THINK TOGETHER.
Do you ever look down on others?
READ TOGETHER
Proverbs 14:21. Whoever despises his neighbor is a sinner, but blessed is he who is generous to the poor.
In God’s law it says this:
Leviticus 19:18. You shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.
That’s why Solomon starts out by saying that if we despise (look down on, criticize, or hate) our neighbor, we are sinning.
It’s easy to look down on others isn’t it? This attitude is called superiority. Superiority means that you think you are better than others, especially those that are struggling or poor. But the wise person fights against feelings of superiority that creep into their heart. The sin that lives inside of us makes it natural for us to look for faults in others. We see people and we judge them instead of having compassion or understanding.
Jesus is the only person who ever lived who had the right to feel and act superior to others. He actually was better than everyone else. But he never acted that way. He never just ignored people. He never got annoyed by another person. He always helped. He always loved. As a human being he knew that we are all the same. We all have struggles. We all need help.
Because Jesus loved his neighbor perfectly we are counted as having loved our neighbor perfectly too when we trust in Jesus. That’s good news! Now we can be wise and generous. When we know that only Jesus is perfect we also know that we never have the right to despise or look down on another person ever again. We never have the right to make fun of someone or pick on them. But we do have the right and the privilege of loving and learning from everyone that God has made.
Because of Jesus we are never despised by God.
With Jesus we can love and learn from everyone.
DO SOMETHING TOGETHER
Plan a way that you can be generous today. Do you know anyone that needs help? How can you as a family offer help today?
PRAY TOGETHER
Jesus, you never looked down on others including me. Help me to be generous to everyone and care about others like you do. Amen.
TLICfamily 