You can’t love the church in partiality. You can’t love part of the church. To be a growing Christian means you are becoming more like Christ and He loves the church in its totality. Remember love is not an emotion; it is a choice that we make.

There will always be people who push our buttons, rattle our cages and generally irritate us. Just deal with it. Be patient. Forgive them… how many times? That’s right, “seventy times seven” (Matthew 18:22).

James 1:22 tells us to be “doers of the word,” not “hearers only” and certainly not preachers only! Rather we are to look into “the perfect law of liberty,” we are to study; we are to dig into the Word and mine out its truths. We are to be reproved and admonished and then we are to repent and change our ways.

“Render” means “to pay back.” When someone does something “evil” or sinful against us, we must resist the fleshly urge to strike back or seek revenge against someone we perceive to be our enemy. We are never to seek our own vengeance, but trust the Lord to deal with him. This principle is repeated over and over again throughout the Bible.

Let all of us firmly, resolutely obey Romans 12:19, Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.

Someone rightly said, “when you have a problem with another person, tell God on them. He can do a better job than I can any day!”