In Colossians, chapter 3, Paul gives us two general principles governing personal relationships. Here they are: ‘Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus.’  The second is: ‘Whatever you do, work at it heartily as to the Lord and not unto men’ (verses 17 and 23).  Now let me tell in my own words what I believe these two principles mean.

Firstly, we’ve got to learn, as Christians, to treat other people as if WE are Jesus Christ. That is what it means to do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus. To do something in somebody else’s name, is to do it as his representative.  When David stood on the field of battle against Goliath, he said:  ‘I come to you in the name of the Lord of Hosts.’  That is, I am not coming in my own name; I am coming as his representative.  So to the Christian, to do everything in the name of Jesus Christ is to do it as if he were Jesus Christ. I have got to learn, if we are a Christian, to treat other people with the respect and the consideration, the thoughtfulness and the graciousness with which Jesus Christ would treat them.

The second principle is to learn to treat people as if THEY are Jesus Christ. We must learn to do everything as unto the Lord. The roles are now reversed and I must learn to treat every person with the graciousness, the humility, the understanding, and the courtesy.

I tell you that these two principles, to treat other people as if they were Christ and as if I were Christ, are as realistic as they are revolutionary. Those who pursue happiness never find it. Joy and peace are extremely elusive blessings. Happiness is a phantom. Even as we reach out a hand to grasp it, it vanishes into thin air. For joy and peace are not suitable goals to pursue; they are by-products of love. God gives them to us, not when we pursue them, but when we pursue him and others in love.

The self-conscious pursuit of happiness will always end in failure.

But when we forget ourselves in the self-giving service of love, then joy and peace come flooding into our lives as incidental, unlooked-for blessings.

You are certainly a creature of time, but you are also a child of eternity. You are a citizen of heaven, and an alien and exile on earth, a pilgrim travelling to the celestial city. I read some years ago of a young man who found a five-dollar bill on the street and who ‘from that time on never lifted his eyes when walking. In the course of years he accumulated 29,516 buttons, 54,172 pins, 12 cents, a bent back and a miserly disposition.’ But think what he lost. He could not see the radiance of the sunlight, the sheen of the stars, the smile on the face of his friends or the blossoms of springtime, for his eyes were in the gutter. There are too many Christians like that. We have important duties on earth, but we must never allow them to preoccupy us in such a way that we forget who we are and where we are going