February 15, 2010 AM I MY BROTHER’S KEEPER?

Romans 14:7 none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone.
Our Christian walk is not done in isolation. When we walk as Christians through this life, we are representing Christ to those around us. When we represent poorly, we are responsible for that. We are to support our fellow believers and be a witness to those who don’t believe.

If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it, and if one part is honored, all the parts are glad (Corinthians 12:26)

Chambers explains:

When once you allow physical selfishness, mental slovenliness, moral obtuseness, spiritual density, everyone belonging to your crowd will suffer.

This would seem an almost overwhelming demand, but we aren’t to seek the power within ourselves. We must depend entirely upon God. Then and only then can we hope to be what we are called to be.
Daniel 6 recounts the story of Daniel, a faithful servant of the Lord, who was thrown into a den of lions because he refused to heed a decree of King Darius forbidding the worship of anything or anyone other than himself. Daniel’s habit was to bow before the Lord in prayers of Thanksgiving three times a day, and when he heard of this decree he continued in his holy habit in spite of the risk to himself. When his prayers were discovered, he was thrown into the den of lions, but the Lord sent an angel to close the mouths of the lions and he was completely unharmed. As a result, the pagan king issued another decree:

I decree that everyone throughout my kingdom should tremble with fear before the God of Daniel.
For he is the living God,
and he will endure forever.
His kingdom will never be destroyed,
and his rule will never end. (Daniel 6:26)

A pagan king celebrating the power of the living God? We can never underestimate the power of our example and who it might impact or influence. Daniel’s commitment to his Lord, his refusal to alter his daily prayer and worship, even under penalty of death, and his subsequent deliverance from that death had a powerful impact on this king who didn’t have any interest in the true and living God before his acquaintance with Daniel. It can be humbling to consider how our witness might affect those unbelievers we come in contact with on a daily basis.

Our faith must be more than a footnote to a life otherwise devoted. When we call ourselves Christians, our service to our Lord should be all encompassing. Everything we do is passed through the filter of our love of Christ and our devotion to Him. Chambers calls it being “broken bread and poured out wine” – our lives are entirely about our Lord and Savior. If we truly understand what Christ did for us on the cross, how can we help but serve Him simply as an act of inexpressible gratitude? I don’t know that I fully understand God’s mercy or grasp the work done on the cross. If I truly understood what I was saved from and how little I deserved it, my gratitude would be more in line.