Daily Walk Through the New Testament

January 20
Read 1 Timothy 5:1-25

God’s family — not a framed building — is called the church. We are an organism, not an organization. We are the bride of God’s Son, Jesus Christ, and a representation of God to the world.
1 John 4:8 tells us God is love, and as we show His character to the world in our relating, He wants us to treat all members of the body with love. As we read this list of do’s and donuts in 1 Timothy 5, we must keep in mind God’s greatest commands to us are to love Him with all we are and to love others as ourselves. Paul gave believers practical ways to honor and serve each other in this chapter because it is so important we do it! Love, as Colossians 3:14 reminds us, is what binds Christ’s body together.
It has been said that real love heals people; everything else eventually hurts them. Do you know any hurting souls who are far from God? Give them a glimpse of God’s love in all your interactions with them and pray they will come to faith in Christ and receive God’s powerful, personal, agape love for them. Are you struggling in some kind of conflict with another believer? Ask God to fill your heart with His unconditional love and grace and to help you pour it out to that person. God is love, and He wants His family to be people of love.
Praise God He has given us His Love Letter, that He leads us in loving, and that He “keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments” (Deuteronomy 7:9).