Three Questions to Ask When Serving Our Neighbors
Our church has been blessed with an opportunity to help our neighbors in a profound way. Over the past number of weeks we've been supporting an important effort to resettle Venezuelan refugees in the city. But meeting needs is tricky. Therefore we're learning to constantly open the Bible in order to interrogate our motivations, behaviors, and impact. In doing we hope to honor the Lord in our serving and affirm the dignity of those whom we serve.
First, the Scriptures are constantly attentive to our motivations. You see, while we might do the right thing, we could still have the wrong heart. This is especially true when it comes to acts of righteousness. Jesus says in The Sermon on the Mount, "Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 6:1). Practicing righteousness is good. But Jesus knows our hearts. He knows in our flesh we are prone to do something good with incongruent motives. When we serve our neighbors and seek to meet their needs we should check our hearts.
We should ask, is our motivation right?
Secondly, God's Word shows us that our motives might be pure, but our actions can still be wrong. We do the wrong thing even though we have the right heart. As Jesus is being arrested, Peter pulls out a sword and "struck the high priest’s servant and cut off his right ear" (John 18:10). Peter was protecting his friend. Peter didn't want Jesus to be taken away. That's a loving impulse. That's the right heart. Yet, Jesus tells him, “Put your sword into its sheath; shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me?" (18:11). Peter wasn't keeping the big picture in mind so his behavior needed revision. When we serve others it's not enough to have good intentions.
We should ask, is our behavior right?
Lastly, the Bible explains that regardless of what we do and why, we're still responsible for our impact. Righteous motivations and behaviors do not absolve us from examining our how we effect others. We see this in Paul's letters to Corinth. While he was confident he and his team, "behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity," he remained thoughtful (2 Corinthians 1:12). Especially when it came to baptism. He says, "I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one may say that you were baptized in my name" (1 Corinthians 1:14-15). Paul's motivation wasn't wrong. Baptism wasn't wrong. But he knew the impact of their ministry was being misunderstood. And Paul took responsibility to examine his impact.
We should ask, is our impact right?
We're going to make mistakes. That's okay. However, in routinely considering our motivations, behaviors, and impact we'll learn to minimize unnecessary harm. We'll learn to trust the Lord and serve our neighbors in more fruitful ways.
