Whom Shall We Fear?

[newton3005]

If you see someone in trouble, do you walk away? Would God expect you to keep to yourself, even though you may be of some help? One argument that could be made by someone is that they have a household they must provide for, and so, they cannot risk the household to help someone else. To an extent, they have a point. If it comes down to supporting your household and helping others, and you only have resources for one of them, it may be considered godly to devote those resources to your household. But what if you can help others, without sacrificing the well-being of your household?

There are servicemen in America who have families, and who in the past have volunteered to fight overseas. Perhaps they made sure that if anything happened to them, their families would be provided for. Many may see helping others fight their battles as a higher calling. Those who help others, perhaps, see any evil offense against others as an afront to them, as in, ‘This isn’t what mankind is all about; mankind should be committed to loving God and carrying out His Works, that mankind may prosper and live on.’ In a sense, there are many who define their household as being beyond just the family they provide for.

How to justify one’s commitment to helping others, even if they don’t get direct benefit themselves from doing so? Perhaps a good place to start would be the Parable of the Good Samaritan, spelled out in Luke 10:25-37. In that parable, a man was beaten and robbed by a gang, and left for dead. Shortly thereafter, a Samaritan comes along and treated the man’s wounds, and brings him to an inn, telling the innkeeper to take care of him and the Samaritan will repay the innkeeper.

Did the Samaritan have any concern that, perhaps, the gang may come back and do to him what they did to the man? Perhaps the Samaritan had his own household to provide for. Either he was comfortable that his family was provided for if anything should happen to him, or perhaps being a God-fearing person he saw any acts of evil as an afront to him, whom God commissioned, as well as commissioning others through what the Bible says, to help those less fortunate than they are. And does the Bible not say in Psalms 27:1, “The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?”

Jesus condensed the Law and the prophets into two commandments—that we love God with all our heart, soul and mind, and we love our neighbor as we love ourselves. But when you think of it, loving God entails loving others because that’s what God wants us to do. If we love God, we would keep His Commandments. What have we got to lose? Does not Psalms 23 extend the hope that we will dwell in the House of the Lord forever if we pass from the earth for whatever reason? In general, isn’t a commitment to do good, out of our love and faith in God, worth it if we can dwell in His House? The main point is that we should not let ourselves be overcome by evil.

 

[psalm9]

Many are fighting discouragement right now. It is very hard to hear evil rejoicing over lies that gained power from the realm of darkness. It is very hard to view power being falsely taken by those that follow evil. It is very hard being around those who have fallen for the lies.
I was thinking these thoughts this morning and realized these thoughts are not what our Lord told us to dwell on. We are to search for and know the real truth but what occupies-consumes our main thoughts: He has said in Philippians 4-"think on these things":
(-"whatever is true, ( His Word contains the Truth we need for this life.)
-whatever is noble, (honorable, worthy of reverence)
-whatever is right, (in conformity to God’s standards- what our Lord reveals in His Word -this should be our guide. He has expressed clearly - what is right and what is wrong.)
-whatever is pure, (“undefiled, chaste, clean, holy.” It touches the whole area of moral purity.)
-whatever is lovely, (This word, "lovely" is used only here in the New Testament. It literally means “love towards.” It has the idea of attracting loveliness as a magnet attracts iron filings. “those things that Grace attracts.” )
-whatever is admirable—(on the things that are positive not negative, constructive not destructive, things that build up not the things that tear down. )
-if anything is excellent or praiseworthy- ( we are to seek to know those things that are true that are going on in our world but that doesn’t mean we should dwell on them. Excellent -refers to virtue and praiseworthy means “those things that God himself would approve.”)
Evil puts up a smoke screen of defeat and discouragement but Victory belongs to our God. He defeats evil and enlarges His Church as the battle rages on. We are strengthened and grow spiritually stronger- as we depend upon Him in the battle and we know we are on the winning side.
Victory over darkness and evil is the way the Book of Revelation ends.
(The last verse in the last Book of the Bible After the Victory over evil's plan is :
"The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen."