A Spiritual Inventory for Helping Others
Rev. Ben Glaser
Good Morning!
Most preaching involves witnessing to the mercy of God to sinners. It seems like no matter what page you are reading it including hearing a lot about the LORD not destroying deserving men. Another aspect of this from the man side of the view is seeing those who refuse to accept God’s love. In Genesis 4 we see this in spades and what happens when Cain, rather than doing the smart thing and taking advantage of the long-suffering mercy the Lord holds out for him, continues to attempt to run away from His presence. In a sense the scene here is Jehovah giving Cain enough rope to hang himself. As he descends further and further into personal destruction everything just gets harder and harder for Cain, but he doesn’t see it like that. He hides his eyes from the truth and does everything he can to construct a Potemkin reality. Nothing Cain does is surprising to anyone who has been alive for five minutes.
We see people act like this all the time. Folks dear to us get in a spiral of bad decisions and refuse every off-ramp offered to them. Then get mad at the very people trying to help when the world ends up looking exactly like we told them it would. For those with eyes to see nothing is more frustrating than these types of situations. “See I told you so” might be satisfying when it comes to observing the best laid plans of politicians and enemy combatants collapse in on themselves, but it brings out a completely different emotion when it happens to family and friends.
Our desire is to help. It’s a good and God-honoring instinct. Yet sometimes the best thing to do is to let people discover for themselves what mistakes they are making so they can learn from them. However, in other circumstances that is the worst thing to do. It’s never easy to figure out what the best plan is. So what are we to do with people close to us who are entering, or living, in a Cain-like existence? Well, part of the answer is found in the Church, and the rest of it is centered on asking the only one able to make the change, the Lord our God and heeding what He as revealed in His word and by His providence.
It is worthwhile to think through and consider some more about in the light of these truths how our local Church fellowship can assist these folks and how making use of the spiritual weapons given to us by our Savior are our only hope in helping those nearest to us when they need it.
How exactly does the Church do this? Well, we need to consider is what the Church is. It is the gathered body of believers in Jesus Christ. Being a believer means being someone who has wrestled with sin. It means that you have experienced what it looks like to give in to the power of seduction, greed, jealousy, pride, etc… You understand the fight against the principalities and the darkness, the subtlety of Satan and you have faced the war between the old man and the new man. All of this should have granted any redeemed sinner a heart of compassion. At the center of every true believer is the spirit of the Sinner of Luke 18, not the Publican. When you see a Cain, or a Saul, or a Simon careening towards destruction your heart is moved in pity, not arrogant shame. To be losing in that struggle, falling short, is not for a Christian an alien experience. That’s why when we think about the way Jesus treats the lost we don’t see Him castigating and arrogantly mocking men and women given over to lust or drunkenness or thievery. He mourns their transgressions. He does so because He understands the consequences and the weight of sin. Not that He himself has sinned, or even had the possibility of sinning, but as God-Incarnate He has witnessed the failures of billions of people over the eternity of His existence. He sees in the Scribes the very same tendencies He saw in the teachers of Jeremiah’s day. The Church is first of all a place where men and women who are falling short should be able to receive spiritual, as well as physical, tending. The Church is a hospital for sinners, not a stage show for outward saints. Also part of being moved with compassion and love means recognizing that allowing someone to continue to hurt themselves is not an act of sympathy or kindness.
Here is another place where we learn from the example of Jesus. His message was not one of benign neglect when it came to dealing with the sin itself. After Christ saved the woman caught in adultery from those who meant her harm He told her to go and sin no more, for the Rich Young Ruler He called him out on his sin and did not let him get out from His presence without calling him to account. The Church while being that care facility needs to do the necessary work of healing the disease. Hospitals aren’t to admit sick people and leave them sick. They are supposed to fix what is wrong. Any “Church” which does not call sinners to repentance and point them to the cross is not worthy of the name, because they are not actually helping the people they claim to want to help.
That’s where the spiritual weapons come in.
Anyone who wants to lift a hard-hearted sinner out of their sinful lifestyle and mindset has to begin with the same message that brought YOU out of darkness and into the marvelous light of God’s grace in Christ. What you win people with is the same truth that has found the lost for 6,000 years. There is no need to “improve it”. A way we go about making sure we are bringing the right truth to bear is by becoming more and more familiar with the gospel story ourselves. Doctors don’t leave medical school and never pick up a book again, and Christians cannot think that they have ever arrived at a place where they have learned “enough” about Jesus. When Christ says to love Him means to love His commandments He isn’t just talking about the Ten. He means that if you desire Him than you will savor every moment you are learning more about Him, just like a godly spouse does for their spouse. It should be a sweet time every time the Church gathers together, whether it be on Wednesday or Sunday, to grow in grace together so that we can help those who need it in love.
It is a war we cannot wage on our own. We need to know the gospel to share the gospel and we need the support of the body of Christ in prayer, in worship, and in fellowship to accomplish all of these things. Do not neglect the time set aside by your Elders for gathered prayer and study. In not taking the time to do these things you are not helping those who need it most. Be ready to give a defense for the hope that lies within you by growing in love together with your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.
I need it. You need it. We all need it. Come and welcome.
Blessings in Christ,
Rev. Benjamin Glaser