Seek the Good of Others

The Main and Market Fellows I’m part of this year is currently reading Golden Booklet of the True Christian Life, which is an excerpt from John Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion. A pastor I used to work with said of this little book, “A truly life-enriching part of the Institutes, a treasure in every Christian’s life and library.” I have found it to be rich and I commend it to you for your reading.

I have been especially moved by the sections titled “We Should Seek the Good of Other Believers.” Thinking about what Jesus said in the second of the two great commandments, “And the second is like [the first], love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39), Calvin offers valuable insights in how to fulfill that commandment.

It will, of course, benefit us to think about these things regarding all our interactions with other believers. But I also think we can especially benefit from considering these insights regarding the ministry to which God has called us, discipling men and women in prison. Here’s some of what Calvin wrote. As you read each line pause and think of how this applies to your relationship with your mentoring partner.

·        It is extremely difficult to seek the advantage of our neighbor unless we quit all selfish considerations, and almost forget ourselves.

·        However, our nature is strongly inclined to love self exclusively and does not easily permit us to neglect self and our own affairs.

·        Let us rather seek the profit of others, and even voluntarily give up our rights for the sake of others.

·        Scripture urges and warns us that whatever good things we have obtained from the Lord, we have received them as a trust on condition that they should be applied to the benefit of other believers.

·        The legitimate use of all the Lord’s favors is to liberally and kindly share them with others.

·        You cannot imagine a more certain rule than this, that all the blessings we enjoy are divine deposits which we have received on the condition that we distribute them to others.

·        Let this be our rule for goodwill and helpfulness, that whenever we are able to assist others we should behave as stewards who must someday give an account of ourselves … we must prefer the benefits of others.

·        From ancient days God has commanded us to remember the law of love not only in sizeable profits but also in the small kindnesses of life.

·        It is vain to attempt to enrich the Lord. Since our goodness cannot reach the Lord, we must exercise it toward the saints who are on the earth.

 Let us then remember our mentoring partners. Let us not become so busy with our own affairs that we forget the man or woman that God has entrusted to you to care for and disciple. Let us pray, write, encourage, and seek to lift him or her up in whatever way the Lord lays on your heart to do.

 Much love, Barry