“Ten
Questions to Diagnose Your Spiritual Health,” Donald S. Whitney. 2001. NavPress
Question 5: Do You Have a Growing
Concern for the Spiritual and Temporal Needs of Others? (Notes, Excerpts and Highlights from Chapter 5)
Some may ask “what does this have to do with being spiritually healthy? Besides, isn’t having growing concern for the spiritual needs of others what priests and elders are supposed to do?”
Although at one time it was not the case, in the last decade or two, some persons who are members of denominations that are more conservative find that financially supporting Christian charities is the answer to Question 5. And they need it. Recent reports show that financial contributions to charities are down – when so much help is needed most – due to the changes emanating from the U.S. 2017 tax law, which significantly impacted lower and middle class taxpayers by essentially eliminating charity deductions. The deductions allowed for a better return on taxes, which money became a donation vehicle to continue supporting multiple charities. It always has, but now more than before, it requires more faith and reliance on God’s provision to maintain or at least approach the levels of giving in light of the diminishing returns that previously helped to supplement sacrificial giving.
But, even so, is financial giving the end all and be all of meeting temporal needs? One theologian opined that this is where our gospel practice falls short, and actually wrote a book on this topic entitled, “The Hole in Our Gospel.” There are parts of Christendom for whom direct engagement with the community is less popular than providing funds or supplies to the charities within the communities and parishes of their church building. Yet, how else will we show visibly who we are and whose we are?
The Church – the universal body of Christ – during its earlier days was distinctive in doing just that. Even though it was dangerous in some places to openly worship and be identified with Christ, nevertheless, note this observation by Greek philosopher Aristides, who became Christian, when defending the Christian faith: “They love one another. The widow’s needs are not ignored, and they rescue the orphan from the person who does him violence. He who has gives to him who has not, ungrudgingly and without boasting.” In the early Church, members of local assemblies or congregations or local churches made as a part of how they worshiped God and imitated Christ the ministry of sharing to meet the needs of others as seen in Acts 4:32-35. The increasing size of The Church in those earliest years would require a more structured assurance of care and charity to be instituted per Acts 6:1-7, to ensure that meeting the temporal needs of others was to be the norm. In that earliest time, a cadre of believers, under the direction of the apostles, formed the first formal group of the Church’s social ministry overseen by faithful and ardent believers who would come to be recognized as deacons; this motif would be replicated in other local churches as the gospel continued to reach others. But that approach did not rule out anyone else – even preachers and elders – from showing the same concern. (see Paul’s report at Galatians 2:9-10) James, noted leader of the first century Church and brother of the Lord, would be inspired to write in his letter at chapter 1, verses 22 and 27: “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” For some centuries after the apostles went on to be with Jesus, The Church was the primary source of organized hands-on charitable programs within their communities – including supporting the establishment of or establishing its own hospitals and medical societies, widows and orphan charities and homes, and programs to address the needs of the poor.
Within the last century or so (per my preliminary research), some of the societies became independent of the Church either due to lack of funding or lack of consistent assistance and hands-on support from members and worship communities for whatever reason. Yet, there are still denominations whose members provide either financially, hands-on (or both) support to the charitable work in the communities through organizations like Daughters of the King, Catholic Charities, United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR), Islamic Relief and Jewish Coalition for Relief (JCR), National Episcopal Church Women, Episcopal Development, the Protestant Church’s Salvation Army, Baptist Charities, to name a few. Smaller churches in smaller communities may also cooperate in ecumenical or interfaith activities for the purpose of providing hands-on charitable help and disaster relief. Recent studies show, per the author that, nevertheless, evangelicals as a whole typically tend to put more time, money, and prayers into labors of missions and evangelism than in social ministries. Sometimes, he notes, just the opposite happens – more concern is shown for physical and material needs, while the gospel goes unshared. James, again, writing to the Jewish people in the Diaspora as brothers and sisters: “If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,’ but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit?” In other words, sharing the gospel -- written or oral -- without meeting an urgent physical need profits no one, especially the one on the receiving end. Preaching to persons who haven’t eaten much of anything for days and expecting from them a focused response to your sermon, or even worse, telling them that if they sit still for a sermon or become a member of that church then you will be rewarded with a meal or help, is a form of extortion and does not match up with how Jesus served those who came to Him.
The author of “Ten Questions” states: “Christianity is a religion of concern for others.” When this book was published, it was said that, of all the religions of the world, Christianity has no parallel when it comes to demonstrating concern for people and for their needs.[i] When we look at the accounts of Jesus’ ministry to the crowds, we read stories like the one at Mark 6:34-44. His preaching was feeding their souls and His grace fed their bellies. Look also at how Jesus responds to others who were not necessarily committed to Him, but who were created by Him: Luke 7:1-15.
Followers of Christ know the words of Jesus in describing His greater mission in the Incarnation: “I have come that they may have life.” His primary concern was the permanent healing and restoration that could only be accomplished through Him providing Himself as a perfect sacrifice to redeem the lives of those lost due to the “sin estate” inherited from Adam. And we, His followers, are to have the same concern for those enslaved by sin, whether they know they are or not, by sharing compassion and kindness through the gospel transformation of our own hearts and soul. There is hurt in every heart and home (a saying is that if we live long enough, we’ll see or experience several hurts, and even grief).
Putting
on the “gospel lenses” of Christ, notes Mr. Whitney, we have the opportunity to
look around us – in our neighborhoods, workplace, our classrooms, our church,
our families, with the filter of “What are his/her/their spiritual needs?”
Then, “What are his/her/their temporal needs?” By looking with these filters,
we may be able to see the needs with sharper focus, and which – by God’s grace
and our willingness – we may be able to address or meet. We must individually
and corporately ask God, “What can we do?” Sometimes the needs are very obvious
– people who need yard work done, transportation to doctor’s appointments and
shopping, snow removal, meals, and who would benefit from a call where you may
share Bible readings with one another, or when it is safe, to bring communion
to shut-ins, or – like in our worship community – to take the communion sets to
shut-ins so that they may participate in Holy Communion during the remote service.
Or the needs may be “invisible”; as we continue to offer ourselves to God to be
Christ for others, God will direct us to those who need to hear from or be
helped by us. Do not sit passively waiting for someone to ask us to help in a
ministry or to support efforts to help others within the greater community of
the church’s building. As we grow more like Jesus, we will see ministry to
temporal needs not as competing with but as complementing, the meeting of
spiritual needs! No one indwelt by the Holy Spirit can remain unfeeling towards
either the temporal or spiritual needs of others. Therefore, as persons indwelt
by God’s Spirit, desire deeply to be more Christ-like in this area of our
lives. One of the things we will experience is an incomparable soul joy and
assurance that we have been Christ to someone. As is recorded at Matthew
25:31-46, with our gospel lenses, let us look for Christ in
others and ask God to direct us to help others through His enabling power in
us.
[i] The author, Mr. Whitney, includes in this chapter
examples of “need-meeters” that included the Swiss reformer Huldreich (Ulrich)
Zwingli who worked to turn monasteries into orphanages in the 16th
century; George Whitefield, who in the 18th century devoted much of
his income to the development of an orphanage in colonial Georgia, and William
Wilberforce in the late 18th to early 19th century who
persevered for decades in the British Parliament to begin the modern movement
to end slavery. William Carey, an English missionary in the late 18th
to early 19th centuries, was responsible for outlawing the
centuries-old practices of child sacrifice and widow burning in India. George
Muller in the 19th century, who was a great champion of prayer and
faith, recorded more than 50,000 specific answers to prayer in his journals,
which focused on glorifying God by providing the means to feed, clothe, house,
and educate up to 2,000 orphans in Bristol, England. “The Lord was pleased to
channel tens of millions of dollars through Muller’s hands, though he never
made known his own needs to anyone but God. Charles H. Spurgeon, also 19th
century, built more than 17 homes for elderly widows and an orphanage for
hundreds of children of all races and backgrounds, and eventually started
and/or presided over 66 ministry organizations which served the poorer parts of
London – many of which were funded directly by Spurgeon.
Mr. Whitney states that
the missionary work by Christians will most often include not only teaching the
gospel but also living the gospel by establishing medical, educational and
relief for the poor.
Well-known organizations
of today that benefit from the models set through the persons mentioned above
include: World Vision, Food For The Poor, Doctors Without Borders and Mercy
Ships, Compassion International, Catholic Relief Services, the United Methodist
Comm. On Relief, the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews,
Samaritan’s Purse, and locally, Central Union Mission.
