1 In addition, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord. To write to you again about this is no trouble for me and is a safeguard for you. ~ Philippians 3:1CSB
Paul wrote many letters throughout his lifetime. He taught and retaught and retaught until those receiving the teaching finally got it. He didn’t get annoyed when they forgot one of his teachings. He didn’t get frustrated when they came with the same faulty argument trying to disprove him. No, Paul said it was no trouble to him to re-explain this to them, and it was a safeguard for them.
You ever open the Bible, and a verse come up that you read, and you’re like, “Yepp, this is for me?” That’s how I felt when I read this verse. See, I have friends and family members who come with the same old arguments every so often to prove a case that isn’t Biblical. We go over why the verses aren’t proving their point. We go over more verses proving their point to be wrong. We come to an agreement, and then a month or so later, they’re back again with the same argument we dismantled.
For me, it can become frustrating. I don’t understand why you would want to push a narrative that was false just so that you can satisfy your own thoughts and opinions. To me, that just doesn’t make sense. I don’t want to be right in my own mind that badly, but that’s where love should come in. See, if I moved in more love, I wouldn’t find it tedious to repeat myself. I wouldn’t find it frustrating to re-explain. Love is the only mandatory fruit to bear because it’s the only fruit the world sees to identify us as followers of Christ.
Dear LORD, please forgive me for all the times I acted without love. Please remove my heart of stone and replace it with a heart of flesh. Fill me with Your Holy Spirit so that I might bear the fruit of love. So that I might shine Your light through me into the darkness. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.