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Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor . . .
I was reading Matthew Henry's commentary on Matthew, chapter 18 this morning. In the first part of the chapter, Jesus takes a little child and sets him in the midst of the disciples, telling them that they must become as little children in order to enter the kingdom of heaven. MH gave an interesting list regarding childlikenes. . .
We must not be foolish as children (1 Co. 14:20)
fickle like children (Eph. 4:14), or
playful as children (Mat. 11:16)
But we must be as children in desiring the sincere milk of the word (1 Pt. 2:2)
being careful for nothing, but trusting the heavenly Father (Mat. 6:31)
being void of malice (1 Co. 15:20)
being governable and under command (Gal. 4:2) and of course
being humble, treating all alike (Rom. 12:16)
Jesus says that if we receive one such humble child in His name, we have received Him. MH says, "Whatever kindnesses are done to such, Christ takes as done to himself. Whoso entertains a meek and humble Christian, keeps him in countenance, will not let him loose by his modesty, takes him into his love and friendship, and society and care, and studies to do him a kindness; and doth this in Christ's name, for his sake, because he bears the image of Christ, serves Christ, and because Christ has received him; this shall be accepted and recompensed as an acceptable piece of respect to Christ." Then MH gives the verse (Mat. 25:35-40) where Jesus says, "I was hungry and you fed me, thirsty and you gave me drink," etc. This was making me think about the people that I know in my life. Someone once chided me with the remark that all of my friends were either stupid or foreigners. This made me mad at the time, but this morning I was thinking that perhaps that was a compliment. Perhaps spending time around the sick, the needy, the dying, the poor, the lonely, the foreigners is the way a Christian ought to spend his time. After all, in the epistles a godly widow is one who is said to have "washed the feet of the saints" - if this is in our job description as women, perhaps it is good if we give it some thought and take care to accept the humble ones and serve them as kings and queens, as we would serve the King of Kings were He there in their place.
Posted by lilypress at January 23, 2006 1:44 PM
