"Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor;"
Romans 12:10 NASB1995
This verse has several fascinating words to me. All of which have significant meaning. 🙂
“Be Devoted” - φιλόστοργος / philostorgos; from G5384 and στοργή storgē (family affection)
“Brotherly love” - φιλαδελφία / philadelphia; from G5361; the love of brothers, brotherly love
I put these next to each other so that you could see the “philo(a)” relationship here in the original Greek language. The connection for us as Christians is that of “family”. We recognize the word “Philadelphia” being the largest city in the state of Pennsylvania (and recent 2022 World Series losers to the Champion Houston Astros (Sorry, I couldn’t resist)) that is called the city of “Brotherly Love”. We are to give “family” level devotion, preference, and love to our fellow brethren because we are indeed brethren (family).
“Family Love” is supposed to be the highest level of individual devotion. “Family First” or “Family above all others” or “Blood is thicker than water” etc. We have all sorts of expressions that reinforce the human psyche with the concept that no love is supposed to be greater than family love. Certainly, we respect others; but we honor family above all others. And our spiritual family above that! How do we do that?
“Give Preference “ - Προηγέομαι / Proēgeomai /Pro-ay-geh'-om-ahee - to lead the way for others, that is, show deference: - prefer. (Strongs). The NASEC says “to go before (as a leader)”. That is, we are each to lead the way in giving honor to one another. How do we do that?
“Honor” - τιμή / Timē / Tee-may' - a value, that is, money paid, or (concretely and collectively) valuables; by analogy esteem (especially of the highest degree), or the dignity itself: - honor, precious, price, some. (Strongs) Do you see the transliterated word for the Greek word here? It is “Timē”. Now, this is why this is so fascinating to me. “Timē” is not the same word as our English word “time”. It is not related to it, it is not where our English word “time” originates from, this is just pure coincidence. In fact, I included the pronunciation (Tee-may') so we could see it’s a different word entirely. And yet, here is why I find it all so fascinating. What is more valuable than “time”?
One of the greatest ways we honor one another is with our time. Choosing to spend our time with you. That’s one reason I’m so humbled and grateful when you read these posts and respond and use them in your life. You honor me with your time. When we talk about the “family first” mindset, we are mostly talking about time. We use the phrase “you honor me with your presence”, but really the idea behind that is not just the physical existence in space in front of me (or with me), but the time as well. We can give money and gifts and valuables, but we don’t give anything more valuable than our time (unless we are giving life itself (John 15:13).
Giving “family devotion” to one another in “family love” means leading the way in honoring others above ourselves in giving our brethren our time. How do we do that? There are a million and one ways, but let’s just start with making every assembly of the saints we possibly can. (Hebrews 10:24-25) Let’s start there.
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