“Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.” Philippians 2:4. That scripture is not suggesting that we become ‘busy bodies’ and out of interest or curiosity try to find out what is going on behind closed doors, our neighbors doors. It is rather suggesting that we not selfishly care about ourselves and our own family (families) but rather that we should make sure our neighbors are being provided for with the spiritual and material essentials of life as well as our own. We should care and be concerned about others by friendly conversation, as well as service, when requested or observed. “Comfort those who are in need of comforting”
In the early church Barnabas, a disciple of Christ, was speaking to a crowd in Rome. Clement, who later joined the church listened as one of the crowd. Barnabas said, “Now it is entirely in your power to receive or reject our message. But we cannot keep back those things which we know will be for your good, for if we speak and you don’t receive it, the loss will be yours.” Today, as in Barnabas’ day, we should not hold back the things that we know will be good for or that will comfort our neighbor. The D&C 60:2 tells us that the Lord is not well pleased when we will not open our mouths, for the fear of men, we hide the talent the Lord has given us. That talent being the knowledge we have of the restored gospel. Much like the parable of the two sons in Matt. 21: 28-30, He asked the one son to go and work today in the vineyard. He said he would not but later changed his mind and went. To his second son he asked the same. The son said he would, but later did not. Which of these two sons then did the will of the father? Each of us is one of those two sons and ‘someday it will be determined whether we went or went not.’
You and I, when we were baptized a member, said that we would go and work in the vineyard. It is true that members are not active missionaries preaching from door to door or on the street corner as was Barnabas, but we will always be required to share what we know when an opportunity arises. Someday it will be determined whether we went, whether we took those opportunities or not, which of the two sons we were. Ministering, in the church and in the vineyard, is taking on a much larger profile and we need to open our ears to hear.
Recently, President Nelson (Prophet) of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, announced a change in the way members should interact with each other. Rather than continuing the current and longtime practice of Home and Visiting Teaching, that we should, from now on, call the services we provide one another, ‘Ministering’. This is a more comprehensive term and it is not limited to monthly visits nor only those who have been assigned to us. President Nelson is, what I believe to be, scripturally intuitive. The scriptures have said in many places, such as the one I began this thought with, that we should always be on the lookout for opportunities to serve one another, not just routinely, and once a month. I am sure many good people have been doing that for years, because it was, and is, in their nature to do so, “… look not only to his own interests but also to the interests of others.” If we do not have compassion for others why should we expect others to have compassion for us when we are in need or in dire straits? Compassion is a natural trait of the spirit, unless it is trained out of us. We can read in a paper, most every day, somewhere in our world, where a person had even given their very life to save another. Most of us would probably prefer and rather, help move a piano, provide a meal, give a ride to work, or many other things ‘before giving our lives’. Very few will be called to give their lives, ordinarily, service will just call for a little of our time. The point, of course, is that we ought to be interested in our neighbors, but not only our neighbors but everyone that we can determine needs our help and that we are able to provide service to. The scriptures suggest that everyone is our neighbor, even that vagabond who was left on the side of the road to Damascus, and left to die. The New Testament scriptures were not provided as suggestions for the way we should live, No! They were specifically stated as, ‘the way’. I don’t believe that the Savior ever made suggestions. Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on our point of view and spiritual maturity, we have all been given agency, the power to choose to accept or to reject what the Savior has said or commanded us. There is so much we can gain from the wisdom in the New Testament. This particular story that Matthew taught is found in Matt 25:31-40. I call the story an “Inasmuch” story. It goes as follows; “When the Son of Man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee a hungered, and fed thee? Or thirsty and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? Or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, “Inasmuch as” ye have done it unto the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” James admonishes us this way: “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only… Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and the widows in their affliction.” (James 1: 22-27) We must adopt some of that old time religion. We’ve been given the tools; a body, a brain, a heart and a soul, these are living tools, tools to use when opportunity knocks.
Just as we have agency to choose everything else in life, we have agency to follow the prophet of these latter days. Let us ‘minister’ through love and compassion. If we are reluctant or embarrassed to become involved in the lives of others, we should move forward anyway, you will find that love and compassion will follow. I think we all would prefer to be called to the Saviors right hand rather than the left. The Goats go to the left. You may wonder why those who were unfaithful (the goats) were sent to the left. To the Israelites the goat historically represented a ‘scapegoat’ The answer is found in Leviticus 16:21, 22. “And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness. And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited; and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness.”
All our confessed sins will go with the scapegoat on left and the sheep are those who followed the shepherd’s voice.