Daily Lesson for March 7, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is taken from Philippians 4 verse 2:

"I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord."

2,000 years later and we're still talking about these two women, Euodia and Syntyche, and how they just couldn't get along. Nobody remembers what the fuss was all about. Nobody recalls what the issues were. We can't say who wronged who. But what sticks in our mind, all these many years later, is that they were always at each other. Two God-fearing, Jesus-loving, church-serving ladies, yes; but what we really remember is that they just couldn't get along.

You would think in a book as holy as the Bible we would have this thing straightened out - who was in the right and who was in the wrong. But no, all we've got is Paul's plea for Euodia and Syntyche to work it out. I hear their protests. Euodia says, "Yes, but Paul you don't know the while story." And Syntyche says, "Paul, when I explain to you what really happened you'll be sorry you mentioned my name so carelessly." Paul is wrong - that's the only thing Euodia and Syntyche can agree with each other on.

Paul says what they really need to agree with each other in is the Lord. What does he mean? He means it's time for for putting away self-righteousness and putting on humility. It's time for forgiving each other and for accepting forgiveness from each other - which also means accepting responsibility for part of the break in relationship. In other words, it's time for Euodia and Syntyche to admit they share the one same Lord and savior and that neither one of them are He.

The Bible only remembers Euodia and Syntyche as two women so at odds with each other that Paul had to call them out in a letter. But God remembers them for what they did after they received that letter. I wonder what it was . . .