Philanthropy

And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, (Philippians 1:9 ESV)

If my love is to abound more and more it must be a love that is demonstrated by action. Heed the words of John:

But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. (1 John 3:17-18 ESV)

To love in deed and in truth is to help those in need. It is to feed the hungry and clothe the naked. It is to heal the broken and help the elderly. It is to do good to others. Indeed, if we are to love our neighbor as we should that means to love our neighbor "as ourself", to treat our neighbor always as we would wish to be treated.

And there you have the Golden Rule. Jesus was not the first to teach this concept, but Jesus upped the ante. While previous Eastern teachers had conveyed the principle of not ever doing to anyone what we would not want done to ourselves, Jesus turned that negative precept into a positive one. If we would follow Jesus' teaching right, simply not mistreating others is not enough, for it does not go far enough. We must actively and positively seek to do well for our neighbors. We must do.

Too many times, I think, we confuse "good works" with moral living. While both are important, they are not the same. Moral living is too often defined as what we don't do (which is a mistake, I think, but that's for another day). Good works, by contrast, are not about what we don't, but what we do. Who is our greatest example in this?

In Acts chapter 10, Peter describes Jesus in this way: "He went about doing good . . ."

What a tremendous summary of Jesus' ministry. "He went about doing good . . ." To go about doing good is to always have our eyes open to see the needs around us and to be ready to step in and do something to help. It means charitable work. It means helping. It means taking responsibility, reaching out, giving of our time, our talents, and ourselves. It means actively looking to the needs of others, looking for ways that we might serve others. It is unselfish living.

That requires love, doesn't it? It requires a lot of love. In fact, it requires us to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. Paul will come back to this theme later in the letter, and so will we. In the mean time, see how Paul puts it in his letter to the Galatians:

So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith. (Galatians 6:10 ESV)

Do good. To everyone. What a testimony that would be if it could be said of us that we "did good to everyone." That kind of living is rare indeed, and our fallen world is starving for it.