Concern For Others

I was listening to a young man talk about how he grew his business and what he had noticed about successful leaders that he applied to his business. He listed five traits. They exhibit zero gossip and zero complaining. They always speak increase in others, listen more than they speak, and make everyone feel safe. This person said he advised the person that gossiped the following: You can bring this subject up with the person you are talking about but I would suggest you don’t do it. Even the wife of a Deacon (servant) is instructed to avoid slander. (1st Timothy 3:11)

Most of us realize, through personal experience, that gossip often returns with bad consequences for those engaging in the gossip. Complaining is often a part of gossip and nobody likes to be around someone that complains. They speak death instead of life. We realize that this kept those wandering in the wilderness out of the Promised Land (Numbers 14:27-30). We all want to go to the Promised Land (Heaven) and we won’t get there by gossiping and complaining. The opposite is speaking life or increase. We are not talking about flattery but lifting others up. Our Lord talked about a land flowing with milk and honey to paint the vision of a place they should want to go even though they had to go through the desert to get there. God desires that we obtain peace and safety instead of stress and disagreement. Do we really want to be around people that speak death instead of life or people we can’t trust? No, we often just turn them off.
 
Slander (gossip) proves our lack of love and complaining proves our lack of faith. Love for God and our neighbor are the foundation principles of Judaism as well as Christianity. These principles are universal and we might never darken the door of a church building and still understand the truth of these principles.


Our actions often show that we lack concern for others (words mean nothing) and we are all guilty. I often cover issues for my own improvement so that’s the reason for this article. Therefore, I would like to repeat a story that has absolutely nothing to support us looking like a homeless person or the current Duck Dynasty Syndrome. “Duck Commander Phil Robertson is an elder for the White’s Ferry Road Church of Christ, where son Alan preaches.” Source: The Christian Chronicle. That’s great but he has long hair (1st Corinthians 11:14). A sister in the church was mentioning in support of the way they look: “Of course, they cut their hair so obviously it’s not long hair.” I thought that was an interesting statement because of my observation of Phil compared to the hair of this sister in the church. How would she know he cuts it and is she just guessing? His hair is longer than her hair and she doesn’t cut her hair. “Trump International Hotel called it unfortunate, but is not quite ready to apologize after a staff member mistakenly thought Duck Dynasty star Jase Robertson was a homeless vagrant and kicked him out of the pricey Manhattan high-rise.” Source: Fox News. Why wouldn’t they think he was a homeless vagrant instead of a wealthy celebrity because that’s what he looks like right?


 

Unfortunately, there are some that don’t have the finances or have a choice concerning their appearance in some respects. Therefore, appearances can change rapidly but what about the heart?

Recently, what appears to be an urban legend was about a Pastor named Jeremiah Steepek. As the story goes, Pastor Jeremiah Steepek is the new Pastor of a megachurch to be introduced at the service. However, a picture on the Internet shows Pastor Steepek as a homeless person in the crowd (he certainly couldn't look more homeless than the Internet picture portrays). Pastor Steepek arrives at the service and walks to the front of the building and sets down on the front row. The members are concerned and an Usher removes him to the back because these seats, of course, are taken. A great introduction is given to welcome and recognize the new Pastor and he is asked to come to the podium. The congregation looked around clapping with joy and anticipation. The homeless person steps forward and walks down the aisle to the disdain of the audience. He reaches the podium and reads this passage of scripture. “Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, 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…. And the King shall answer and say unto them, 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 25:34-40)

After he recited this, he looked towards the congregation and told them all what he had experienced that morning. Many began to cry and many heads were bowed in shame. He then said, "Today I see a gathering of people, not a church of Jesus Christ. The world has enough people, but not enough disciples. When will YOU decide to become disciples?"

We should be aware that Matthew chapter 25 is the judgement scene of Christ (the coming of the groom verse 31). When we come to the judgement we will be setting in the audience with mankind as the created and not the creator. Some of us will be fearful of the determination because we don’t feel fully prepared. In other words, we may have doubts about being true Disciples of Christ.

In the book of James we find a similar story about a homeless person. I am sure there were many in the days of Christ not well feed or well dressed. We read beginning with verse 1: “My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons. 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 thou there, or sit here under my footstool: Are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts? Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him?”

Hath not God chosen the poor of this world? This is not about the rich and poor but about rejection and respect of persons. We want to talk about rejecting others as if we were rejecting the Lord because that is how our Lord describes it in the day of judgement. 

Paul’s letter to the Romans in chapter 8, beginning at verse 28, says: “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth.” 

We realize that Moses was a “type” of Christ and we find some interesting verses in Numbers chapter 12. “And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married: for he had married an Ethiopian woman. [Jeremiah 13:23, “Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?”] And they said, Hath the LORD indeed spoken only by Moses? hath he not spoken also by us? And the LORD heard it. (Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.) And the LORD spake suddenly unto Moses, and unto Aaron, and unto Miriam, Come out ye three unto the tabernacle of the congregation. And they three came out. And the LORD came down in the pillar of the cloud, and stood in the door of the tabernacle, and called Aaron and Miriam: and they both came forth. And he said, Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I the LORD will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house. With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the LORD shall he behold: wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses? And the anger of the LORD was kindled against them; and he departed.”

What was God’s reason and purpose for the man called Jonah? From the beginning to the end of this book we see a man that fought with God. He didn’t want to preach to the people of Nineveh and he was disappointed when God didn’t destroy them after he finally did what God told him to do. “Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not? And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.” (Jonah 3:9-10, 4:1) The people of Nineveh pleased God but Jonah acted like a childish juvenile throughout the book. Did God actually know that the people of Nineveh would repent or not? Of course God knew they would repent and that’s why he sent Jonah.

God is all knowing. God knows because he has a plan, reason, and purpose for everything that happens under the sun. Yes, I do believe in God’s foreknowledge even though we have free will. Do you know, without the book of Jonah, that the city of Nineveh would repent or not?

Have you ever read of anyone more childish than Jonah? We begin with chapter 4 at verse 5: “So Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of the city. And the LORD God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd. But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered. And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, It is better for me to die than to live. And God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry, even unto death. Then said the LORD, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night: And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more then sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?”

“The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.” (Matthew 12:41)

What was a major reason that Satan was removed from heaven? We find that reason in Revelation 12:10-11, “And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death."