Last night, we were having a bible study and our pastor was delivering a topic on offering your life to Christ. I noticed that each time the pastor mentioned the benefits of offering ones life to Christ, the audience glowed with a smile. This simple event triggered memories from the past and for some reason I saw the flaw that makes most Christians tired and fall.
I thought, how many people would volunteer for mission work without pay? And how many would volunteer for mission work with pay? How many people get excited on topics about wealth and get bored on topics about holiness, not to mention angered? Then another event in my life came to my mind and this happened just a few days ago. There was a beggar who asked me for 2 pesos and I automatically answered, without even thinking, wala po (I have none).
How many of us would easily spend 5000 pesos (about $100) in shopping for clothes and find it hard to give a small amount to a beggar? In fact to some, it is not finding it hard that matters. Rather, most of us just don’t see the need to give to others. How many of us would gladly sit beside the president and hesitate to sit beside a leper? What drives us to do these things?
I think I know and you know the answer. It’s called BENEFITS. It is easy to do something if we benefit from it and hard to do something if we get none. Why do people among all religions desire to follow the teachings of their faith? I’m not just talking about Christianity here. I’m talking of all religions? In every religion, there’s always a promise of something eternal. It could be eternal life, eternal glory, attaining nirvana, etc. But take away these promises and you will see the population of these religions drop to a very few.
In our church, each time the pastor makes a challenge, there is always a benefit behind it. After all, who would take the challenge for nothing? Maybe a few, perhaps even none. And so I continued thinking.
Is it really the love for God that drives us to do good? Or is it the saying that “what you plant is what you shall reap” as well as “do not do unto others what you do not want others to do unto you?” If God were just another human being with no promises at hand, would we still follow him? I think a lot of us won’t because it’s simply absurd to do so.
What do you think?
