Not Far From the Kingdom of God

     I was thinking about something this weekend that I want to share. I know a lot of people who are compassionate and caring who are not Christians, some of whom are indifferent to Christianity, some openly hostile to Christianity. I also know some people, who make the profession of being a Christian, but, who seem to me to not be very nice people. Before I make any more comments, I want to preface this by saying that it is not my place to judge anyone, whether their profession of Christianity is, or is not genuine. Only God knows the real condition of anyone’s heart. It is not my place, or anyone else’s place to try to determine another person’s standing before God, or their eternal destiny. Frankly, I do not want that responsibility. I would probably botch it horribly.

Having said that, I do think that there are certain characteristics of a genuine child of God that are evident. Please note that these are my personal observations and opinions, and I acknowledge them as such. The first thing I take note of is humility. It is difficult to teach a proud person anything, or have a reasonable conversation about anything that you disagree with them on, because, generally speaking, they are not listening to you, but only working to prove themselves right.

     The second thing is love and compassion for others. Jesus said that the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. The next is to love your neighbor as yourself. Personally, I do not think it is possible to love your neighbor as yourself, unless you first love the Lord your God with your whole heart, soul, mind and strength. Love for God requires self-abandonment. This kind of love is what the Bible refers to as unconditional love. I personally think that is not possible for a human being who is not filled with the Holy Spirit to love another person unconditionally, because it is not in our nature to do so. We can come close to love, but love that does not originate from the heart of God, (that which is empowered by the Holy Spirit) many times is not real unconditional love. It is motivated by how it makes the person doing the charitable or compassionate act feel. Don’t get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with enjoying the good feeling you get from helping others. The problem is that often we do things for others that make us feel good about ourselves, but are of no long-term value for the recipient. It is a complicated issue, and I do not want to get too far off topic delving too deep into that which is another matter entirely.

I have met a lot of people in my life that represent a huge paradox. On one hand, they are caring people. On the other hand, they are hostile towards God, and Christianity. I have a friend that works with disabled veterans. He has a heart of compassion towards veterans, and more specifically, disabled veterans. He used to profess to be a Christian. He went to church and studied the Bible. Now, he is an agnostic, and has gone through searching lots of other religions and pseudo-spiritual paths to find truth. I believe, although I cannot prove it, that something happened to this man at some point in his life that caused him disappointment, and he became angry with God. This is not at all uncommon. Maybe someone he knew professed to be a child of God, and then did something really bad that caused my friend to question the sincerity of everyone who professes faith in Christ. I admit, however, that this is all speculation on my part.

     I know other people who are constantly championing social justice causes. I am all for social justice because God is a just God, but a lot of social justice causes that young people are attaching themselves to are ill informed and misguided. But the fact that they want to get involved shows me that there is something within their hearts that desires to be involved in something that is bigger than themselves, and the desire is to make a positive impact for the good. There is nothing wrong with wanting to champion the underdog.

     Jesus said to the man who asked him what the greatest commandments were: You are not far from the kingdom of God.  If we, as the body of Christ, could learn to draw out that which is in an unbeliever’s heart that draws him/her to social justice causes, (even if we think the specific cause is bogus), or draws them to want to show compassion to the poor, hungry, needy and hurting, and do some positive good, (even if it is motivated by the desire to feel good about themselves), we can help them to come to the revelation that that desire really shows that they are much closer to the heart of God, (the Kingdom of God) than they realize.

     My prayer is that I will learn to tune into this when I am engaging with unbelievers, and draw them out in such a manner as to help them realize that that desire that drives them to help others, to champion the underdog, to feel like their lives are a part of something bigger than themselves and work for the good of others, is proof that they are, in fact much closer to the heart of God than they realize, and that should be investigated.