Do not withhold good from those who deserve it when it's in your power to help them, Proverbs 3:27
As I read this verse, another one came to mind: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Matt. 22: 39
Between these two verses, well, even in just the first verse, there is so much to think over or meditate upon. Tying the two together, I think about what it looks like to love someone; wouldn't that love be marked by a giving them good, or whatever might improve their life circumstances. It's easy to give your children good gifts, things that would make them smile with pleasure. But what about your Christian brother or sister who sits a few pews away from you, the one you don't really know all that well, but you overhear something that tells you they have a special need.
As I write those lines, I wonder how many times even those gifts to our children are given with a string of selfishness tied around them; we want them to love us, to notice our sacrifice or thoughtfulness and be grateful to us or love us more. Maybe that's not you, but I know that those motives sneak into my gift-giving from time to time.
Anyway, I am hung up on the idea of withholding good. This isn't a matter of giving; it is a matter of not giving. Should I be looking for opportunities to give? Should I be asking myself Why not? when an opportunity does present itself to do some act of kindness to someone?
In Chad, when your houseguest leaves, it is culturally demanded that you give them everything they need for the journey...food, a coat perhaps if it is cold season, maybe money. But not so much here in America. I do remember, when we were first married, my in-laws loading up our car after every visit, filling up every square inch of space with canned vegetables or potatoes and onions from the garden or even extra rolls of toilet paper. I can hear you say it, the same thing I hear myself say, "But you were family."
But we are brothers and sisters to our church family, even our larger church family living around the world. And I wonder what good we withhold from those who deserve it, even when it is in our power to help them. I wonder how much money we really need to live, not a suffering life, but a normal life with all of our real needs met.
I wonder what good and love look like to the lonely, the sick, the depressed. And how easy it is to somehow assume some other ministry in church will take care of them. I don't have any answers today, just lots of questions, and I think that is good. That is what God calls us to ...have questions and find solutions that bring glory to Him.
Catherine Booth (1829- 1890) said, "God is not glorified so much by preaching or teaching, or anything else, as by holy living." and I would add to that, and maybe "giving living, not necessarily always giving money, but giving love and attention."
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