SOMEBODY'S WATCHING

A faithful church member had some issues going on in their life and needed help.   The person who they approached for help wasn’t a member of their church family, but a neighbor.  While the neighbor was taking care of their dilemma, they started a conversation and mentioned that they see them go to church all the time, sometimes three times a week.  They shared that they even bought some of the dinners they sold for church functions.  They watched them bring home families less fortunate and feed them or at Christmas give gifts to those in church less fortunate.  They reminded them of past conversations they had about paying tithes.

They asked had they changed churches, especially since a recent disability prohibited them from driving to church as they normally did.   They told them how sorry they were about their misfortunes and loss of loved ones.  They wondered out loud to them, where the church was in their time of need.   Just imagine overhearing a conversation such as this or even being the person confronted with this, how would you react or respond?  If you’ve never been confronted with this by a neighbor or family member, you’re fortunate.  You may have even asked yourself this question during a time of distress.

There are many opinions on this and many circumstances that make it difficult to come to one conclusion on how we should respond to this as a Christian.  We are told by many examples in the bible of how we should live and interact in the world.  One scripture says if you see your brother in need.  Jesus commands the church to take care of the widows and orphans.  Then there is the example of what the Good Samaritan did.  We know that sometimes we have not because we ask not.

The Christian has to be careful to not show respect of persons and treat each church member the same, not just those in our circle of friends.  We have to be sensitive to our fellow church members and respond according to how we would want to be treated in that same situation.  When helping people in general, we must have the right motivation, not rooted in selfish intentions.  Love should have been the motivation; the love of God, even if not for the recipient of your act.

 When we reflect over the thing we did for others, it should be noted that we weren’t looking for anything in return.  Most important, we should be striving to be pleasing to God, who promised to be the one to repay us.  I’m confident and it’s been proven in my life that He’ll send the help we need.

One thing we can be sure of, like it or not, the world is watching how we the Christians treat not only our families but how we treat our fellow church members.  We should also remember God himself is watching how we treat one another and bringing reward or reproach to us for our deeds.  Jesus knew that the world will take care of its own, (John 15:19) so, one of His last commandments to the church was for the church to show love one to another.  He says this is how the world will know we are one of His disciples.  Remember, somebody is watching how we treat our fellow church members.