Whoever is kind to the needy honors God. Proverbs 14:31 

Jesus said to the young man, “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” Matthew 19:21

The young man speaking with Jesus is wealthy and has lots of possessions, He asks Jesus what he needs to do to be good and able to enter heaven. Jesus says, obey the commandments, and the man asks, “Which ones”? First of all, it would seem like Jesus would mean all of the ten commandments. However, Jesus gives him the list – listing most of them, but skipping the one about coveting, and the man says I have done this. So Jesus says if you want to be perfect, one more thing, give away your possessions, sell them and give that money to those who need it. Then it is possible to follow Jesus.

We know there is no way to be perfect enough to be considered “good.” We all break one or more commandments every day so how can we get to perfection? By ourselves we can’t, we nee the grace of God. In response to His love and grace we can follow the main Commandment that Jesus gives: Love God and Love your neighbor.

No matter what our material wealth, if we have a lot or a little, we can, as the Proverb verse says, be kind to the needy. We can give of our time, our money, our possessions to help others. Currently we see many people doing this for those caught in the massive fires in southern California. There are firefighters coming from many states, plus Mexico and Canada, churches are offering shelter, tons of supplies of food, water and clothing are arriving. Animals are being rescued and shelter along with their people.

Any of us, at any time, could be considered needy. We all need help sometimes, and we all can help those who are in need.

God of the poor, help us notice our tendencies to ignore poverty, those without homes, those on the margins. Help us to see our overconsumption, our stuffed homes, our ability to give more than we do now. Turn our intentions away from obeying the perfect law to trusting your perfect love. Help us to love others unconditionally. Let us be generous and kind. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen

Chris Gabel

Ministries
Teaching Mission Party