In Matthew 22:36-40, Jesus teaches that we are to love God with all our heart, all our soul, and all our mind. And next, we are to love our neighbor as ourselves. He said, “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
1 Peter 5:7 says that we are to humble ourselves, “casting all your care upon him; for he cares for you.” In a spiritual application of one of God’s physical laws, Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 9:9 that God’s workers are due a fair remuneration, asking rhetorically, “Is it oxen God is concerned about?” (NIV).
Yes, God cares for you, and for me, and even for the animals. He numbers the hairs on our heads. He knows when each sparrow falls. And He instructs us to care for one another, the way He cares for us.
Caring is an essential part of a Christian’s development. It is not only necessary that we come to the aid of others, but caring for others fulfills a need in ourselves also. To care for others is a godly attribute. It is not in our own nature to put others before ourselves. When we are born, fulfilling our own needs is all we think about. But when we grow spiritually, we come to realize that ‘I’ am not the center of the universe.
In the great dichotomy of the way of give vs. the way of get, the give way of life always wins!
For instance, when a business owner treats his employees and his customers with courtesy and value, his employees will work harder and his customers will come back, bringing more customers with them. If the business sells quality items at a fair price, more goods will be sold, resulting in overall better profits.
But caring in the business world is just a tiny bit of proof of how the give way of life works. For Christians, the give way has to be at our core. We cannot allow our hearts to become hardened. In this age, we have been exposed to so much trouble that we see in the media and in entertainment, that we truly can become desensitized. But we must care.
When we see people suffering on the news, do we long to be able to help them? We can do what we can for now, which often is little, except for our prayers, which indeed are of great value. But do we look forward to the time when Christ will enable us to help those people even more? Will we comfort them? Will we help provide for them then?
When we see a brother in the faith stumble with a problem, sometimes the very same problem for years, do we walk away in frustration? Instead, can we realize that person might need extra help and extra patience and extra prayers? God is merciful to us. Are we merciful to others? Can we tell our brothers and sisters to “lean on me?” Can we be one who understands?
We all sometimes need that extra care. In Psalm 142, David prayed while he hid in a cave from King Saul. In verse 4, David cried out that “…no man cared for my soul.”
Sometimes, we all feel like that. In the last few months, my husband and I seemed to have several trials come at us at once from several directions. I mentioned this to our minister, and he walked up to us and laid a comforting hand on my husband’s shoulder. And just in that short moment, my husband felt encouraged and ready to face some of the challenges with renewed vigor and prayer.
“Pleasant words are as a honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones” (Proverbs 16:24 KJV).
We are all in this boat together. We can encourage and care for one another. We need to care now more than ever. In 1 Corinthians 12:25, Paul wrote, “That there be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another” (KJV).
It is good to slow down and meditate on the words of Christ in Luke 10:25-37. This is the care that Christ taught that we are to always practice.
