Hello All,
(Just a general disclaimer that I must insert here at the beginning. I am but a lay person, like most of you. And these weekly “thoughts” are but my own. Not the definitive word on this or any topic. Just my own conclusions derived from my own study and faith in God. The greatest hope I have for these weekly “thoughts” is to have them be a springboard for further study on your part. Not to be a weekly treatise to be blindly accepted. So, please read them with this intent, this motive in mind).
This week’s lesson from “The Adult Sabbath School Guide” is titled “Unto the Least of These”. In Sabbath’s lesson, the quarterly asks the question, “how can we identify these people (the least) today?” A good question. But the setting of the “memory text” quote gives us the answer. The title of our weekly lesson is taken from Matthew 25: 31-46. In that setting we have Jesus telling us who “the least” are. He says they are the ones “hungry… thirsty… a stranger… naked… sick… in prison” (Matthew 25: 35-36). Is Jesus talking here about those who are literally hungry, thirsty, a stranger, naked, sick and in prison? Yes. Assuredly. Physical want, and relieving that want, is surely important to our Father. And therefore, important to each of us, too.
Yet the more important “want” is spiritual, it is the “want” of spirit, mind, and soul. This “want” leads to the death of the very core of the individual. The very essence of each person. The very image of God in which each person is created and in which each is God’s child. So, even though the “want” may be physical need, it is all the more a “want” or lack-of spirit. Let us look at that list from Jesus again with that understanding and see if Scripture has something to say about it.
· “Hungry… thirsty” = “’Behold, the days are coming,’ says the Lord God, ‘that I will send a famine on the land. Not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord, but shall not find it’” (Hosea 8: 11-12). We need to give the words of the Lord to our brothers and sisters everywhere. Not just the Bible… the “Word” … but the Holy Spirit inspired word from your mouth needed at that time, which “satisfies the longing soul, and fills the hungry soul with goodness” (Psalms 107:9)
· “A stranger” = We need to be that Godly source of love and truth to those who are “without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. (We need to demonstrate to them that) in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ” (Ephesians 2: 12-13).
· “Naked” = How many of our brothers and sisters are spiritually naked? Most? All? Those who live in open rebellion to God and all that is Holy? Those who proudly “show the nations (their) nakedness, and the kingdoms (their) shame” (Nahum 3:5)? Our lives of love, inspired by the Divine, need to be beacons of light and love. To lead such to see their nakedness. And lead them to God who can provide to each those “white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed” (Revelation 3:18).
· “Sick” = So, so “many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep” (1 Corinthians 11:30). It makes “you desolate because of your sins” (Micah 6:13). All need to see in our lives the wonder and glory of God. That despite the cares of this world, God “satisfies your mouth with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s” (Psalms 103.5). Through the Divine Word, we must “strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed” (Hebrews 12: 12-13).
· “In prison” = So many are in prison to their own sin. “His own iniquities entrap the wicked man, and he is caught in the cords of his sin” (Proverbs 5:22). There is only one hope… “the Man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5). He alone can heal. Through His inspiration and power, we are “to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out” (Isaiah 58: 6-7). Truly, God has set you and me free. And our lives are to witness to that fact. With our brothers and sisters we can exclaim, “O Lord, truly I am Your servant; I am Your servant, the son of Your maidservant; You have loosed my bonds” (Psalms 116:16).
Let us identify and love all who are “the least”. And as we look, it may truly surprise us who they are. It is everyone… everywhere. It is our “neighbor” (see Luke 10: 25-37).
With brotherly love,
Jim