Being of Service to Our Neighbor

Four hundred years before our Lord was born, the famous Greek poet and tragic playwright Sophocles once said: "The most beautiful human endeavor is to be useful to one’s neighbor." We Christians know that he was right; it is a statement that, even today, validates our way of perceiving and acting in the world in which we have been called to live, hand in hand with our Creator. There is no joy like the joy we feel when we can be useful to our neighbor—to the believer, as a brother or sister, for edification and exhortation; and to the unbeliever, as a testimony. Jesus’ ministry was focused in that direction: bread for the hungry, healing for the sick, comfort for those who wept, blessings for the poor in spirit, and freedom for those held captive by sin. The worker of wonders offered his back so that the world could unload its sorrows and misfortunes upon it. But the world did not know him. Even today, nearly two-thirds of the world’s population ignore or reject him.

Being useful to our neighbor has to do with love; it has to do with the supreme commandment that Jesus left to all his disciples. I see the usefulness of Christian virtue when human solidarity overflows in doing good without expecting anything in return, when we understand the misery of others and make it our own and, out of love, share the loaves and fish of God’s provision so that each person may suffer less misery and burdens may be made bearable. Christian virtue—understood as justice and integrity in "the one who brought us into his marvelous light"—means walking with our arms around the weak so that they do not fall, circumcising (cutting out by the roots) our inner ego so that we may give ourselves to others.

The Word of God encourages us to be pilgrims at heart toward others, clothed with the fruits of love. Without love, there is no being useful to our neighbor. Without love, there is no virtue. God speaks to us in 1 Corinthians 13:3 when Paul tells us: "If I give all I possess to the poor, and if I surrender my body to be consumed by the flames, but do not have love, I gain nothing by it."

The reasons that lead me to these ideas come from the comments of all the brothers and sisters who receive their daily devotional through "God Speaks Today." It is beautiful to see in these comments how God’s people can help, build up, and exhort one another amid ordinary, everyday problems and others that are so difficult and private, such as those involving family dysfunction, difficulties in marriage, with one’s children—in short, with life in the here and now. Nevertheless, we must be cautious and wise when ministering to a brother or sister. What must prevail in our ministry to them is love, never judgment, which leads us into strife or argument. In that way, we are not useful to our neighbor. In that way, we fall under the condemnation from which Christ has already exempted us since we began walking in his ways. In that way, we play into the devil’s hands. We are already divided enough by the madness of denominations and man-made doctrines that seek to extort God’s people by exploiting their inconsistencies.

We are all precious—valuable—in the Kingdom of God. Every brother who asks for advice is an opportunity the Lord gives us to show our kind and Christian side, doing so with the conviction that none of us is perfect, yet we are nevertheless called to build one another up, even though we ourselves occasionally suffer spiritual collapses. The royal priesthood we have as our inheritance is synonymous with a commitment in Christ to watch over, care for, and lift up the brother who is weak in the faith, the one who seeks God’s help in particular circumstances but does not know how to find it.

The world wants to see us defeated, but Christ already gave us the victory two millennia ago. We must teach that victory; we must bear witness to it by encouraging and ministering to others. This beautiful exchange of ideas—we do not always have to agree fully with the views of all our brothers and sisters, but we must respect them—which our Lion of Judah Congregation website has generated is serving that purpose, and no one can imagine the things God can do when people come together to pray and minister to one another. This website and its devotional space, "God Speaks Today," must be a place where all of us come together, never a place of division. Today, in a very special way, I offer a prayer of thanksgiving for this daily meeting with God that we all share, and I pray that the Lord will richly bless the eternal people of his covenant, sealed with the blood our beloved Savior shed on the cross.

May God bless you and keep you!