Matthew 6: 1-4 states:
1Take
heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise
ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.
2Therefore
when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the
hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have
glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
3But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth:
4That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.
James 2:1-17 states:
1My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons.
2For
if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring, in goodly
apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment;
3And
ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him,
Sit thou here in a good place; and say to the poor, Stand thou there,
or sit here under my footstool:
4Are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts?
5Hearken,
my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in
faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that
love him?
6But ye have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgment seats?
7Do not they blaspheme that worthy name by the which ye are called?
8If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well:
9But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors.
10For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.
11For
he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if
thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a
transgressor of the law.
12So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty.
13For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment.
14What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?
15If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food,
16And
one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled;
notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the
body; what doth it profit?
17Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.
Gave all that before I brought up the story of the "Good Samaritan." We all feel good when we perform good deeds and it is especially rewarding when we do it for the Kingdom of God. Question is though why are we doing it? Think about the story of the Good Samaritan. The fact that the Jesus goes so far as to call the Samaritan good is important in and off itself. The Samaritan's were despised by the Jews so for Jesus to tell a story making a Samaritan the hero of the story and then calling him good really puts emphases on what Jesus was trying to communicate.
See we love to do good deeds if there is a way we can get credit for it or for someone to see us and make sure we are getting acknowledgement in some kind of way. It is quite difficult for us to do something and say nothing and let it just be between us and the person we are caring for. The Good Samaritan did something that no one else would do. As the story goes, a man was robbed and beat up and left for dead. A priest passed him. A Levite passed him. Not only did these men pass the man who needed help, but they made the extra effort to go to the other side of the road to avoid the man altogether. But the Samaritan, the despised person, stopped and took care of him. Luke chapter 10 explains that the Samaritan saw the man and took pity on him, he bandaged up his wounds, he put him on his donkey, he took him to an inn, he stayed with him took care of him, he left money with the inn keeper for the man and finally, told the inn keeper that he would take care of any bills that the man made because of his stay. That's love. Jesus asks those hearing the parable of the three people that were presented, which one was a neighbor to the man.
The issue is so many of us are like the priest or the Levite. We base our helping others on what's in it for us. The hurt man presented a problem and the question really became if the priest of Levite would see the real issue or would they say to themselves, that's not my problem. We are humans and in fact at a higher level, which is what Jesus was trying to explain, the plight of one is a problem for all of us as it could easily be us and for many of us it was or is us.
I am often flabbergasted at people who have suffered so greatly and been the benefactors of someone like a Good Samaritan, but yet have so little compassion. So it makes me ask why? The Good Samaritan helped because he had compassion. He would have done it for anyone. I ask myself, do I exemplify this? Will I help when needed or will I help to advance my own agenda or for some other internal reason? Will I help others when it is convenient for me only? Will I help others so I can talk about what I did later? One of the things I so strive for is consistency. There are a lot of good characteristics and manners that I lack, but I hope that there's no one who can ever say that I was impartial when it came to helping others no matter who they are or what the situation was. When God calls us to do something we should administer that gift to whomever He presents to us. The previous scriptures that I have included try to explain that. So often we give place and much higher importance to those who look the part of being rich or well off. We like to help those people because there is a possible reward in it for us, but who wants to help the poor and destitute? Who wants to help a person who can't pay you back? Jesus did. When He died for us He paid a debt that we could never repay. He gave something that we could not work for so it was a gift.
Think about giving a gift today to someone who can't pay you back.
