To Encourage You

James 2:15-17 “If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”

Have you ever been suddenly sensitized to things you were previously oblivious to?  It’s like when you buy a vehicle and you suddenly realize how many other people have a similar vehicle to the one you just purchased.  It was like that when I bought my first truck, a Chevy Silverado. I never realized how many Silverados were on the road until I bought mine. They’re everywhere!  And while sensitivity to how many vehicles are on the road of one type or another is neither here nor there, there is a sensitivity to other things that is much more significant in life. 

The passage above from James 2 speaks of one such thing.  Here we have a test of true faith, if you will. James tells us that if we have a lack of sensitivity to the needs of others around us, needs that God sovereignly puts in our path, there may be a question as to whether the faith in God that we say we have is genuine.  One of the greatest transformations that saving faith brings to a life is a sensitivity to things that we were oblivious to before. Suddenly, the Bible becomes vital to all of life, whereas before we were saved, we were dead to it. We had no hunger for it.  Suddenly we become sensitized to how despicable our sin really is, whereas before that moment we may have indulged in sin with an insensitivity to it.  The Bible calls it a seared conscience (1 Timothy 4:2).  And then we have a sudden awareness of how loving, kind, forgiving, and merciful God has been to us, whereas before that time we may not have given such truth a second thought. 

It is because of this awareness that the believer becomes sensitized to opportunities to show the same attitudes and actions, however feebly, to others. We love others because God first loved us (1 John 4:19).  We are much more inclined to forgive others for their wrongs toward us because we are now aware of the incredible forgiveness that God has showered on us (Ephesians 4:3). And as we weather the trials that come into our lives by way of the strengthening comfort God brings to us, we are sensitized and enabled to bring comfort to others who may be suffering the same kinds of things (2 Corinthians 1:3-5).  Similarly, when we realize that it is our God Who has supplied each and every need we’ve ever had, often through the helping hands of others, so we should be sensitized to the needs of others and quick to help them as the opportunities come. If we are oblivious to all this, if we are insensitive to others’ needs, it is questionable whether we have been transformed by the God Who has promised to meet our every need (Philippians 4:19). 

It is such sensitivity that the true believer should long for.  It is something we should be praying for.  We should be asking that God would continually open our eyes so that the blessings He has poured into our lives can, in turn, be poured into the lives of others.  May God sensitize us to the things that are important to Him, and may we recognize that it is as we do unto the least of these His brothers and sisters, we are doing to the Jesus we say we love (Matthew 25:40).