I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 15th of March, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. 

We go straight to the back of the Bible, 1 John 4:20: 

“If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?” 

Very, very powerful and challenging words. 

“A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another as I have loved you.” 
John 13:34

Jesus said that. It is not optional. If we do not love our brother, the Bible says we are liars, and the truth is not in us. And by the way, we are talking about home base here. We are not talking about governments or different policies, no—we are talking about the family. The hardest place to be a Christian sometimes is at home base, isn’t it? We have got to learn to be more patient with one another, more understanding, and the best way is to try and see the situation through the other person’s eyes. Let me give you an example - I grew up in a home where I was not allowed to waste any food. My dad would allow us to eat whatever we wanted, as much as we wanted but nothing was to be left uneaten on that plate. He said, “You can take it but you must finish it.” And sometimes we used to get very impatient. “Why is dad so hard on us all the time? Why can’t I leave something I don’t like?” I tell you why, because my father was in the Second World War, and he was captured in North Africa and was sent to a prisoner of war camp in Europe. For three years and six months, he was half-starved. Food was very precious to him. Now, when you look at it through his eyes, you can understand why he would say that. 

We need to give young people more grace. You say, “But Angus, I cannot afford to buy him another rugby jersey, or buy her another gym for netball.” They are not really concerned about having another garment. What they are concerned about is avoiding peer pressure at school. They just want to be like everybody else. It sounds as though they are demanding, its not that. Its just that they want to be out of the focus of the crowd, and just be one of the people. 

I know an older woman who comes to work, she gets up at 02h30 in the morning. She has to walk about a kilometre to catch a taxi, then she has to sit in the taxi for one hour till she gets to town. Then she has to wait for her lift to come out to the farm. Sometimes it might look like she is a bit slow with her work, but you know, that woman is tired, she is sometimes exhausted. Give her some grace. That is how we love one another. Put yourself in the other person’s shoes. 

Today, let’s love one another unconditionally. Why? Because Jesus said so.

God bless you and goodbye.