“Thus
also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, ‘You
have faith, and I have works.’ Show me your faith without your works,
and I will show you my faith by my works.”
James 2:17-18
Last week I asked you to consider two things. We
all have the capacity to do good, but more often than not we do it out of
selfishness, not godliness. Also, people confuse the capacity to do good with
having the ability to BE good. It’s NOT the same thing. This week we look at
the final stone of spiritual warfare, Service. Now, let’s be clear, I’m not
talking about the social gospel of the nineteenth century in which works
overtook the faith aspect of Christianity to the point where the church began
to define itself by the number of converts it reached and the amount of giving.
It might sound good, but then it becomes about the numbers and not about the quality
of the fruit produced. Jesus did say, “Therefore by their fruits you will know them.”
Matt.7:20
Jesus
was the example of one who was completely motivated to serve others. “Let this
mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being
in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made
Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of
men. And being found in
appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of
the cross.” Philippians 2:5-8 There is no greater
example of service than that, to be so selfless as to be sacrificed for the
salvation of others. So, how can we who are called Christians become Christ
like?
It comes down to what
motivates us to do things. Jesus said that our first priority is to love God,
and our second is likewise, to love our neighbor. In the same exchange of conversation,
it was asked of Him who our neighbor really is, that is, who is it we’re
supposed to view as deserving of our love. Jesus tells the story of the Good
Samaritan Luke 10:25-37. The interesting part of the story is that he’s talking
to a Jewish audience about a person they consider to be unclean and less than
them in importance. Yet He asks who acts neighborly in the story, those in
their society they consider to be godly or the one they consider to be less
than human. The answer is obvious, the Samaritan is more the soldier of
godliness than the priest and the Levite, even though they had the crown and
the title of worldly church goers. They had the numbers, but they also didn’t
have the heart because they weren’t willing to consider the injury of their own
country man and take the time, especially when it came to breaking their
schedule and dirtying their hands. They excused their own behavior in some way.
Maybe they thought someone else will come along and help out. Maybe they didn’t
want to get involved, or it was too much of a personal risk because the robbers
could still be around. The Samaritan didn’t hesitate. He got involved and made
the sacrifice, even though the man wouldn’t have done the same for him. His
motivation was that he saw someone in need and he could meet that need, that
was it. That made him a neighbor.
Many years ago I was
teaching on this scripture in a prison ministry pod. A girl I had known in High
School was one of the inmates. She sat beside me. What a turn of events for us.
There I was, able to walk out of the jail, and she was imprisoned. I knew her
story. We had both grown up in similar families, big Hispanic families. We both
had siblings that loved us, and parents that prayed for us and taught us about
God. She married young and had a son, and so did I, but that’s where our lives
changed. I gave my life to Jesus, and she gave hers to drugs. Yet, there she
was, sitting beside me, and we talked like old friends. Then she asked me what
that world meant, “neighbor” as I went over the Greatest Commandment. She said,
“When we were kids, you were my neighbor at school. We were partners in doing
projects and scooted our desks together, but I never thought of loving you. So
what does that mean? Neighbor?” I went on and told the story of the Good
Samaritan. She suddenly looked at me and said, “So your neighbor is just the
person next to you. It doesn’t matter who they are? We’re just supposed to love
them?” I told her yes, we are supposed to love them. She was quiet for the rest
of the study. When the evening ended she came to me and said, “I never thought
about it before, but now I think it would be impossible to love someone who isn’t
right next to you, so God made it easier, not harder. Love comes easy to love
someone when they’re the person right next to you, no matter who they are.” I
was so blessed by her words. How wise she was.
We now know who we are to
serve, but now the question comes as to how to serve them. God has blessed all
of us with gifts and abilities. I love writing, and communication through
speaking and teaching. Others have the gift of hospitality! Wow, am I blessed
by them. Others are soothers, they just make us feel comfortable. Others are
blessed with the gift of song, or artistry, or design, or logistics, or like my
friend Stevie-organization. I used to covet other people’s gifts, but not
anymore. Now I rejoice in their abilities because we are all members of the
body, and the body needs all its members. “If the foot should say,
“Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the
body? And if the ear should
say, “Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of
the body? If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? But now God
has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased. And if they were all one member, where would the body be?” 1 Cor.12:15-19
Besides employing our gifts we should also look to
serve in the common ways. The Samaritan didn’t serve by doing anything more
than anyone else could have done. He met a need. We are all Samaritans. As
Christians we are like Christ in one important way, we all are called to
sacrifice our lives for others on a daily basis. We are called to take the
stripes and give up the comfortable for the cutting. Yet the world expects it
from us. When disaster strikes it’s the Christians who come to the rescue, and
it’s the godly who rush to serve. They know it. When we don’t come they point
the finger not at us, but at our Lord. “I thought you were a Christian,” they
say when we fall short. Why would they say that? Because even the nonbelievers
know that Jesus went the distance, and they expect no less from His followers. We
need to do the simple things for people too. A mile is not walked in one
stride, it’s walked one step at a time. Every race is run in the same way, regardless
if it’s a sprint or a marathon, it’s run one step after the other until we
reach the finish line. We just need to be faithful in whatever it is He’s given
us to do moment to moment, whether it’s to clean your baby’s nose, or to
perform CPR in an emergency room. One might seem more heroic than another, but
it’s all what each of us called to do as a member of the body.
David was called to sling a stone, and the rest of
the army was called to give a shout. The victory didn’t belong to David, it
belonged to God. Since the victory was assured that day by the God of Israel,
there was no loss of life on the side of Saul’s army. There was no man left
behind on the battle field. All of the Israelites went home at the close of day
victorious.
Leave me a comment. I’d like to know something from
you, my readers. I wrote a novel called, “Thirty-Seven:Four”. It’s the story of
four women who go after their desires only to find that when they delight in
God do they find what really makes them content. What is it that you feel God
has for you and how do you feel it lines up with the gifts He has given you and
calling He’s placed on your heart? You can leave it here, on this Blogspot, or
on the Facebook page. Next week we’ll look at the Shepherd’s pouch…the heart. God
bless and be armed with the weapons of spiritual warfare.
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