Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Christian Compassion, Part 1

I have a testimony that I would like to share. The other day Vickie and I were reading with Zachariah, our soon to be six-year old. Lately I’ve been taking him through the Gospel of Matthew, really focusing on chapters 5, 6, and 7, which I believe are perhaps the most profound three chapters in the entire Bible. There is no portion of Scripture that has spoken into my life more than those three chapters.


I am convinced if we, the Church, would hear and heed what Jesus teaches in just those few chapters, we would be quite successful in giving Him glory and fulfilling our destiny and call. They are that essential to Christian living in my opinion. I make no claim to personify Matthew 5, 6, and 7, as I do not. But I do see it as a challenge in my life, a personal goal and challenge. I’ve been reading these passages, these three chapters, for a whole lot of years. Yet I am always struck by the fact that I’m not doing some of these things.


The other day as we were reading with Zach, we began chapter 6 of Matthew. The points contained within those chapters are things that we all know. We’ve heard it before; we’ve read it before, and we know it! But sometimes even the simplest of truths need to be re-stirred in the life and the heart of the believer. So a lot of this is very basic, but I believe that oftentimes simple truth often has the greatest capacity, or potential, to change our lives. It doesn’t necessarily take some deep revelation. However, it takes a realization and a stirring to get us to the place of doing that which we know.


We’re not always doing what we’re supposed to be doing, are we, or am I the only one? Do you always do what you know you’re supposed to do? How many can say that you always do the right thing? You’d be doing the wrong thing by confirming that and lying. And yet the Bible says that to know the right thing to do and not do it is sin! Wow, how do you like that? Doesn’t that hit you right between the eyes?


And so we’re reading Matthew chapter 6, and it goes like this: Jesus speaking, “Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men.” And we stop right there and take a breath and ask our five-year old, “Do you know what charitable deeds are?” “No, I don’t, Daddy.” And so we begin to explain what a charitable deed is: “doing something good for somebody else, or doing something that will help alleviate distress in someone else’s life . . . and doing it deliberately.”


Jesus said, “Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men,” in other words; we don’t do good simply to be recognized by men or to be seen by them. Otherwise, you have no reward from your Father in Heaven. God doesn’t reward that type of good deed. Therefore, Jesus said, “When you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do, in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may have glory from men. Assuredly I say to you, they have their reward.” Their reward is the fact that people have seen them and heard them, and they have made a big deal out of doing some good thing. Your reward is the fact that other people know you did something good. That’s all you can expect. God’s not going to reward that charitable deed if you did it as before men so as to seek the recognition of people.


There are rewards in Heaven, by the way. Heaven, eternal life, is a free gift. You can’t earn it; you don’t deserve it, we all know that. But there are rewards that are attached to our discipleship. There are rewards awaiting us, so Jesus is speaking of some of these. He says in verse 3, “When you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your charitable deed may be in secret and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.”


So, point number one, we are all to be involved with doing charitable deeds. Now, I’m not suggesting that we just become a bunch of “do-gooders” that depend upon our good works to get us to Heaven. This is not about chalking up brownie points with God. It is simply about being obedient to the Scriptures, about being obedient to the teachings of Jesus, who made it very clear that we are to do charitable deeds. He didn’t say, “If you do,” He said, “When you do.”


I was reminded of my childhood and when I was a Boy Scout for several years. It was drilled into me, and is still with me, that I was to turn a good deed every day. That means do something good for somebody every day. Right? We should seek opportunities! So in discipling our five-year old son, I said, “Zachariah, here’s the deal. I’m going to challenge us, you and me, and we’re going to look for opportunities to do good things for somebody else.” He said, “Okay, Dad.” There’s quite a bit more to this story, and I will continue it in a few days, but I’ll stop for now for the sake of brevity.


My prayer for this series of blogs regarding “Christian Compassion” is that our hearts will be stirred to living out chapters 5, 6, and 7 of Matthew in new ways and with fresh realization.


~ pg

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