Matthew 25:31-46
We live in a time when more and more people live life with the focus on what’s in this for me. ‘Me-ism” is not new to us as human beings, because it is in our DNA. We start as little children with the cry ‘me first’. An example of this me-ism was a boy in our class in Elementary School always had to be first to bat in our school-yard ball games. Me-ism is about self-centered living. It is about selfish living so that the ‘me first’ child in us never goes away until we meet Jesus as Savior and the Holy Spirit teaches us and touches our spirit with God’s love. Me-ism started in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve trying to take over God’s garden. Many of the people you read about in the Scripture had broken their relationship with God because they were living life for themselves.
In our times me-ism has produced people that accept little responsibility for the problems, pain and suffering that we see in our culture. Me-ism has produced a way of living and thinking that says these things and events are someone else’s fault. The blame game starts because our cry is ‘me first’ and ends with blaming someone else for our problems and the messes we make in living life plus the suffering that we created by our actions. We try and use the blame game to escape the evil and sin of me-ism.
When we face God’s judgment on the life he has given to us it will be based on what you have done with the blessing you have received from God. When you receive God’s free gift of grace, divine love and forgiveness the evidence will be visible for the Holy Spirit turns a life of me-ism into a life filled with generosity. I learned from my Dad and Mother to be generous toward God’s work. The heart filled with Holy Spirit is a heart that is generous. The Holy Spirit produces in us a way of living life with a generous spirit in our relationships. The Holy Spirit produces generosity in all our actions and life is no longer lived in me-ism. We no longer live life blaming someone else for the choices and decisions that we have made ourselves. Do our decisions reflect God’s divine love that gives us a heart filled with generosity?
In today’s scripture Jesus tells us about the life lived out in the Holy Spirit. “But when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit upon his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered in his presence and he will separate the people as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep at him right hand and the goats at his left.” Those on his right has the evidence that the Holy Spirit had given them a heart filled with generosity as they lived out life. Misers will not pass God’s judgment test.
“Then the King will say to those on his right, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world, for I was hungry and you fed me. I was thirsty and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger and you invited me into your home. I was naked and you gave me clothing. I was in prison and you visited me.”
Jesus would give an answer to a question raised by those hearts that the Holy Spirit had touched with the spirit of generosity. “The righteous ones will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? On thirsty and give you something to drink? Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? When did we ever see you sick or on prison and visit you?”
Then Jesus spoke to those with generous hearts these words, “And the King will say, “I tell you the truth , when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters you were doing it to me.”
Me-ism and the ‘blame others’ game will not get you by God’s final judgment. Only those that respond through the power of the Holy Spirit with generous caring hearts will pass God’s final test in life. We face God’s test each day we live. Does your life reveal a heart that has evidence of generosity? You will never find a generous heart in me-ism. Only when the Holy Spirit guides our lives can we learn to live with generous hearts.
