Love One Another

The other day I came across this testimony of a lady that was talking about how through different times in her life she had been given opportunities to be more involved with some of the people in her life, specifically with some situations where these people were in trouble or where she could have helped. Instead, she simply turned her head with the excuse that someone else will do it. She would think, “Who am I to tell someone how to live their life?” Then, being reassured and justifying her decision to not get involved, she would simply pray for the person if she thought about it. Then she had a crisis in her own family and really needed someone to enter into her daughter's life and for someone to speak the truth to her daughter other than her. But no one wanted to get involved, after all, someone else would do it. 

It made me think how many times do I have a God-given opportunity to minister to someone, but let it pass by. We have a responsibility to our brothers and sisters in Christ. God says in Romans 12:10 that we are to love one another above ourselves. Then in John 15:13, God says, ”Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” If this is what the Lord instructs us to do, why do we think we don’t have the right to speak up when they are in trouble? More often than not we are content with staying uninvolved. We sit back and convince ourselves that we are respecting their privacy or letting the paid professionals handle it. There are times for this, but I am talking about the times we could help, but choose not to because it asks something of us that brings us out of our comfort zone. 

In the parable of the good Samaritan, in Luke 10:25-37, it talks about how a priest and a Levite passed by the man that needed help on the other side of the road, but a Samaritan saw the man and took pity on him and helped him. I like to think that I am like the good Samaritan in every situation, but how many times am I like the priest or the Levite not really wanting to get involved and upset my comfortable life? When we don’t uphold our responsibility to one another in the church, then it becomes easier to ignore moral decline in our jobs, in our communities, and even in our nation. 

In Judges 17:6, we see what the after effects are of a society that has a “to each their own” philosophy. We create our own little worlds and isolate ourselves in them. Getting involved in people’s lives is messy. It demands our time and makes us uncomfortable at times, but it forces us to grow and is the right thing to do. Romans 12:15 says, ”Rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn”--this is how God intends for us to live. This is how Jesus lived His life. He shared in people’s messy lives. He encouraged those who had faltered and made mistakes. He picked the weak up off the ground, living out His love in action and in truth. Galatians 6:1 says, ”Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently.” This is not about our opinions of anyone but speaking truth in love and helping to restore one another gently. We should live how Jesus lived. After all, without Him jumping into my messy life I don’t know where I would be.