WISDOM FOR LIVING DAILY DEVOTIONAL
JULY 10TH, 2021
TOPIC: DON’T DESPISE ANYONE
BY T. O. BANSO
“God is mighty, yet He does not despise anyone” (Job 36:5 New Living Translation).
One of the lessons to learn from the life of our Lord Jesus Christ is not to despise anyone. In other words, you should not feel contempt or strong dislike for anyone or consider anyone as being worthless or hold a low opinion of another person. You should not hate or have no respect for anyone.
Don’t despise anyone. Remember that God created every human being and has His plan and purpose for them. No matter where they are in life now, what you can see of them, or know about them, don’t despise them. Don’t despise people because of the information you have about them. The person you know yesterday may have changed, grown, and developed past what you know.
Don’t despise anyone, because you don’t know tomorrow. Nobody knows the end of another person; only God knows. The stone that the builders rejected may become the chief cornerstone (Matthew 21:42; Mark 12:10; Luke 20:17; Acts 4:11). Treat everyone with respect, not with disdain or dislike. You must differentiate between your attitude to someone’s actions and the way you treat him as a human being.
Jesus did not despise anyone. Learn from Him. As Jesus went everywhere healing the sick and performing miracles, He didn’t despise anyone. He went to the province of Samaria which the Jews despised. The result of His conversation with the woman He met at the well of Jacob was that the woman and many in that city believed in Him as the Saviour of the world (John 4:1-26, 39-42).
Jesus did not despise Zacchaeus who had climbed the sycamore tree to see Him. When Jesus saw him on the tree, He called him by his name, “Zacchaeus!…Quick, come down! For I must be a guest in your home today” (Luke 19:5 New Living Translation).
Jesus went with him home to the disappointment of those who felt that if Jesus were truly holy, He shouldn’t have associated with a notorious sinner like Zacchaeus (verses 6-7). Jesus replied that He had come to seek and save those like Zacchaeus who were lost (verse 10). Jesus did not despise sinners. He sought to save them by associating with them. It worked.
Whether people were leprous, blind, or immoral, Jesus didn’t despise them. In Luke 7:36, one of the Pharisees, Simon, invited Jesus to eat with him and He didn’t turn down the invitation despite the fact the Pharisees were among His greatest critics. He went to eat in Simon’s house. A sinful woman in the city was present too.
When she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisee’s house, the woman brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil. She stood at His feet behind Him weeping and began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head. She kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil (Luke 7:37-38).
When Simon saw this, he said to himself that if Jesus had been a prophet, He would have known that the woman touching Him was a sinner. Jesus knew his thought and told him the story of a creditor who forgave the debts of his two debtors who couldn’t repay. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. He asked Simon which of them would love the creditor more. He answered that it was the one whom he forgave more.
Jesus replied that his answer was correct. He turned to the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave Me no water for My feet, but she has washed My feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head. You gave Me no kiss, but this woman has not ceased to kiss My feet since the time I came in. You did not anoint My head with oil, but this woman has anointed My feet with fragrant oil. Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little” (Luke 7:44-47 New King James Version).
Jesus told this woman she was forgiven. When those who at the table with Him began to ask themselves who He was that forgave sins, Jesus further said to the woman that her faith had saved her and she should go in peace. Jesus didn’t despise this woman because she was sinful. He looked beyond her sinfulness to see what she would become.
Earlier in Luke 5, Jesus didn’t despise a tax collector named Levi who was also called Matthew. He went to his tax office and called him to be his disciple and he followed Jesus. Then Levi gave Jesus a great feast in his house, attended by a great number of tax collectors and others.
The scribes and the Pharisees criticized Jesus, complaining to His disciples why Jesus must eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners. Jesus answered, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance” (Luke 5:31-32 New King James Version). Jesus’ concern was the salvation of sinners, not the food or His reputation.
Don’t despise anyone. It was a slave girl from Israel, whom the Bible doesn’t even record her name, that gave the information that Naaman acted on and led to his healing. “Then she said to her mistress, ‘If only my master were with the prophet who is in Samaria! For he would heal him of his leprosy’” (2 Kings 5:3 New King James Version).
Suppose Naaman and his wife had despised this girl because she was a captive from Israel, or Naaman’s family had oppressed her so much that she had no confidence to say anything, let alone talk about Naaman’s leprosy. But this girl had the freedom to talk about her master’s disease to the wife and she wasn’t scolded.
Later when Naaman didn’t want to wash in River Jordan as the prophet of God had commanded him, it was his servants who advised him to obey the prophet, and Naaman listened. They were inferior to him yet they could advise him and he acted on their advice.
Don’t despise anyone. You don’t know whom the Lord will use for you. Job 36:5 says, “God is mighty, yet he does not despise anyone! He is mighty in both power and understanding” (New Living Translation). Whatever power you have, you’re not as mighty as God, so don’t despise anyone even if they’re inferior to you. Don’t despise anyone.
Sarah made the mistake of giving her Egyptian maidservant, Hagar, to her husband, Abram, to have sexual relations with because she was barren. But after Hagar became pregnant, she despised her mistress. “So he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress became despised in her eyes” (Genesis 16:4 New King James Version). Don’t despise your boss because you have an advantage over him or her in a certain area.
Don’t despise your spouse. Michal, David’s wife, despised him. “Now as the ark of the LORD came into the City of David, Michal, Saul’s daughter, looked through a window and saw King David leaping and whirling before the LORD; and she despised him in her heart” (2 Samuel 6:16 New King James Version).
Take note of that phrase “Michal, Saul’s daughter.” Why not Michal, David’s wife? Maybe it is to show that something was wrong with their relationship since David brought her back from the husband she had married during the time he became a fugitive to avoid being killed by Saul.
Don’t despise your husband for any reason. Because Michal despised David, the Bible says at the end of the conversation between the two of them, “Therefore Michal the daughter of Saul had no children to the day of her death” (2 Samuel 6:23 New King James Version).
When Queen Vashti despised her husband, King Xerxes, by refusing to come out to display her beauty, she was removed so that her despise for her husband would not encourage other wives in the kingdom to do likewise. Therefore, Esther replaced her (Esther 1).
Don’t despise anyone, not even children. Jesus warned: “Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that in heaven their angels always see the face of My Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 18:10 New King James Version).
Also, don’t despise fellow believers because of their different opinions or beliefs on things that are not fundamental to the faith. The Bible says, “For one believes he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables. Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats; for God has received him. Who are you to judge another’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand” (Romans 14:1-4 New King James Version).
The apostle James cautioned against despising the poor in the church. He warned that there should be no partiality towards the rich. “My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons. For if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment; and ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place; and say to the poor, Stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool: Are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts? Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him? But ye have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgment seats?” (James 2:1-6 King James Version).
Don’t despise the poor. Proverbs 22:2 says the rich and the poor have this in common, the LORD is the maker of them all. Treat everyone with honour. Psalm 69:33 says the LORD hears the poor and does not despise His prisoners.
Don’t despise anyone and if anyone despises you, don’t let it bother you; don’t take it to heart. Paul told Timothy, “Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity” (1 Timothy 4:12 New King James Version). God has not given anyone, whether a superior, subordinate, or contemporary, the permission to despise you. God created you for a purpose and the unfolding or manifestation of people’s destinies is at different levels. Therefore, there is no reason to despise anyone because you feel you’re better than them.
Don’t despise anyone.
TAKE ACTION!
If you are not born again, you need to give your life to Jesus now. I urge you to take the following steps: *Admit you are a sinner and you cannot save yourself and repent of your sins. *Confess Jesus as your Lord and Saviour. *Renounce your past way of life – your relationship with the devil and his works. *Invite Jesus into your life. *As a mark of seriousness to mature in the faith, start attending a Bible-believing and Bible-teaching church. There they will teach you how to grow in the Kingdom of God.
Kindly say this prayer now: O Lord God, I come unto you today. I know I am a sinner and I cannot save myself. I believe that Jesus is the Son of God who died on the cross to save me and resurrected the third day. I repent of my sins and confess Jesus as my Lord and Saviour. I surrender my life to Jesus now and invite Him into my heart. By this prayer, I know I am saved. Thank you, Jesus, for saving me and making me a child of God.
I believe you have said this prayer from your heart. Congratulations! You will need to join a Bible-believing and Bible-teaching church in your area where they will teach you how to live your new life in Christ Jesus. I pray that you flourish like the palm tree and grow like the cedar of Lebanon. May you grow into Christ in all things and become all God wants you to be. I will be glad to hear from you. The Lord be with you.
PRAYER POINTS: Father, forgive me in any way I have despised anyone. Holy Spirit, help me not to despise anyone henceforth. Help me to treat everyone with honour no matter their race, sex, creed, or status in life.
(For over 600 in-depth and powerful messages by T. O. Banso, visit www.cedarministry.org).
T. O. Banso is the President, Cedar Ministry International, Abuja, Nigeria.
Phone No: +2348155744752, +2348033113523
WhatsApp No: +2349081295947
Email: cedarministryintl@yahoo.com,
cedarministryng@gmail.com
Website: www.cedarministry.org
