Today’s Devotional: “Determining Our Core Values”

Core values are the principles we hold that form the foundation on which we perform our work and conduct ourselves. For those of us who are Christians, I can say that these values, which have stood the test of time, come directly from the Bible. These values have not changed and have guided humanity successfully for millennia. Humanity gets off track when it fails to follow the Bible or changes its meaning.

Now, there is a lot that is there, so what are the core values we need to help us reset back to God? There are two I’d like to share with you.

One of the religious leaders of that day asked the first core value. He asked Jesus, “What is the greatest commandment of them all?”

And Jesus replied, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Matthew 22:37-39)

The second should be our belief in Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord, and our living our lives for Him.

This was a core value of the Apostle Paul; one he lived by his entire life. He said, “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” (Philippians 1:21)

Now, often it is the second part of this verse that is emphasized as we contemplate our end, namely heaven, or as Paul said, “to die is gain.” But in the meantime, we are here on earth, so we need to live for Christ while we are here. To do so, we are to pursue our knowledge of Him, which comes from the Bible. It also means that Jesus needs to be our focus, goal, and ultimate desire.