How Should Christians Treat Each Other?
A brief answer from 1 Timothy 5:1-2.
It can be easy for Christians to fall into the trap of mocking the older or younger generation.
There ought to be mutual love and respect between Christians - regardless of their age difference.
Paul wrote to Timothy about how to help the church interact with each other, and he used the family as the example to follow.
Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity. (1 Timothy 5:1-2)
Older Christians
The NET Bible says, “Do not address an older man harshly but appeal to him as a father.” Younger Christians should respect older Christian men as a father. Consider how you would speak to and interact with your father. If he were wrong about something, you would encourage him to do right out of love and respect.
The same goes for how younger Christians are to consider old Christian women as a mother. We treat our mothers with respect and love. The older women in the congregation should be treated like they were our own mothers.
Younger Christians
For the Christians near our age or younger - we should treat them as a brother or sister. We love our siblings and never want to see anything bad happen to them. We should certainly never treat them in an impure way.
If a congregation of the Lord’s people will treat each other in this way, the church will benefit, and God will be glorified.
Let us be careful to treat each other with love and respect - the world is watching.