100 Days of HopeSample

The Sign Of An Authentic Faith

There is a hidden face of God in the faces of widows, orphans, strangers, aliens, prisoners, refugees, immigrants, the hungry, the thirsty, the sick, and the naked of the world around us (Matthew 25:31-46). In both the Old and New Testaments, these vulnerable groups are so special to God that one may note what resembles a divine preferential treatment. Jesus made this obvious when He revealed to His disciples that in the final test at the Day of Judgment what separates sheep from goats, righteous from unrighteous is how in life one cared for the vulnerable of his society.

Could it be that our faith in Christ is authenticated by the way we love as He has loved us? The vulnerable among us have no voice, no bargaining power, nothing to give back to us. Their physical, economic, social, behavioral, and societal conditions of helplessness represent the spiritual condition that characterized believers before the unmerited favor and unconditional love of God reached them while they were lost in their sin (Romans 5:8).

True faith in Christ finds its expression in caring for the marginalized (James 1:27). The final test on the Day of Judgment will not be how correct our theology was or how many sermons we preached, Sunday services we attended, memory verses we recited, or mission trips we made. While these are important for our spiritual growth and our fulfillment of the Great Commission, they should not replace our duty to care and protect the vulnerable among us by lifting them up from their spiritual, physical, political, and economic miseries.

Prayer: Father, help us to express our love for you in our care for the marginalized.