February 25 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

Colossians 3:1-17:

¹If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
²Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
³For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
⁴When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.
⁵Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:
⁶For which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience:
⁷In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them.
⁸But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.
⁹Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;
¹⁰And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:
¹¹Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.
¹²Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering;
¹³Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.
¹⁴And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.
¹⁵And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.
¹⁶Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
¹⁷And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.

Devotional

The activities of a new week are upon us. Perhaps some of us wish that they were more exciting, more glamorous, and more distinguished. But we must never despise the smaller tasks that are assigned to us in God's providence. We must not forget what a privilege it is to have the health and the capacity to do something useful, however humble it may seem. How many incapacitated people there are who would be overjoyed to be able to form the simplest and least esteemed of these tasks - be able once more to do even a few of the small things they used to do for themselves and for others.

And let us not underrate the value of "smaller" and unspectacular tasks or the devotion and testimony of the incapacitated. If everyone would do nothing except spectacular work that is obviously important, very little would be accomplished. Large achievements depend on countless smaller labors. All our legitimate tasks are a gift of God and an opportunity to honor Him by devoted service. Whatever we do - small or large, in word or deed - we are to do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father through Him. We must be faithful stewards in all activity great or small, joyfully fulfilling every task to the glory of God.

Welcome to "Think on These Things," a twelve-week daily devotional prepared by the late Dr. John H. Skilton, an ordained minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and for many years Chairman of the New Testament Department at Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia.

We are indebted to P & R Publishing and Skilton House Ministries for permission to use this copyrighted material on the OPC Web site. (P & R held the copyright from 1975 to 2005, at which time they reassigned the copyright to Skilton House.)