ARE YOU MISTREATING JESUS?

BIBLE PASSAGE:
For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat,
I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I
was a stranger and you invited me in.
(Matthew 25:35)

MEDITATION:
Have you ever thought about how you
are treating Jesus? You may think,
    “What are you talking about? I am not around Jesus.”

Well, that’s not exactly true – Jesus said that He is always
with us when we are doing the work He wants us to do.
    “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing
       them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the
       Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have
       commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the
       very end of the age.”
       (Matthew 28:19-20)

You may be thinking,
    “I try to keep Him first in my life, what more should I do?”
Certainly it’s admirable to keep Jesus in His rightful place, but
there is more. The way we treat others indicates how much of
Jesus is in our heart. Others see what is visible in us, but Jesus
reads our hearts, so He knows why we do what we do. He also
knows our motives and our motivation for the things we do.

If the things we do for others is a means of feeding our ego or
enhancing our image, then we are doing them for all the wrong
reasons. When we do what Jesus wants us to do, we should be
motivated by a genuine concern for others and a desire to be
more like the One we are following (Jesus).

When Jesus was in human form, He was limited in what He could
do, because He was just one person. Today however, He has many
‘agents’ to continue His ministry. The word ‘Christian’ implies we
have Christ living in us.

If Jesus is who Christians represent, then we should be doing the things
He would do. It means that we help others as the need arises. When we
do that, it shows our heart is full of a sincere desire for helping others.
Whenever we offer to help someone, it isn’t just ‘words’ to make us feel
good about ourselves, or to cause others to think more highly of us.

No, when we offer to help, it’s because we fully intend to make whatever
sacrifice is necessary. Our personal desires are replaced with the needs of
others and we don’t care if anyone knows we are helping someone. Why?
Because our commitment is to help, and not for us to be recognized and
praised for helping.

Jesus tells us that the way we treat others
is effectively how we would treat Him.
    “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever
       you did for one of the least of these brothers and
       sisters of mine, you did for me.’
       (Matthew 25:40)
We wouldn’t give Jesus an insincere, or half-hearted offer to help, would we?

Conversely, there are others who don’t treat others as Jesus would.
    For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat,
    I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I
    was a stranger and you did not invite me in
    (Matthew 25:42-43a)

Since Jesus also can read our hearts, He
knows when we are selfish and self-centered.
    He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not
    do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
    (Matthew 25:45)

So, what happens to those who treat others righteously, and those
who do not? Jesus says that those who treat others as He would,
will have eternal life, but those who don’t will experience eternal
punishment because they failed to become genuine Christians
(aka ‘followers of Jesus’).
    “Then they will go away to eternal
       punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
       (Matthew 25:46)

ACTION:
When was the last time you offered to help someone, even when you
knew if they asked for your help, you would have to make a sacrifice
and be inconvenienced? Some people will give ‘lip service’ to helping
others, but are secretly hoping they will not be asked to help.

Do you have any friends who often check on you, or do something
special because they value your friendship? How did it make you
feel? How often do you check on them, or others? What have you
done special to show someone you value their friendship?

As Christians, when we offer to help, we should assume the person
will need and ask for our help. With that mindset, we have already
planned to make whatever sacrifice we need to make. Christians
should embrace opportunities to help and encourage others and
not hope that someone else will help them so we won’t have to.

One effective way of helping others without expecting praise from
them or others, is to pray for them. Sincere prayer for someone is
something others may never know about, but it is something that
Jesus sees us doing.

Should we let the other person know we are praying for them?
Silence wouldn’t be a way of encouraging others, would it? It’s
important for us to tell others we are paying for them. Why?
Because sometimes when people are hurting, they can go into
a ‘silo’ of isolation from others; maybe not physically, but
emotionally they hide their hurts.

When we are helping others, we need to remember that even
though we may think we have good advice for them, they may
respond to emotional or physical pain much differently than
we would. What does that mean to us? It means that most of
the time it’s better to keep our advice to ourselves, unless they
ask us for our thoughts.

Most people ‘don’t care how much we know’ until they ‘know how
much we care’. When we sincerely care about others, we will make
special efforts to frequently check on them and assure them we are
praying for them and their situation.

If we think of something that might benefit them in some way, we
should consider starting a sentence with, “What do you think…”,
instead of “You need to…”. This communicates to them that we
are making a suggestion for them to consider, rather than showing
them how much we know.

As an example, we might say something like,
    “I realize we are different, but I tried this and it
      helped me, do you think it might be worth trying?”
as opposed to something like,
    “You need to do this, because I know it works”

The first comment is in the form of a suggestion, whereas the second
comment can appear to be authoritative. As mentioned earlier, the
best way to let others know we care about them is, to check on them
often, let them know we are praying for them, ask if there is anything
specific they want us to pray about, and then…spend time praying
for their needs.

Pray,
“Heavenly Father, now I have a better understanding of
what You expect of me. I realize that when I treat others
as Jesus would, it reveals the sincerity of my heart. Forgive
me for the times I have failed to offer help to others. Teach
me to change my priorities so I will have a greater concern
for others and will let them know I am praying for them and
their needs. Father, I pray that you would transform me to be
more like Jesus and give me an insight to the needs of others.
Convict me of the need to reach out to them and create in me
an attitude of following through whenever I sense a need.”

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