“In a word, what I’m saying is, Grow up. You’re kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you.” – Matthew 5:48 (MSG)
I love when God’s Word is THIS bold and real. It’s like hearing from your best friend…the only one who can talk to you like that and challenge you that way without you getting mad at them! Sometimes, we just need to be reminded to suck it up, go “all in,” and just do this thing! We have to stop stomping our feet, whining, and acting like we don’t understand what it is God wants us to do. The Bible is much more clear than we would like to admit. We must stop taking too lightly the Word God gave us as a blueprint for our lives, and start applying it liberally to every situation, every day.
The moment we asked Jesus to come into our lives, we accepted Him as our King and we agreed to submit to His authority by becoming subjects of His Kingdom. In exchange for this, He forgave our sins, yes, but He didn’t stop there. 2 Corinthians 5:14-21 tells us gave us a brand new identity. Through Him, we were completely reconciled AND, because of what He did for us, we were then made His ambassadors… charged with the responsibility of carrying on His ministry of reconciliation. We are not just peasants that the King has pardoned, we’re on staff.
Through that appointment, we are now responsible for showing others how to become reconciled to Christ in the same way that He showed us–selflessly and compassionately, without concern for what we may or may not get out of it. Mark 16:15 tells us to go unto all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Acts 1:8 says we are to be His witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. I’m beginning to sense a pattern here. I believe, somehow, we are all supposed to be involved in helping other people come to know Christ. Can we please just admit that this is part of our job and do it?
But how do we do it? Well, Jesus said in Matthew 4:19, He would show us how to become fishers of men. In studying His perfect example, I see that He simply lived generously and graciously by going about doing good. His eyes were always open to people whom He passed by along the way to where He was going. Sometimes, the disciples would try to keep Him on schedule when He would get “sidetracked,” but Jesus was teaching us a very important principle: Never let your ministry get in the way of ministering to people.
When Jesus saw someone hurting, He comforted them. When He saw someone who was sick, He healed them. When He saw someone who was treated as an outcast, He loved and protected them. Watching Jesus, we can clearly see that the BEST way to minister to people is just to care enough to see them, then love them enough to provide for their needs. And, if He didn’t have the provision they needed? He simply prayed for them and their needs were provided for by the Father. How else could He have fed over five-thousand people with one kid’s sack lunch?
Jesus often stopped for “the least of these”…children, women, Samaritans, tax collectors. These people were the bottom of the societal barrel. Most of them weren’t popular, they weren’t rich, they weren’t church leaders, and they didn’t have great political influence…They were just people with needs. Some of them were crazy, some were whores, and some were just plain lazy (how long did that crippled guy lay by the pool waiting to be healed?!). It didn’t matter who they were or what they had done. He just forgave them and He blessed them.
We all have people in our lives who have needs. So it seems to me, a good ambassador for Christ would begin to see those people and start meeting their needs. It doesn’t matter if we think they will really appreciate it or deserve it. It doesn’t even matter if they have hurt us or wronged us in some way. As representatives for Christ, we are not allowed to evaluate others according to what they have or how they look, but we must see them according to who they are on the inside. From that viewpoint, if we are looking through the eyes of love, we will find the imprint of God upon their hearts–because we are ALL made in His image—and, being brothers and sisters in Christ, we should then feel compelled to care for them.
We need to quit walking by people who need us and pretending we don’t see them. We need to talk to the dirty, homeless guy and provide him with something to eat. We need to accept that drug-addict relative that everyone else has written off. We need to love that person who has decided to live a homosexual lifestyle. We need to help find (or be) parents to orphans. We need to help provide for widows in countries where social assistance is unheard of. We need to care for sick people who live days away from any kind of medical facility. We need to encourage that prisoner who is locked up and remind him there is hope and forgiveness. There is no end to this list. There are literally billions of ways that people are hurting, so there are billions of ways that we can help. If we can’t physically do something, perhaps we can help financially support a missionary who can. If not that, then I KNOW we can all pray for these people’s needs to be met…and not just say we will, but to earnestly stand in the gap and passionately intercede for them, petitioning God to intervene.
You won’t have to look long to find someone, I promise. Just ask God to open your eyes and, I assure you, He will begin to throw people in front of you everywhere you go. When that begins to happen, don’t forget to do your duty as an ambassador and share with them the life that is available to them through Jesus. People are dying every day without knowing because someone has refused to do their job with excuses like: It’s embarrassing; I don’t really know them; It’s uncomfortable; I don’t’ want to look like a weirdo; I don’t like to pray out loud.
Whatever.
Don’t even say one more time that you’re a Christian. Show it. #wheretherubbermeetstheroad
220 Gal 