Don't Wait for Tomorrow

How often are we presented with opportunities to help others, but let them slip by?  Do we hesitate because we're unsure if we have free time or spare money enough to give?  Do we withhold the help because we decide that the beneficiary doesn't really deserve it, won't appreciate it, or will squander it?  Perhaps we feel like his or her problems are none of our business, or that we just don't want to "get involved."

These are natural and commonplace feelings, but as believers in Christ we need to remember the terrible price that He paid to save us for eternity, while we were yet sinners and hardly deserving of such a sacrifice (Romans 5:8), and return some measure of that same love to those around us (". . . love one another; as I have loved you . . ."  John 13:34). As was so perfectly expressed in Proverbs:

Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it. Say not unto thy neighbor, Go, and come again, and to morrow I will give; when thou hast it by thee. (Proverbs 3:27-28)

Thus, we're not to be hesitant, stingy, or judgmental in helping others, but should do so readily and freely. The phrase "them to whom it is due" is not meant to limit our help to those to whom we're otherwise obligated, or to those who somehow "deserve" or who have "earned" our help:

This requires us . . . 5.  To be ready to all acts of friendship and humanity, and in every thing to be neighbourly; for these are things that are due by the law of doing as we would be done by. 6. To be charitable to the poor and necessitous. If others want the necessary supports of life, and we have wherewithal to supply them, we must look upon it as due to them and not withhold it. Alms are called righteousness because they are a debt to the poor, and a debt which we must not defer to pay.  (Matthew Henry's Whole Bible Commentary)

In this my great example is my dear wife--the countless hours and untold labor she has spent preparing and delivering meals to families in need, in buying or sewing clothes for the poor, in caring for the elderly or sick, or looking after others' children!  She often doesn't wait to be asked, but sees opportunities to help and dives right in. This is how to be proactive in giving!

Remember that those who give without reservation shall "inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world . . .":

For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. . . . Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. (Matthew 25:34-36, 40)

So, if you want to live as our Savior would have you live, and share eternal life with Him:  Help early and often!

Tom Fleming

Songs of Praises