I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32)
“The other driver got aggressive, so I got aggressive, too.”
That’s what my friend said.
He continued, “But I don’t do that anymore. The Bible says, ‘Don’t return evil for evil,” so when another driver gets aggressive, I just let him go his merry way…even if I feel like speeding up and tracking him down!”
Have you ever been there? You felt like letting someone have it, but because you know God doesn’t really want you to go around letting people have it, you back off and let it slide.
That’s a great first step! But now let me show you a better way.
The better way is love.
In Matthew 5 Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies…”
The better way is love.
That aggressive driver? Yes, it is better to let him go and not follow your impulse to get aggressive back. But the better way is to love him! It is better to love all of your fellow drivers on the road today.
First Corinthians 12:31 literally says now let me show you a better way, a more excellent way. One translation says, “Now let me show you a way of life that is best of all.”
And what, pray tell, is best of all? First Corinthians 12:31 leads right into First Corinthians 13 which is also known as the love chapter. That is the best way of all, the way of love.
We should be able to look at every person around us and say, “I love this one and this one and that one and him and her and all of them.” That is the better way.
We really can’t do that on our own, but this is where the fruit of the Spirit of love comes in. As born again believers with God’s Holy Spirit inside of us, HE will bear the fruit of love in our life. And He will do that to the degree that we let Him. Our part is to humbly submit to Him, as sheep to a shepherd, and follow as He leads.
And this is where He is leading. He is leading us to a better way of living. It’s the way of life that is best of all. The NIV says it is “the most excellent way”!
It’s the way of First Corinthians 13.
It’s the way of Jesus.
It’s the way of love.
May God bless you today.
I’m Doug Apple.
