Faithful in Small Things
By Stephen Terry
“Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king,
which would take account of his servants. And when he had begun to reckon, one
was brought unto him, which owed him ten thousand talents. But forasmuch as he
had not to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and children,
and all that he had, and payment to be made.
The servant therefore fell down, and worshipped him, saying, Lord,
have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. Then the lord of that servant
was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt.
But the same servant went out, and found one of his
fellowservants, which owed him an hundred pence: and he laid hands on him, and
took him by the throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest. And his fellowservant
fell down at his feet, and besought him, saying, Have patience with me, and I
will pay thee all. And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he
should pay the debt.
So when his fellowservants saw what was done, they were very
sorry, and came and told unto their lord all that was done. Then his lord,
after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave
thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me: Shouldest not thou also have had
compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee?
And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors,
till he should pay all that was due unto him. So likewise shall my heavenly
Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his
brother their trespasses.”
Matthew 18: 23-35
On the surface, this parable
appears to be about debt and forgiveness of debt, but recently I came to
understand a deeper application of this counsel. My sister and brother-in-law
recently moved to
When my friend and I sat down
for our meal we noticed that he decided to stay and had taken a table on the
other side of the restaurant. I
noticed that he was having trouble staying awake. Soon the restaurant manager came and
told him he needed to go somewhere else as the restaurant was not a place to
sleep. He promised the manager that
he would stay awake. The manager
told him if he stayed awake he could stay until his meal was done but no longer
and then went back to working in the kitchen.
I went over to the young man
and asked his name.
“J.C.” he
answered.
I asked if he was from
I asked him if he had a place
to stay? He had no idea where he
would go after the restaurant and didn’t know anyone in
I told him about the Union
Gospel Mission. He said he thought
it sounded great. I offered to take
him there when he was done eating.
He said he would like to go to a safe place.
Returning to my table, I told
my friend that we would be late to my sister’s house as we needed to take
“J.C.” to the
It looked like we had a
little time to spare so I stopped at Staples to pick up something. No lines. In and out and we would be on
our way. After I had come out of
the store I noticed my friend was not with me, so I went back in. She met me at the door with a purchase
she wanted to make. I looked at the
cash register and where there was no line before, now there was a long
line. I said, “If we make
this purchase we will definitely be late arriving at my sister’s.”
My friend’s response
was a rebuke straight from the Lord.
She asked why I was willing to be late to my sister’s to help a
perfect stranger, but was not willing to be late to help someone I knew who
needed something? I had not been
willing to give the same consideration to her that I had given to a perfect
stranger. God had given me great
consideration in my life, and here I was, not extending the same consideration
to someone in a very small thing.
Now I began to wonder how
often we do this from day to day.
How often do we desire to do the great works of the church and yet neglect
the simple requests of our families as somehow being of less importance? Do we spend hours planning how we are
going to reach the lost in the city around us and then completely miss the
needs in our own houses and our own families? What about our church family? Do we make the same sacrifices for them
that we willingly make for strangers?
Aesop in his fable “The
Fox and the Lion” truly said that “Familiarity breeds
contempt.” Not only do we
seem to find it harder to do the loving thing with those close to use than with
strangers, we also find it easier to find fault with those we know well. Do we forget how easy it would be for
our Lord to find fault with us? Yet
He has not done so. As the Apostle
John wrote, “For God sent not his
Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might
be saved.” John 3:17
Jesus gave His life on the
cross to make this possible. I was
unwilling to give an extra five minutes to my friend. If I am unwilling to take the extra time
for my friend for a material need or even a spiritual need such as prayer or
simply letting them know that I support them in their struggle, how have I done
anymore for them than a perfect stranger would have done? Am I better at loving my enemies than I
am at loving my friends? Should I
be?
If I am not, why would anyone
want to belong to my church? Even
my cat understands that it wants to be where it feels safe. In my house, he enjoys being fed and
watered, having his fur lovingly stroked and socialization together through
playtime. If I ignored him, except
to pull his fur and fed him only at irregular intervals when it was convenient,
he would be only too happy to move on to a safer place. Providing him a safe place to live costs
me little. Making sure our families
feel safe at home and loved also costs little. Doing the same at church is also easily
done.
A gentle touch, a kind word,
a prayer of support costs us nothing, but they can make a world of difference
in how appreciated and how safe someone feels. No one should feel threatened by coming
to church. If they do, they will
seek a safer place. If they do not
receive understanding from those they worship with, they will find it
elsewhere. And if there must
eventually be a judgment, who will be in the worst
position, the one who left to find safety, or the one who drove them away by
making them feel unsafe?
Lets make our families safe places where we consider the
needs of our loved ones as important as our own. Let us make our churches safe places where
we consider the support of our brothers and sisters in Christ as important as
our own need for support. As in the
parable of the debtor, can we truly expect God to support us and care for us if
we do not do the same for those around us?
Sometimes we see others
struggling in the church, and we say “They must not be
converted.” But when we are
saying this, are we not really saying “I am converted, so I can judge who
is and who isn’t.” But
the very act of doing this reveals something of our own nature. If we are close to Christ, why would we
wound those He gave his life for by making them feel
unsafe in the church?
Some feel the need to do
battle against sin in the church.
However, the wheat and the tares grow together until the harvest
according to the Bible and even then the angles do the work of dealing with the
tares, not the church members. It
is deeds of kindness, not deeds of judgment that benefit both the recipient and
the giver. Lets
not lose kindness in the darkened halls of judgment.