Monday, March 10, 2025

Listen to the Word

Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift. (Matthew 5:23-24)

Jesus surprisingly tells us in today’s Scripture that it is ok to keep God waiting while we go straighten things out with a neighbor. His instruction is even more surprising when we realize what a major production it was to give a gift at the temple altar: you would travel a great distance to Jerusalem, go through extensive purification rituals, and then purchase an animal to offer. Jesus says that if you went through all of that and then remembered someone back home you had wronged, you should leave Billy the newly purchased goat running loose in the temple and travel all the way home to try to make things right.

More than God wants us to sing him songs and give him offerings at church, he wants us to express love to the people in our lives. Jesus taught that the way we treat people is the primary way to measure our love for God and the primary evidence that we are his.

Live the Word

Is there a brother or sister who has something against you? What step can you take today to work toward restoring the relationship?