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Top X August 16, 2025 Devotional

by David Joynt on August 16, 2025


MATTHEW 22:37-40 | 37 He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the greatest and first                   commandment. 39 And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

 

The tenth commandment also protects us from missing the opportunity to enhance our neighbor’s lives and celebrate their successes. We can multiply our own joy if we invest in helping our neighbors to achieve and grow. By empowering them, we fulfill the heart of the law, expressing our love for God by blessing our neighbors.

 

Jesus wants us to reverse the dynamics of covetousness and envy. When we are fueled by other’s triumphs and we measure our lives by our positive impact in their lives, then we escape narcissism and are on the road to knowing a greater love, and a genuine holiness. Our souls, hearts, and lives will be truly rich, indeed.

 

Are you reversing the dynamics of envy?

 

 

Gracious God,

Help me measure my worth by my impact on others. May their success fuel my joy and fill my soul.

Amen.

 

About the Author
David Joynt

Dave Joynt began his service as a pastor at Valley Presbyterian Church in Paradise Valley, Arizona in September 2014. This meant a move away from the Northeast, where he has a long history, growing up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and then serving congregations in Delaware and New Jersey for a total of 23 years.

Dave was nurtured in a great church in Bethlehem where his parents, Anne and Carey, served as elders. He graduated in classics from Lehigh University where his Father taught, and then from Oxford, where he met his wife Julia. Ordained in 1988, he completed a Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1993.

He and Julia have a son, Tristan, and a daughter, Madeleine.

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