Usefulness to others

Four hundred years before our Lord was born, the famous tragic poet and playwright Sophocles of Greece once said: "the most beautiful human work is that of being useful to others." We Christians know that he was right. It is a statement that validates until today our way of perceiving and acting in the world that we have had to live hand in hand with our creator. There is no joy that resembles another when we can be useful to our neighbor, to the believer, as brother or sister, for edification and exhortation; to the unbeliever for testimony. The ministry of Jesus was focused in that direction. Bread to the hungry, healing to the sick, consolation to the weeping, blessings to the poor in spirit, freedom to the captive of sin. The wonder-worker turned his back so that the world would unload its sorrows and misfortunes on him. But the world did not know him. Even today, almost two-thirds of the world's population ignore or reject him.

Being useful to others has to do with love, it has to do with the supreme commandment that Jesus left us to all his disciples. I see the usefulness of Christian virtue when human solidarity overflows to do good without expecting anything in return, when we understand the misery of others and make it our own and, out of love, we share the loaves and fishes of God's provision to touch less misery each and make the burdens bearable. Christian virtue, understood as justice and integrity in “the one who brought us into his admirable light”, is to walk embracing the weak so that they do not fall, circumcising (cutting off the roots) our inner ego to offer ourselves to others.

The Word of God encourages us to be pilgrims of heart towards others, dressed in the fruits of love. Without love there is no use for your neighbor. Without love there is no virtue. God speaks to us in 1 Corinthians 13: 3 when Paul tells us: "If I distribute all that I possess among the poor, and if I give my body to be consumed by the flames, but I have no love, I gain nothing from it."

The reasons that lead me to these ideas come from the comments of all the brothers and sisters who receive their daily devotional through “God speaks today”. It is beautiful to see in these comments, how the people of God can help, edify and exhort each other in the midst of everyday and common problems and others, as difficult and private, as those that address family dysfunctions, difficulties in marriage, with the children, in short, with the life of the here and now. However, we must be cautious and intelligent when ministering to brother or sister. What should prevail in his ministry is love, never the judgment that leads us to contention or discussion. Thus, we are not useful to others. Thus, we fall into the condemnation from which Christ has already exempted us since we walked in his ways. Thus, we play the devil. Quite disunited, we already walk with the madness of the denominations and the doctrines of men that seek to extort money from the people of God at the cost of their inconsistencies.

We are all precious - valuable - in the Kingdom of God. Each brother who asks for advice is an opportunity that the Lord gives us to show our benign and Christian side, doing it with the conviction that none of us is perfect, but still, called to edify ourselves, although we ourselves, from time to time, we suffer from spiritual breakdowns. The royal priesthood that we have as an inheritance is synonymous with a commitment in Christ to watch over, care for and lift up a brother weak in faith, whom he seeks God's help in certain circumstances, but does not know how to find it.

The world wants to see us defeated, but Christ already gave us victory two millennia ago. We must teach that victory, we must bear witness to it by giving encouragement and ministering to others. This beautiful exchange of ideas - we do not always have to fully agree with the criteria of all the brothers, but we do have to respect them - that our Lion of Judah Congregation Site has generated is serving for it and no one can imagine the things that God can do when come together to pray and minister to each other. This Site and its devotional space "God speaks today" should be a place for all of us to meet, never for disagreements. Today, very especially, I raise a prayer of thanksgiving for this daily appointment with God of all of us and that the Lord richly bless the eternal people of his covenant, signed with the blood that our beloved Savior shed on the cross.

God bless you and guard you!