Water: Rethinking Wesley

In Saipan, you buy water. You buy non-potable tap water from one business, and you buy drinking water in big blue jugs from another. There are no springs here or standing pools or rivers of freshwater to glean from if you should run out of blue bottle water and have no money to buy more. Tap water is salty. Rainwater also, or so I've been told. I have not caught enough on my tongue to know for sure.

Drinking water is a necessity here. Run out and you die.

This week, on two separate occasions, I was asked for drinking water. To the first one, I gave 1/3 of my supply, one bottle. The second I could not help because I was down to only one full bottle myself. My third bottle was almost empty and the month had only begun. I felt I should keep my only remaining full bottle. What would our denominational forerunner, John Wesley, have done? Would he have given the full bottle and gone thirsty himself? It's hard to say. Wesley was known for his compassionate ministry in his day.

In the book, Revival: Faith As Wesley Lived It, Adam Hamilton lists nine maxims Wesley lived by:
  1. to yield his life to God completely, for God's glory, and become like Jesus Christ
  2. to rise at 4 or 5 a.m. to pray 
  3. to fast two days a week until 3 p.m.
  4. to meet regularly with others to discuss Scripture and other Christian texts 
  5. to be accountable to others at those regular meetings 
  6. to partake of Holy Communion weekly 
  7. to read and meditate on Scripture daily 
  8. to engage in compassionate acts toward the poor, prisoners, and the elderly
  9. to pursue simple living
A list guaranteed to disturb the conscience, for sure! I don't do numbers 2, 3 or 6, but I do attempt to live by the other six on Wesley's list. With the water incidents this week, however, I have really been rethinking number 8. Does God require me to give all I have to the poor? Is that what it means to love my neighbor as myself? How do I define compassion?

Since the day I became a Christ-follower forty years ago, I have defined love in terms of compassion ministry. Today, I am no longer so sure. I felt SO guilty keeping water for myself when love, it would seem, would have had me give it away. I went to prayer. I studied my Bible. A verse came alive.

"If I give all I possess to the poor...but have not love, I gain nothing" (1 Cor 13:3).

Give all, nothing gained. I had not seen that verse quite that way before. According to Paul, compassion and love are two different things. I could give everything away and even give my body to be burned for a good cause, but those acts are not the definition of love. Paul seems to be saying it is possible to do extreme philanthropy outside the framework of love. It appears that, however noble the effort might be, work, in and of itself, does not define love in God's dictionary. Jesus said much the same thing in John 6. He fed 5000 men one day, and the next day they were back for another handout, but Jesus refused to feed them a second time. "I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life," Jesus told them. 

Jesus seems to be saying that compassion ministry which does not lead to belief in God is problematic.  Programmed generosity is problematic, especially if it does nothing more than create dependency. True compassion leads people to Christ. True compassion is a sign that the kingdom of God is near. At the same time, Jesus warns us not to broadcast our compassionate acts but rather to give in secret, so that your left hand does not know what your right hand is doing. In fact, false Christians can be identified by this sort of compassionate ostentation. "Many will say to me, Lord, did we not do many things in your name, but I will tell them plainly, I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers." (Matt. 7:15-23).

Those who believe come to Christ for salvation. Those who do not believe come only for more handouts. When the crowd wanted Jesus to feed them again, he refused once their unbelief was established. After this there is no record that he fed anyone else. They pressed him. "What must we do to do the work God requires?" Great question except for the fact they were only interested in getting Jesus to be happy with them so he would feed them again. Jesus answered, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent" (John 6). Their questions abruptly stopped.

Their attempt to get something from Jesus for free sharply contrasts with another person later in the story who demonstrated true love in an act of compassion toward Jesus. In God's dictionary, love is not defined by isolated acts of compassion toward others, but by the extravagance of our love for the person of Jesus Christ, demonstrated by a woman who broke a costly vial of perfume over Jesus. Some objected to her generosity. "She should have sold the perfume and given the money to the poor!"  Jesus commended the woman's extravagant love, however, saying in John 12, "He who has been forgiven much loves much." That is the definition of love in God's dictionary.

Do our acts of compassion lead others to love God as this woman did? Not very often in my observation.  Filling hungry bellies with food and water might be a byproduct of our love for Christ, but it only becomes useful when it leads them to an encounter with Jesus. Real food leads to real life. That's what Jesus taught the meal seekers in John 6. Real water leads to eternal life. That's what Jesus taught a foreign woman in John 4. Are we teaching the same thing? Or are we just giving food and water for reasons of our own apart from the gospel of Christ?

I wonder if those who receive from us physical food and water without a corresponding call to come to Christ will rise up on Judgement Day to justly accuse us of negligence. "What benefit was your compassion to us? We took your food and water and lost our souls" (Matthew 16:26). I don't have answers. Just a lot of questions at this point. I am beginning, though, to think there is a difference between compassion that saves and compassion that harms. And I am troubled. 

Such thoughts to start a new decade with! May the Lord grant us understanding and true compassion toward others. Lord, teach me to love. Amen.

In Christ Alone,
Amy

My address is:
Amy Trosen
Box 10002 PMB 1041
Saipan, MO 96950

I have a PayPal.Me account  here.
May God richly bless you for helping me do what God has called me to do here in Saipan. Be advised your gift is a personal gift and not tax deductible nor are you receiving from me any goods or services. 



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