs before our own, just as Christ has done for each of us.
Jesus put our needs first in His life. He wasn’t forced to come down from His kingdom in heaven. He wasn’t forced to live among us sinful, common people. He wasn’t forced to die on the cross and take the pain that He didn’t deserve. He did it because He loved us. He saw our continual failure in keeping the Law, and saw our need for help, and salvation. His love for us caused Him to lay down His life for our own.
1 John 3:16 “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.”
We are called to be servants of Christ, and to serve one another, just as Christ showed His disciples when He washed their feet. He shows us how to be meek and humble, kind and loving. He shows us that true love for a brother will put them first and before your own.
Philippians 2:3 “Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.”
We have had many chickens over the years, of many different breeds, but they all showed the same characteristic of wanting everything for themselves. I have gone out to the chicken shed in the morning to fill their feeders and even though they still will have food left from the previous day, as soon as I filled their feeder full again they would immediately begin to eat as fast as they could, almost to the point of choking themselves. They only think about themselves, sometimes even trying to drive the other chickens away from the feeder.
But as Christians we need to be focused on serving others, and how we can help them. Jesus was filled with meekness, we should too. Serving others. Preferring others over ourselves. Seeing a need, and filling it.
Philippians 2:4 “Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.”
Have you shown someone this kind of love today? Have you put them first before yourself, as Christ did? Have you chosen to put the needs of others before your own?
In Christ,
Andrew
(Andrew is no longer a part of this ministry, as he purposely lied, deceived me, and then betrayed me. These actions were done willfully and with intent. Although many of these writings are helpful, he completely abandoned this calling, and joined up with the world instead. Nothing can dictate Our lives more than a love for Christ Jesus and being chosen to His service, but he chose to love the world instead.)
Teufer Lake King James Bible Church 