"Mother Teresa was one of those people who sacrificed great privilege because she encountered such great need. People often ask me what Mother Teresa was like. Sometimes it's like they wonder if she glowed in the dark or had a halo. She was short, wrinkled, and precious, maybe even a little ornery, like a beautiful wise old granny. But there is one thing I will never forget -- her feet. Her feet were deformed. Each morning in Mass, I would stare at them. I wondered if she had contracted leprosy. But I wasn't going to ask, of course. 'Hey Mother, what's wrong with your feet?' One day a sister said to us, 'Have you noticed her feet?' We nodded, curious. She said, 'Her feet are deformed because we get just enough donated shoes for everyone, and Mother does not want anyone to get stuck with the worst pair, so she digs through and finds them. And years of doing that have deformed her feet.' Years of loving her neighbor as herself deformed her feet."
Combine this story with a few Bible verses, and I see that I have a lot of room to grow.
I John 4:16-20
And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.
James 2:14-17
What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
One struggle that I have in reading these passages is the much smaller world we live in now. I can watch the news in the evening or find updates throughout the day on the internet of people struggling around the world. No longer do humans just see the needs of those they encounter throughout the day. The world is smaller. The needs of the people in Darfur are known to us, maybe even moreso, than the needs of our neighbor down the street. We are at an amazing point in history where we can use the resources that God has given us to make this world better, or we can just continue claiming to be Christians while consuming material goods like everyone around us while we ignore the plight of humanity in our neighborhoods, in the inner cities, and around the world.
Our love of God is shown by our love to others. Our faith in God is shown by our love to others. And the reverse is true. If we do not love others, we do not have faith in God. If we do not love others, we do not love God.
Some will try to avoid having to love a person in need by arguing that these verses apply to only loving brothers or sisters in Christ. That sounds an awful like like the lawyer who was trying to get away from having to love their neighbor.
You might have heard the story about the man who felt that he was overcharged by their lawyer. The client who felt his legal bill was too high asked his lawyer to itemize costs. When he was handed the statement it included this item: "Was walking down the street and saw you on the other side. Walked to the corner to cross at the light, crossed the street and walked quickly to catch up with you. Got close and saw it wasn't you. -$50.00.
Jesus also had to interact with a lawyer, and in this case it was one who was trying to figure out the letter of the law that Jesus was teaching, but the lawyer was going to be disappointed because Jesus did not give a law that could be followed like the laws of the land. When Jesus gave the difficult teaching that we should love our neighbor as ourselves, he did not just limit it to brothers and sisters in Him, to people who love God or are part of our church, or the friends we like. The world loves people who they like, who are in organizations that they participate in. Jesus used the broad term "neighbor." Like any good lawyer, the lawyer wanted Jesus to define that word. There is this human tendency, I find it in myself, where we like to have a list of exactly what we have to do to get saved rather than focusing on total surrender of our life to Christ. The lawyer, apparently having the same struggle, asked, “And who is my neighbor?” That is when Jesus shared the story that we have heard many times of the Good Samaritan. A story that teaches that the neighbor is the one who shows mercy when he sees a need. Instead of giving an easy checklist for the lawyer to complete, Jesus told him that he needs to love anyone that he sees who has a need.
In the passage we read earlier, John took this one step further and said that we do not even love God if we do not love others. James said that if we do not love others, then we do not have faith. If we claim that we are followers of Christ, then our lives better be an example of loving actions or we do a disservice to the image of God. If we limit our faith to confessing Christ as Lord, being baptized, abstaining from obvious sins, attending church every time the doors are open, diligently doing morning devotions, and understanding the great and mysterious theological teachings of the Bible, we have missed the life Jesus has called us to live. We cannot be Christians if we are not committing acts of love to those we see in need.
We like easy Christian checklists that we can complete and be satisfied with. Take tithing for instance. Tithing is an Old Testament practice that we like to carry over and make into a New Testament law, but that should not be. We cannot just give a percent of our money to the Lord and think that we have done his will. The New Testament teaches that much more is expected out of us. It is our responsibility to use God's resources as he would have them be used.
1 Peter 4:8-11
"Above all, maintain constant love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins. Be hospitable to one another without complaining. Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received. Whoever speaks must do so as one speaking the very words of God; whoever serves must do so with the strength that God supplies, so that God may be glorified in all things through Jesus Christ. To him belong the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen."
We see in Scripture that it is those who give cheerfully and sacrificially that are held up as examples. The church in Macedonia is exalted in 2 Corinthians 8:1-7 because of their sacrificial giving. Paul wrote, "They voluntarily gave according to their means, and even beyond their means, begging us earnestly for the privilege of sharing in this ministry to the saints."
Luke 21:1-4 shares the familiar story of the poor widow who gave sacrificially while the wealthy man gave his much larger gift. Giving out of our abundance is not as blessed as giving sacrificially.
Peter said that we are to serve with whatever gift we have received. Paul and Luke pointed out that making sacrifices is a key part of Christian love.
We must ask ourselves, “If Peter, Paul and Luke were right, how are we doing?” If giving has changed from no longer being just a tithe and we are to live in the understanding that all of our resources are God's resources, then that makes a great demand on how we use our money. We need to ask ourselves questions like, "Would God like me to use the money he has put in my care to buy myself another shirt, or would he like me to feed the person who hasn't had a meal for days? Would God like me to buy a better car just for appearances because the car I am currently driving runs just fine, or would he want to provide someone with a way to get a better job and feed their family? Would God like me to use my extra income to buy a vacation home, or would he want me to give a home to a homeless family?
The answer, in light of the sacrificial teachings of Scripture, seems pretty obvious but the biblical answer is very hard to swallow. It goes against everything our culture has tried to teach us since birth, or at least World War II if you were born before then. We are to use our money, not for selfish pleasure, but to be a blessing for others. That is the primary purpose of God blessing us. God has not blessed us so that we can indulge in our prosperity. It is just the opposite; he has blessed us because he has chosen us to be his hands and feet bringing about his will here on earth.
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