Neal spent six years in one short relationship after the other. After a couple of months, he’d lose interest. He always blamed the woman, saying that she had some habit or quirk that drove him nuts. He left a trail of broken hearts, and it never occurred to him that he was the common denominator. It’s true that being attracted to a person can be a good place to start, but Neal placed such a huge focus on a woman’s physical appearance, and he never took the time to connect to anyone on a deep level. He valued women based on how they looked and didn’t think there was anything wrong with this. The fact that he was playing with people’s lives and treating women like objects never registered in his mind, and more importantly, the wrongness of it never   factored into his heart.

When an individual is clueless about their poor behavior, it suggests to us that they have a lack of emotional intelligence and thoughtfulness, and perhaps a generous portion of selfishness; all of which signals a failure to love through the example of Christ. Whether we realize it or not, this is self-punishment. It’s the start of a negative cycle where we continue the same behaviors and make the same mistakes, and this can last a lifetime. We have a choice, and it’s to open our eyes to the reality that we’re here to learn to love greater through Jesus Christ. His is the kind of love that grows and changes people and things for the better. We should want this for ourselves, and we should want it for others.

God tells us in Ephesians 4:23(KJV) to “be renewed in the spirit of your mind.” Our minds are the battlefields of faith. The mind is like a storage container, and throughout our lives on earth, a lot of people have had a hand in what gets stored there. Our thoughts and attitudes are based on what we’ve learned to believe, and a lot of this is faulty and causes us more harm than good. We can change this through the Lord Jesus Christ, and we should.

When we recognize how desperately we need Jesus Christ and accept him as our Lord and Savior, a supernatural birth takes place. Our human spirit is recreated and God’s Spirit, the Holy Spirit, comes to live inside our human spirit. Jesus Christ told Nicodemus in John 3:6(NLT), “Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life.” This is the spiritual rebirth that Jesus Christ made available to us through his sacrifice for our sins.

Our human spirit becomes alive to God through Christ, but this new spiritual reality doesn’t change our minds and hearts. God’s Spirit doesn’t come inside the inner sanctum of our beings and start throwing all the bad stuff out and replacing it with the knowledge of His Word. This kind of mind and heart renewal He leaves to us. Our minds have to be made new, and we do this by lining up our thoughts with the thoughts and mind of Jesus Christ.

There’s no question that our hearts and minds must track with our new reality in Christ. This means that we must change our attitudes and behaviors regarding how we love others. Much of what Jesus Christ taught us in God’s Word is based on demonstrating the right way to love and respect people. He taught us how to serve one another because this is the key to receiving the same quality of love that we give out. Many of us are unhappy and lonely today. We complain about not having good relationships and about not having anyone in our lives we can trust. The answer to this dilemma is in what our Master Jesus taught us in Luke 6:38(NLT). He said “Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.” Giving equals receiving is one of God’s immutable laws, and it is a powerful piece of information in our hands.

Jesus Christ said in Luke 12:48 that when someone has been given much, much will be required. This verse tells us all we need to know about responsibility. God has empowered us through Jesus Christ to do all the good things that He’s planned for us. This empowerment has allowed us the strength, intellect, and vitality to make it to this point in life. It’s huge! And with it comes equally important responsibility. You and I are totally accountable for our actions and behaviors. If we’re hurting people through our own selfishness, we’ll get that back. It’s law.

We have to be incredibly careful how we treat people, because there’s a price to pay for every action that goes against the love of Christ. Whatever we put out there determines what we get back. This completely puts the ball in our courts. It demands that we look at the quality of what we’re giving. We’re often dissatisfied and unfulfilled because we’re not giving the quality of love we hope to receive. God has empowered us to love others in the same way as Christ, and He holds us responsible for this. He commands us to renew our minds by finding out more about our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

We desperately need to come into consciousness about what we’re doling out to others, because God holds us responsible for treating people the way we want to be treated ourselves. We all must take a good long look in the mirror and make self-examination a continual practice. Colossians 2:7(NLT) tells us, “Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.” We need to be rooted in the love of Christ, and when we are, his love will transform us so that we value the lives of others, and honor and respect ourselves and all people as the treasures God has created them to be.■

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved. 

“Value the Lives of Others”, written for Springfield Fellowship © 2022. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.