The admonition to love one another is placed directly after the admonition to not compete, because it is difficult for love and competition to coexist. One of the most destructive things to a marriage that a married couple can do is to compete with one another. God does not tell a man and woman married to one another to become a team, or to work together, but to become one.

The devil can certainly devise a temptation that we lack the strength to overcome, so we must simply avoid being available when temptation comes. We may find ourselves disobeying God if we overestimate our strength and fail to heed the admonition of God to avoid temptation rather than to try to resist it.

God created us with the capacity to think and to choose, because He desired that His relationship with us be one of mutual love as well. To God, how we choose, rather than what we say, is the essence of our expression of love.

He that chooses the things of the world over the things of God will show his hatred for God once God denies him something that he wants, just as a spoiled child throws a temper tantrum when he does not get his way. But that is where discipline comes in. Just as Jesus chose to make the ultimate sacrifice for us, we can choose to serve God and not be spoiled children.

The Holy Spirit is the intelligence of God that is always looking for ways to bring life, meaning reconciliation, to man from God. Those filled with the Spirit of God focus on salvation and reconciliation, just as Jesus brought salvation to reconcile us to God, not condemnation to the world for sin.

Jesus is telling us that we are participants in something that is bigger than ourselves, and as long our thinking revolves around ourselves, we cannot develop the personal characteristics required for maturity.

God wants to be our friend. God wants to commune with each of us personally, on a daily basis, not just to give us instructions, but to both talk to us and listen to our inmost thoughts.

We ought not pray only when we have trials, but we should recognize that every decision that we make, regardless of how trivial it may be, is a better decision if it is covered with believing prayer.