What Is My Christian Duty?

We've heard the question raised before: "If you were on trial for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?" Not having the marvelous scroll upon which the Angel Gabriel keeps the records of good and bad deeds of every living person, we can only look at those aspects of life that show.

Unfortunately, Christians have been more than successful in keeping their Christianity from showing. For lack of the positive deeds of good will, we have substituted words and resolutions. We have organized committees and boards to formulate the doctrines of our faith. We have held tightly to the conviction that a person is "justified by faith", but "faith" sometimes becomes a convenient hide‑out for people who want to tuck their heads in the sand, and pretend that the world around them really isn't so.

And then there are those who give evidence of their faith, by preaching it, moralizing it, sentimentalizing it, and literally force‑feeding it to everyone they meet. There is an inner zeal within them that sends them out to change their world, to convert their neighbors. But the evidence of their faith doesn't hold up in court, or any place else, for that matter.

I suppose both methods have their point of value, but the first method ends up in a sterile institutionalism, and the second method seems all too often to end up with a superficial faith that lives on "Cloud 9" or arouses hostility and resentment, driving away the very persons who most need it.

Robert L. Stevenson once said, "There is an idea abroad among moral people that they should make their neighbors good. One person I have to make good, and that is myself. My duty to my neighbor is much more clearly expressed by saying that I have made him happy." In my Bible, I do not find that it says my job is to change my neighbor, it says simply that I am to love him!

I did not always believe this. There was a time, when I felt God had placed a burden upon my heart, to convert my neighbors. Now, a new peace has filled my soul as I shift this burden to my Heavenly Father. My job is to love my neighbors...to love them in whatever way is required so that it is real. And when I have done this in obedience to my Savior, who also loved me (unworthy though I may be), then I can leave it up to God to do the changing of those I have tried to love!

Have you really tried to love your neighbors lately? All the angels in heaven will rejoice when they see this kind of evidence of Christ‑like faith!