Irritate one another – Devotion for
Being a younger brother, I learned at an early age how to annoy and irritate my older sister. There were all sorts of tactics that I could use, from making really annoying sounds (like “blleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh”) to simply staring at her in the car (“Mom, he’s looking at me”). Amazingly enough, I can see now that my youngest son has inherited some of those same spectacular abilities, as in no time at all he can annoy his older brother (“Dad, he won’t stop singing!”). I think we all know how to annoy, irritate, and even provoke those who are close to use – we know just what buttons to push to get them going. Husbands and wives learn quickly which buttons to push to provoke the other in the midst of an argument (“What do you mean you do everything in the house? When was the last time you took out the trash?”). And yes, fellow employees do certain things just to annoy you (“I think he is late everyday just to annoy me!”). It is funny to me, but it seems that it is almost human nature to have the ability to provoke, irritate, or incite one another. But it even goes beyond human nature, because in watching our 2 cats (who are brother and sister), one will be perfectly comfortable and napping, when the other one will come and pounce on the tail of the other – and you can see the look of irritation upon the face of the used-to-be-napping cat.
This morning I was reading from Hebrews 10:19-25, and verse 24 really jumped out at me: “and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds.” The Greek word that is defined here as “stimulate” is PAROXYMOS, which is used in various places in the New Testament as stimulate, sharp contention, sharp disagreement, stir up, and provoke. Another form of the same word is defined as “be irritable.” I think that the choice of word used here is very interesting, because the author of Hebrews could have used a word like ENERGEŌ, which means “inspire,” and then the verse would read “let us consider how to inspire one another to love and good deeds.” Or the author could have used the word PARAKALEŌ, which means “exhort” or “encourage,” so the passage would then be “let us consider how to encourage one another to love and good deeds.” But I believe that the author of Hebrews was very intentional in his choice of words, and I believe that he truly meant to choose such a strong word as PAROXYMOS, because I believe that he literally wants us to stimulate, and even irritate, one another to love and good deeds. It goes way beyond just simply inspiring and encouraging one another. He takes it to another level, to the point that we may even enter into sharp contention or disagreement with a brother or sister so as to get them to love and do good deeds.
So who can you irritate today?
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