Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “Friends and Associates”
Our Bible verse for today: “If anyone isn’t willing to work, he should not eat.” 2 Thessalonians 3:10 (HCSB)
Our thought for today: “Sometimes helping hurts.”
One of the most perplexing problems we as a Christian community sometimes face is the issue of how to help someone in a way that truly does help, rather than hurt. The fact is that not all helping actually helps. Sometimes helping hurts. Sometimes mercy crosses the line into enabling.
As Christians we’re predisposed to help. From start to finish, Genesis to Revelation, the Bible is chockfull of instructions from God to His people about how we are to have mercy and compassion on those in need. We are to feed the hungry, house the homeless, care for the widow and the orphan, visit the sick, comfort the despondent, and work for social justice. In short, the people of God are to intentionally and actively make this world a better place.
But if we give money to an alcoholic and he uses it to get drunk, have we helped him or hurt him? If we use the church benevolent fund to pay rent for a person who seems to make a living out of making the rounds from one church to another seeking help from them all, have we been good stewards of the Lord’s money? If a person doesn’t have a job and doesn’t want one, but could in fact be working, should we give them food from the food bank?
There is no easy answer to this question, and it’s also not a new problem for the people of God. The Apostle Paul felt it necessary to give the Christians in Thessalonica instructions about it. They had among them some people who could work but were choosing not to. Those people were then evidently living off the generosity of the Christian community. What were Paul’s instructions on how to deal with such folks? “Let them go hungry.” The understanding being that if they get hungry enough they’ll get a job so they can eat.
Without question the people of God are to be kind and compassionate, helpful and generous. That’s especially true with respect to hurting people who have desperate needs. But we are not to be mindless dupes either. We do not have to allow ourselves to be taken advantage of, tricked, or manipulated. We’re tasked with being good stewards of God’s money, and we therefore are required to make wise decisions about what kind of help is most appropriate in any given situation.
Also very common is that in our over-zealousness to be a blessing and a help to someone we care about, we do things for them that they really should be doing for themselves. This kind of helping often takes the form of creating an environment for them that allows them to delay making forward progress or taking actions that they really need to be taking. In this case our efforts to help them are actually holding them back. This is a classic example of enabling.
Most of the time helping really does help – but not always. Sometimes helping hurts. It’s up to us, as individuals and as a community of believers, to use good judgment and to make smart choices. Sometimes “not” helping is the right thing to do.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 