Why do Christians serve those in need?

Rescue crews are wading through heavy flooding caused by Hurricane Milton, looking for people trapped in houses, cars, and other structures. First responders completed around 170 high-water rescues in just one county yesterday. More than one hundred residents in an assisted living facility in Tampa were transported by rescuers in boats to safety.

We should all be grateful for officials who act in such heroic, selfless ways, though they would probably tell us they are “just doing their jobs.”

The same cannot be said, however, regarding Samaritan’s Purse, Texans on Mission, and other religious groups whose volunteers are responding to the destruction of Hurricanes Milton and Helene. My friend, Dr. Duane Brooks, noted in one of his daily devotionals that Christians responding to disasters seldom have to compete with atheist groups, because they’re not there.

The numbers bear him out. According to Philanthropy Roundtable:

• Americans who attend religious services weekly and pray daily are nearly twice as likely as others to do volunteer work. Nearly two-thirds gave to the poor in the past seven days, compared to 41 percent of other Americans.
• People who attend worship at least twice a month give four times as much to charity as non-attenders.
• Such giving is not reserved for religious causes: 65 percent of those who attend religious services regularly also give to secular causes, compared with 50 percent of those who never attend religious services.

Why are Christians so motivated to help in times of need?

If I were a skeptic

If I were a skeptic, I would turn to Darwinian evolution to explain sacrificial altruism as a manifestation of our innate desire to propagate ourselves. Helping others advances our species and may make it more likely that others will help us in our time of need. The satisfaction we feel in such service is nature’s way of encouraging our sacrifice and compelling further service.

With regard to those who serve for religious reasons, I would offer a similar response: We want to advance our religious community while positioning ourselves to receive their help in the future. And since we believe that God will reward us in heaven for faithful service on earth (Matthew 25:23), we are even more motivated by selfish desires than nonreligious people.

Of course, we do not need to be Darwinian evolutionists to acknowledge that we have a God-given instinct to preserve and steward our lives and community. Nor do we need to disagree that such service advances ourselves and our faith community in this life and the next.

But there is more to the story.

“Not to be served but to serve”

Even when others do not see our true motives, “the Lᴏʀᴅ looks on the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). And he cannot reward selfish transactionalism as he can genuine altruism.

Why is this?

The answer goes to the heart of Christian uniqueness. Ancient Greeks and Romans made sacrifices to the gods so the gods would meet their needs. Other world religions are similarly transactional: If we do what we are told to do, God or the gods will respond accordingly.

Christianity is uniquely different. We serve not so God will love us but because he already does. We love our Lord and our neighbor because our Lord loves our neighbor and us.

This frees us from the constant anxiety of doing more to receive more. When our relationship with God and others is based on our service, there is always more service to render. We are never done. We cannot have the peace of God that “surpasses all understanding” (Philippians 4:7) because our peace is based not on God’s grace but on our works.

However, if we serve others because we have been served by God and love others because we are loved by God, then we are free to love whether we are loved in return or not. We are free to give without thought for who can give to us, because we emulate the One who “came not to be served but to serve” (Matthew 20:28).

Three practical responses

What can you do to help those facing the devastation of Hurricane Milton and other disasters?

1: Pray fervently

1. D. Gordon was right: “You can do more than pray after you have prayed but you cannot do more than pray until you have prayed.” When we pray, we experience what our omniscient, omnibenevolent, omnipotent, omnipresent God can do. And we are led to know what we can do and find that we are empowered to do it.

2: Give sacrificially

1. S. Lewis observed, “I do not believe one can settle how much we ought to give. I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare.”

3: Serve strategically

I once heard Dr. Mac Brunson say that every Christian should have a personal Acts 1:8 strategy. How will you help those in need at home, in the larger area where you live, and “to the end of the earth”? According to Jesus, your “neighbor” is anyone who needs what you have to give (Luke 10:36–37).

I’ll say it again: We serve not so God will love us but because he already does. We give not to be blessed but because we already are. However, it is a fact that when we pray, give, and serve, we position ourselves to experience God’s best in response.

St. Francis of Assisi, in his first known letter to all Christians, assured us:

Men lose all the material things they leave behind them in this world, but they carry with them the reward of their charity and the alms they give. For these they will receive from the Lord the reward and recompense they deserve.

What will you do today that you will “carry” to heaven one day?

NOTE: Our nation’s political landscape can feel overwhelming, but you change the conversation. Respectfully, I Disagree will help you engage in tough conversations with grace and How Does God See America? will guide you through understanding cultural shifts. Receive both as our gift to thank you for your donation of $25 or more. Get your political bundle today.

Friday news to know:

• Ethel Kennedy, widow of Robert Kennedy and family matriarch, dies at 96
• Inflation cools slightly in September
• Nobel Peace Prize given to Nihon Hidankyo for work to halt nuclear weapons
• Rafael Nadal to retire from tennis at end of season
• On this day in 2002: Jimmy Carter wins Nobel Peace Prize

*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.

Quote for the day:

“He who does not serve God where he is would not serve God anywhere else.” —Charles Spurgeon

Denison Forum

Hurricane Milton rapidly intensified into a Category 5 storm yesterday. The center of the monster storm could come ashore Wednesday in the Tampa Bay region, which has not seen a direct hit by a major hurricane in more than a century. Forecasters are warning of the highest storm surge ever predicted for the region.

Ahead of the devastation that is likely tomorrow, I want to think with you about some faith questions as we seek hope in these hard days.

If every wrong chess move can be replayed

The English poet John Keats called our fallen planet a “vale of soul-making.” Yesterday I suggested that God uses natural disasters to show us our need to “seek the Lᴏʀᴅ and his strength” (Psalm 105:4) and to grow in holiness as a result.

Inherent in this worldview is the claim that some suffering is necessary for spiritual maturity, much as a kite needs wind to climb higher. When Paul was afflicted with a “thorn in the flesh,” for example, he chose to “boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (2 Corinthians 12:9).

It is also true (though not in the case of innocent suffering) that much evil in the world is the consequence of misused free will. As C. S. Lewis notes in The Problem of Pain, “The possibility of pain is inherent in the very existence of a world where souls can meet. When souls become wicked they will certainly use this possibility to hurt one another; and this, perhaps, accounts for four-fifths of the sufferings of men.”

God must allow the consequences of freedom or we are not free. If every wrong chess move can be replayed, we have no game. The law of gravity cannot function if it is countermanded every time someone falls.

But why must this be so?

Responding to the “utopia thesis”

Philosophers Antony Flew and J. L. Mackie proposed the “utopia thesis,” claiming that an all-knowing, all-loving, all-powerful God could create a world in which people are free and grow to full spiritual maturity without the presence or necessity of evil and suffering. We cannot understand how he might do so, but we’re not God.

One response is that even God is not obligated to do what is logically impossible, such as making a rock so big he cannot move it or two mountains without a valley in between. It is illogical that even he could create a utopia in which humans are truly free but they never misuse such freedom.

But here’s my problem with this response: such a “utopia” is precisely how the Bible describes heaven.

Revelation 7 pictures “a great multitude that no one could number . . . crying out in a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’” (vv. 9–10). Worship, our expression of love and adoration for God, is the central activity of heaven. But love must be a choice, which requires freedom of will even in heaven.

At the same time, we are assured that in heaven, “death shall be no more” (Revelation 21:4a). Since “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23), it’s hard to see how there can be sin in heaven without death as a consequence. Or how “there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain” (Revelation 21:4b NASB) while sin is present.

So, if we will experience a “utopia” one day in which we are free but sin and suffering do not exist, why not now?

“I believe; help my unbelief!”

Mystery is part of the Christian faith. We wonder, for example, how God can be three yet one, Jesus could be fully God yet fully man, and the Bible can be divinely inspired yet humanly written.

In the same way, I do not know an explanation for our suffering world that is free from all questions and mystery. But let me ask you this: Do you truly believe that our God is all-knowing, all-loving, and all-powerful? Then by definition, he must always know what is best for us, want what is best for us, and therefore do what is best for us.

Now we have a choice: We can view his nature through the prism of events, or view events through the prism of his nature. I choose the latter with the prayer, “I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24). All the while knowing that there are truths in this world God cannot reveal to me because I am unable to comprehend them (1 Corinthians 13:12).

But this world is not all there is.

Max Lucado quotes a friend who says, “Everything will work out in the end. If it’s not working out, it’s not the end.” While the “utopia” of heaven raises questions about earth, it also offers wonderful assurance about life beyond this life. As Paul declared,

“I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18).

How can we have the same confidence?

“When we can reach beyond our fears”

Henri Nouwen observed: “We are fearful people. We are afraid of conflict, war, an uncertain future, illness, and most of all, death.” This is problematic because “this fear takes away our freedom and gives society the power to manipulate us with threats and promises.”

However,

When we can reach beyond our fears to the One who loves us with a love that was there before we were born and will be there after we die, then oppression, persecution, and even death will be unable to take our freedom. Once we have come to this deep inner knowledge—a knowledge more of the heart than of the mind—that we are born out of love and will die into love, that every part of our being is deeply rooted in love, and that this love is our true Father and Mother, then all forms of evil, illness, and death lose their final power over us and become painful but hopeful reminders of our true divine childhood.

Will you “come to this deep inner knowledge” today?

Tuesday news to know:

• Israel marks Oct. 7 anniversary under shadow of escalating war
• Hezbollah missiles hit Israel’s Haifa in escalating conflict
• Antisemitic incidents in US surge to record high—report
• Discovery in tiny worm leads to Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for two scientists
• On this day in 1970: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wins the Nobel Prize in Literature

*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.

Quote for the day:

“Those who understand God’s sovereignty have joy even in the midst of suffering, a joy reflected on their very faces, for they see that their suffering is not without purpose.” —R. C. Sproul

Denison Forum

A reflection on crisis and the power of faith

A year ago today, Hamas launched the worst massacre in Israel’s history, murdering 1,195 people and taking 251 hostages. The last twelve months have been what the Economist calls “the year that shattered the Middle East.”

Despite the horrors of war and the tragic loss of life that have ensued, the past year has seen significant progress for Israel:

• The Israeli people are more unified in fighting their enemies: fully 80 percent support the current offensive against Hezbollah, for example.
• The IDF has largely decapitated Hezbollah and destroyed many of its missiles, significantly degrading what had been Iran’s strongest proxy in the region.
• Israel’s army chief said yesterday that Israeli forces had defeated the military wing of Hamas. The terror group’s hoped-for “axis of resistance” against Israel has not come to its defense.
• Iran has been largely ineffectual in its attacks on Israel, staging two missile launches that caused little damage to the Jewish state.

However, there is also cause for grave concern:

• Nearly forty-two thousand people have been killed in Gaza, and around 70 percent of the area’s housing stock has been destroyed. Over half of Gaza’s population has lost a relative; some three-quarters have been displaced at least three times during the war.
• Palestinians’ support for violence in the West Bank has grown from 35 percent in September 2022 to 56 percent in September this year.
• The ongoing wars are significantly harming Israel’s economy: GDP is shrinking year-on-year; the prolonged absence of so many reservists is harming businesses; and railway stations have been forced to close for lack of security guards.
• The threat of terrorism persists: On October 1, more Israelis were killed by two Palestinians who attacked a commuter rail station in Jaffa than were harmed by 180 Iranian missiles. Hezbollah rockets hit Haifa, Israel’s third-largest city, early this morning and launched another attack on Tiberias.
• Israel’s direct conflict with Iran could escalate into a regional war that eventually involves the US on its side and China, Russia, and North Korea with the Iranians. As Israeli forces degrade its proxies, Iran may turn to developing nuclear weapons in response.
• The conflict could spawn terrorism in the US as well: The FBI and Department of Homeland Security are warning that a “variety of actors” could commit acts of violence here in response to today’s anniversary.

Millions of unexploded bombs

In light of all the challenges in the news and our daily lives, let’s ask: Does God want us to be happy or to be holy?

Today’s terrible anniversary comes as millions in the American Southeast are reeling from one of the deadliest hurricanes of the modern era, with another threatening storm on the way. The World War II bomb that recently exploded in Japan was one of millions of unexploded bombs around the world and serves as a parable for our trying times: There always seems to be another crisis waiting to erupt.

According to Peggy Noonan’s latest Wall Street Journal column, “Americans feel surrounded by crises—inflation, the Mideast, Vladimir Putin, AI’s gonna eat your brain and no one’s gonna stop it, China. You can see this in the right track/wrong track numbers, which continue underwater—the whole country fears we’re on a losing slide in a dangerous world.”

If God primarily wants us to be happy, he doesn’t seem to be doing his job very well. But there’s more to the story.

The word happiness comes from the Old Norse word hap, which means “chance, luck, fortune, or fate.” It is based on happenings and is thus transient. We are happy depending on whether our team won or lost, the current state of the stock market, and a variety of other transient factors.

Paradoxically, pursuing happiness often leads us to make compromises with our character that harm us and others, thus reducing our happiness.

By contrast, holiness (from the German heilig, meaning “whole” or “sacred”) is not transient but transforming. Pursuing holiness often leads us to make changes in our character that mature us and bless others, thus increasing our holiness.

If the world is a “vale of soul-making”

If God intends us to be holy, this world makes much more sense. As I explain in my latest website article, God and Hurricane Helene: Thinking biblically about natural disasters, this is not the world as God originally created it. Rather, we live on a broken planet where natural disasters are an inevitable consequence of the Fall (cf. Genesis 3:17–19; Romans 8:22).

However, the God who redeems all he allows uses even these disasters—not to make us happy, but to help us be holy.

Paul observed: “Suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope” (Romans 5:3–4). The second-century theologian Irenaeus accordingly suggested that God uses our fallen world to grow us spiritually. And, as C. S. Lewis noted in The Problem of Pain, “If the world is indeed a ‘vale of soul-making,’ it seems on the whole to be doing its work.”

Now you and I have a choice.

Scripture calls us to “seek the Lᴏʀᴅ and his strength; seek his presence continually!” (Psalm 105:4). When we face the crises of life, God wants us to “remember the wondrous works that he has done” (v. 5) and trust our unchanging and loving Father to do the same today.

But we can also respond to crises by doubling down on self-reliance. Rather than trusting our Lord, we can seek to be our own god (Genesis 3:5), trusting our frailty and finitude over his omnipotent power and omniscient wisdom. We can exchange holiness for happiness—and forfeit both.

The famed missionary Jim Elliot noted,

“God always gives his best to those who leave the choice with him.”

Will you experience his best today?

Monday news to know:

• Hurricane Milton gaining strength fast, expected to hit Florida as a major hurricane this week
• Trump makes a dramatic return to Pennsylvania shooting scene
• US added a whopping 254,000 jobs last month
• Biden will allow legal permission to lapse for migrants from 4 countries
• On this day in 2001: US-led attack on Afghanistan begins

*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.

Quote for the day:

“Obedience is the key that opens every door.” —C. S. Lewis

Denison Forum