“I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.” John 5:30

Jesus has sent us into the world in the same way that the Father sent Him. His will was to always do the will of the Father. The knowledge of that will came primarily from a deep abiding fellowship with the Father not from obedience to a set of ethical standards or rules, or a moral code. The driving force the Bible teaches is that of an abiding intimacy with Jesus Christ who is our Mediator with the Father. The righteous way of life cannot help but follow when Jesus Christ and His Word abide in us and we abide in Him through intimate personal fellowship.

The error of many Christians is that having been saved by faith they now try to obtain God’s favour by good works of their own choosing. Paul called the Galatian Christians “foolish” for doing this. This error has led many Christians to stop obeying the command to “make disciples” and set out to do good works of their own choosing. One of which is to meet only the temporal needs of men. We can and should meet the temporal needs of people as we are able but that should never be the ultimate goal. The goal is always to meet their eternal need of a Saviour.

It is sad when Christians set out to reach people with the Gospel by meeting the physical needs of people and then get bogged down in the physical needs only, to the neglect or even exclusion of the Gospel. Even the world knows that providing food is only a short term delay in the inevitable unless people are able to sustain themselves by producing their own food.

We can provide people with all the food, clothing and housing they will ever need but what will that matter to them if we do not tell them of God’s love and salvation available to them in Jesus Christ? Spiritual food is far and away the most vital thing we can give and the world cannot give that. What will it matter in a hundred years whether a person was well fed or hungry? As important as providing physical needs are, providing the spiritual need is infinitely more important and it is eternal.

God gave His Son to take away the sin of the world and rise victorious for our salvation. The least we can do is give this message of love and salvation to our neighbours.