Other People (Part III)

Maybe you don’t think you’re worthy to help anybody.  If that’s you today, I’d ask “What did Jesus say to Peter?”  John 21 records Jesus asking Peter three times if he loved Him.  Do you love Christ?  You must know the answer to this questions.  This should not be an IDK text response.  After each declaration of Peter that he loves Him, Jesus instructed him to “Feed My sheep.”  If you know that you love Jesus, then you have no cause of concern for your past sins.  He took care of those.  Your concern is His instruction and call to you now. 

Maybe you just have trouble being around those people.  Maybe your insides churn and twist when you’re around people who stink and are dirty, who are belligerent, who smell of alcohol and make no sense because they are not in their right mind.  I submit that it is better to have not heard of Jesus and be out of your mind in that way than to have heard of Jesus and be unwilling to commit to Him, therefore being out of your “reasonable” mind.  To the nostrils of God, you smell of pride and ego and you make no sense because you are not in your right mind.  I refer to the Prodigal Son story.

Or maybe you just can’t be around someone who worships something that obviously isn’t Jesus: Hindu, Muslim, a college, exercise, themselves, sexual orientation, liberal theology, etc.  Just being around them with their opposing viewpoints crawls up you back and it takes every bit of energy not to want to get in heated and bitter arguments every time you are near them.  In fact, you wonder when you can go to war with them; doing something against them would feel better.  As best as I can read and interpret Jesus’s intentions, we are to provide for their needs also. We are to do what He did.  Ephesians 5:1-2 says “be imitators of God as dear children.  And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God”.

³⁵ for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; ³⁶ I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.

Matthew Henry comments that these described good works imply three things:

1.   Self-denial and contempt of the world.  The things of the world are no further good things except what we are enabled to do good with them. 

2.   Love to our brethren.  This is the second great commandment.  We must give proof to this love by our readiness to do good and to communicate.  “Good wishes are but mockeries without good works.”

3.   A believing regard to Jesus Christ.  What is done is done out of a love for Him and is for His blessing and revelation.

Christ makes the best use of our infirmities, our pain, our suffering.  He used His own to save the world.  If we are willing to give him ours, he will use them to make us stronger and closer to Him.  Just so, He will make the best use of our services.  Not a single cup of cold water given to someone who thirst is wasted.  Christ will make the best use of it.  Jesus says in Mark 9:40-41, “for whoever is not against us is for us.  Truly I tell you, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to the Messiah will certainly not lose their reward.”  Here Jesus is saying that whoever shows benevolence associated with Him is useful.  No effort is wasted.

Back to our original question, when you look at other people, do you see Christ?  Is your heart willing to see Christ WITHIN YOURSELF when you see “other people”?  Do you see Him through you giving when someone asks?  Or even if they don’t ask?  I am not Christ, but Christ is here with me.  Will I allow Him to provide for the needs of others?  If so, it will be miraculous.  It will be blessed by God and it will reveal the glory of God.  Even if that glory is only in my changed heart and purpose and for me to see.

Is my heart willing to see Christ perform a miracle of provision to fulfill His call to me to provide for others?  Is my heart willing to say “I cannot, but believe that Christ can and will”?  When I hear His call, do I count my inventory and resources before turning to Christ and saying “I’m not enough”, or do I immediately declare to Him that if He isn’t making a way there isn’t a way?  Am I confident through His Word and my own experience that He will make a way?  I should be.  If I am not, I am having a faith battle.

When I see others, am I willing to see the revelation of Christ?  Sure, it’s just a bum wanting two dollars.  Or is it a brother or sister of Christ (“My brethren”) asking for the revelation of Christ from a fellow sinner who, through Christ within, will serve him by fulfilling his physical need through the miraculous provision of God the Father?  Our belief in Him is the revelation of Christ.

When you look at “other people”, what do you see?