Your Daily Devotional for April 30, 2006

April 30, 2006

 

Love for the Needy in Christ

by Dr. Paul Chappell

 

"If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well."

James 2:8

 

What is "the royal law according to the scripture"? The royal law is that we would love our neighbor as ourselves. Our neighbor is someone who needs help and needs our love.

 

Remember the neighborly love of the man from Samaria in Luke 10:30-36. A dying man waited desperately for help while a priest and a Levite passed him by. Finally a man from Samaria came by and helped this hurting man. Jesus said in verse 36, "Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves?" The neighbor was the man who stopped to help a man in need.

 

In his autobiography, Mahatma Gandhi wrote that during his student days he read the Gospels seriously and considered converting to Christianity. He believed that in the teachings of Jesus he could find the solution to the caste system that was dividing the people of India.

 

One Sunday, he decided to attend services at a nearby church and talk to the minister about becoming a Christian. When he entered the sanctuary, however, the usher refused to give him a seat and suggested that he go worship with his own people. Gandhi left the church and never returned. "If Christians have caste differences also," he said, "I might as well remain a Hindu." That usher's prejudice not only betrayed Jesus but also turned a person away from trusting Him as Saviour.

 

James 2:2-4 says, "For if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment; And ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place; and say to the poor, Stand though there, or sit here under my footstool; Are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts?"

 

Anyone of any background should be welcomed in our church-any religious background, any ethnic background, any moral background, any family background.

 

We are not to have respect of persons. We are not to have respect for the seeing over the blind, for the rich over the poor, for the hearing over the deaf, or for any ethnic group over any other. God says we should have a heart and a burden for all people who need the Lord Jesus Christ. We need to love them and serve those who have need.

 

Evangelist Leonard Ravenhill once said, "We never pray for folks we gossip about, and we never gossip about the folks for whom we pray!" If you find yourself struggling in this area of neighborly love for one type of person or another, take time to pray for them now. What can you do today to show the love of Christ to someone in need?

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