You Are God's Temple: Devotions From Time of GraceSample

Honor God With Your Relationships: Accepting responsibility for others

After you have become proficient in seeing how connected you are to others and taking care to bring joy instead of pain to them, you are ready for advanced Christianity. And that means accepting responsibility for others to whom you are connected.

On the surface of it, this seems to be both a real pain and also a significant risk of empowering and enabling bad behavior. Both of those concerns are real, not imaginary.

Still, Christ’s greatest work lies in rescuing unworthy sinners. He calls you to nothing less than that very same work. You are his hands, mouth, lap, and legs in seeking and saving. Listen to (and emulate) Paul’s care and concern for a young man named Onesimus who was struggling to live his faith: “If he has done you any wrong or owes you anything, charge it to me. I, Paul, am writing this with my own hand. I will pay it back” (Philemon 18,19).

If we must err, let’s err on the side of generosity and giving.