We live in a day of skepticism. I know that is a very broad and generic statement, but in many ways I believe it is true. Many people are skeptical of the Bible, we are skeptical about offers on infomercials because they seem too good to be true, we are skeptical when entering the marketplace (especially in buying houses and cars), we are skeptical about the financial markets, and most of all we have become skeptical of one another. Granted much of the skepticism we feel has been generated by dishonest people in our society and the experience of being burned by the greed and lies of others. However, while we must be protective of our loved ones, our possessions, the Lord’s possessions, and ourselves we must balance that with the realization that the vast majority of people in this world are still extremely honest people. So when someone calls asking for food, help paying a bill, gas, or any number of other requests how should we as Christians respond?
Paul provided the general answer to that question with this statement to the Galatian congregations: “As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith” (Galatians 6:10). In eleven years of preaching I still have not understood how some of our brethren can read this verse and still proclaim that the church can only scripturally provide benevolent aid to fellow Christians. With this verse and verses such as Matthew 28:19 and Romans 14:19 the Bible outlines the three-fold work of the church – we are to evangelize, edify, and be benevolent. However, let me add that each of these three works are not ends in themselves. Each one points back to the first – evangelize. We edify one another to open doors to evangelize and we show the love of God in benevolence in order to soften hearts by which we might evangelize. Ultimately our purpose is singular – everything we do and say should work to the end of teaching the gospel to the lost. Thus, when a person calls asking for food, help paying a bill, gas to make it to a doctor’s appointment, medicine they cannot afford, etc. how do we respond and why do we respond the way we respond? Do we respond merely out of skepticism? Yes, we must be good stewards of God’s possessions. But if we maintain skepticism about everyone we meet, we should not be surprised when everyone we meet maintains skepticism about the church.
Last evening, in the last night of our gospel meeting, a young man (likely in his late 30s) visited with us who came because earlier that day our secretary had given him some canned goods out of our pantry and invited him to services. What if she had just assumed he was not worthy of our help? What if she had simply brushed him off with some simple excuse as to why we could not help him? He would not have visited our services last night, he would not have signed up to have the bus pick him up each Sunday and Wednesday, and we would not have a Bible study scheduled for each Tuesday afternoon for the foreseeable future! Why should we do good unto all men? Because it opens doors to teach the gospel.