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 Bible Study Guide”, is titled “Mission to the Needy”. In this lesson we look particularly at how “God has a plan to reach those who might be needy in any number of ways. Their needs might be physical, emotional, financial or even social… Whatever the needs are, we must be ready to do what we can to help. This is a central part of what it means to be a Christian and what mission must include.” (quarterly for Sabbath Nov. 18). A worthy study. A study with many facets.
What does the “other” need? What makes them “needy”? The quarterly posits the answer. “First, we become their friends; then we learn about their needs; and finally, we lead them to Jesus, who is the only One who can help them” (quarterly for Sunday, November 19). This is the one great formula for our “mission”. Our mission? To love. A most simple mission, a most wonderful mission, a most challenging mission, a singular mission from each individual to each individual. And this is the best part… and the hardest part. Our mission is not about programs, or church evangelistic outreach. It is simply about love from each toward each. A mission of relationship. A mission of love… with no ulterior motive.
Our culture is rife with falseness and of using others for our own ends. Any “love” shown for any reason is open for question and for scrutiny. Especially love from a person who has a religious “faith”. Religious friendship has historically been one of the truly suspicious “loves”. For there always seems to be an ulterior motive to this religious “love”. The ulterior motive of proselytizing. Winning someone to our particular brand of “faith”. This is not really “love” or “friendship”. This “love” or “friendship” quickly dissipates, especially if the one you seek to “love” rejects your appeal to become a member of your particular brand of “faith”.
Each of us started on our faith-journey from where we were at the time we began. Sinners with a sinner’s view of God, a sinner’s view of ourselves, a sinner’s view of each other. But we started on the journey of a thousand steps with the first step (I pray each of us has continued the steps, continued the journey back Home to our Father). As a result of this initial sinner’s view, each of us continued to have a skewed picture of God, of ourselves, and of each other (more or less). Each of us is therefore guilty of “loving” others from sinful motives (more or less). But if we have moved from this initial sinner’s-view, we grow in the “love of Christ which passes knowledge” (Ephesians 3:19). We start to “be filled with all the fullness of God” (ibid). Each of us who have continued this journey back Home, back to the Love of God, long to have others respond to that love, too. We begin to “see” the manner in which our loving Father… loves. He is the great Listener.
As we read the accounts of our Father’s Son, we see this “love” played-out in humanity. We see Divine love in all its wonderful array as it meets so many on their terms. Yes, on the sinner’s terms. God meets us on our terms. Meets us as we perceive Him, perceive ourselves, perceive each other. In His earthly manifestation, God would see the person. The real person. The hidden need in each person and meet them on those terms. In this, we see God’s mission… and our mission, too. Our love must be genuine. Our love must be love, for love’s sake alone. Without ulterior motives. Just love.
Jesus “had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man” (John 2:25). But we are not Jesus. In order for us to know another, we must “first become their friends; then we learn about their needs…” (op. cit.). This is the only way we mortals can know each other, relate to each other, and genuinely love each other. Which is our mission. To come close… and listen. Listen with the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit. Listen to the inner heart. And if we thus listen, we will see their “need”.
“Their needs might be physical, emotional, financial or even social… Whatever the needs are, we must be ready to do what we can to help. This is a central part of what it means to be a Christian and what mission must include.” (op. cit.). This our mission of love. May it be the overarching principle of our existence. A principle of love. How good it is to be back in our Family of love. May we be that instrument of love for each brother and sister. Loving them back Home to their true Family.
With brotherly love,
Jim