Minding Your Own Business
August 1, 2004
Dear Friends,
Most of us are fiercely protective of our privacy and our independence. We don’t like it when people are nosy and prying into our affairs. We are especially annoyed when the things they are prying into are things that we are doing that are wrong.
We sometimes transfer this into an ecclesial environment. “Their sin is between them and God.” “That is their ecclesial problem, it is not right for me to get involved.”
There is a partial truth to this sentiment, but there is also an insidious misunderstanding. We are not to be gossips or busybodies. We are not to go and cause problems by inserting ourselves into other ecclesia’s affairs. Yet, if we take this too far, we have the Apostle Paul as a busybody. Paul was constantly inserting himself into other ecclesia’s affair and the lives of other individuals. The difference between a busybody/meddler and the apostle is that Paul was both qualified to get involved and did so with the very best of intents. Paul was there to help, not for the titillation of juicy gossip or a sense of self-righteousness. He saw it as his responsibility to help. He was compelled by his understanding of the Bible and God that he needed to do this. He was so committed to getting involved that he sent others to do the same thing. For example, the book of Titus is a letter from Paul to Titus who was sent to Crete to straighten out the mess there.
We all have an obligation to assist when and where we are able to help and are qualified to do so. We might desire to be like the priest and the Levite in the parable of the Good Samaritan and pass by the messy situation on the side of the road. We comfort ourselves by saying it’s not any of our business. We comfort ourselves by telling ourselves that we are not apostles like Paul. Let’s put out of our minds the thought that Paul was able to do these things as an apostle yet we are not. To say that Paul and the other apostles gave us an unobtainable example is neither Biblical, logical or helpful.
Isn’t it interesting that the ways of Cain, the murderer of his brother, are in some ways epitomized by his philosophy “”Am I my brother’s keeper?” We ARE our brother’s keeper. We need to be looking out for one another. This is not to catch them in some sort of sin. We are to help and assist each other toward the Kingdom of God. Let’s face it, Cain was wrong.
Contrast Abel with what we know about Jesus. The Gospel of Luke tells us “And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?” (Luke 2:49) Jesus wasn’t minding his own business, he was minding his Father’s business. Part of minding his Father’s business was concerning himself with our business. Look at all of the instances where Jesus involved himself in the lives of others. Suppose he was brought the woman caught in adultery recorded in John 8. The men say to him “Master, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery, and in the Law Moses has ordered us to stone women of this kind. What have you got to say?” Let’s say instead of saying what he said, he said instead “Leave me alone. This is none of my business.” Would this be the Savior that we love and admire or would it be someone after the manner of Cain?
Are you minding your own business? Stop! Get involved in the lives of others. Humbly help them. Serve them. Pray for them and with them. Preach the word to them. Open up your life to them. Love them.
Have a great week!
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