Supporting kingdom builders

I cannot think of any time when I didn’t want to support missionaries. It seems normal to pray for them, send them letters of encouragement, and if God so leads, to send funds also.

Today’s devotional reading asks why Christians should support missionaries. I’ve not thought out why it should be done because it seems natural. If my Christian friends are sharing Christ with their neighbors, I would support them in prayer and encourage their efforts. Why not those who do it in far-away countries?

Have I ever resisted this? Not to my recall, perhaps because the Lord has supplied the means of support to me. The first time was financial support for a couple in Africa that I’d never met. They were teachers at a Christian academy. I wrote them letters too. Then one year they came back to North America and visited us in our home. I felt I had known them all my life. I was a new Christian, fresh from a sinful and selfish life and still feeling like other Christians looked down their nose at me, but not this couple. They talked to me as an equal and made me realize that my new life in Christ was a reality, an actual new life. I was accepted by God and by His people. In giving to these missionaries, God gave me a gift too as I began to more deeply understand my acceptance into His family.

Since then, God has brought many other missionaries into our lives. Some of them are close friends. We have gone to their far-away homes and stayed with them. God has shown us their labor and the challenges of living in another culture with a new diet, weather, and other adjustments that can only be met by grace. We realize His love in them as they minister to people who may not understand them at all. We their submission to God, to their sending agency, to one another, and how they are given grace to face all that threatens their challenging task. We also realize their workload and the difficulty of finding time for personal devotions, prayer, and worship. Yes, missionaries are ordinary people, but they are in the front lines of our battle against the forces of darkness. God says . . .

“You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God. For they have gone out for the sake of the name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles. Therefore we ought to support people like these, that we may be fellow workers for the truth.” (3 John 6–8)

The Old Testament the Law of Moses used an analogy for the principle behind supporting those who labor in God’s work. Paul quotes it in the NT as he points out the rightness of supporting missionaries:

“You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain.” Is it for oxen that God is concerned? Does he not certainly speak for our sake? It was written for our sake, because the plowman should plow in hope and the thresher thresh in hope of sharing in the crop. If we have sown spiritual things among you, is it too much if we reap material things from you? If others share this rightful claim on you, do not we even more? Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ. Do you not know that those who are employed in the temple service get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in the sacrificial offerings? In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel. (1 Corinthians 9:9-14)

He urged readers to support those who are in full-time Christian work, but shares that he is intent on sharing Christ with others and was willing to do it without any support at all. He even said,

“But I have made no use of any of these rights, nor am I writing these things to secure any such provision. For I would rather die than have anyone deprive me of my ground for boasting. For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward, but if not of my own will, I am still entrusted with a stewardship. What then is my reward? That in my preaching I may present the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel.” (1 Corinthians 9:15-18)

Knowing the lifestyle of missionaries, it is safe to say none of them are in it for the money, nor for impressing others with their resume. This is not a posh job, nor is it easy. Spiritual warfare, physical disadvantages, emotional challenges, relationship threats, all that the enemy can do to make them ‘go home’ is thrown at them in greater force than any of us who are ‘at home’ will ever face. Yet like Paul, the necessity is laid upon them and they are entrusted with a huge stewardship.

^^^^^^^^^

Jesus, my part in supporting Christians in the mission field is nothing compared to the task You have given them. Yet we are workers together. I have not been called to do what You have called them to do nor have they been called to the tasks You have given me. Yet put the two together, and as a team we are building the kingdom. Your grand plan is, as always, quite incredible!