Christ’s Command to His Disciples Still Confronts the Church Today
A HUNGRY WORLD
Christ’s words point to a hungry world, ” … give ye them to eat.” This is our world, the world of men and women, of boys and girls; the world of Africans, of Asians, of Americans, of every nation and tribe that inhabits the globe. This world is hungry; hungry for words of life and liberty and light; but in it there is no bread available to satisfy the famishing spirits of men.
THE URGENT TASK
The divine command points out an urgent task, ” … give ye them to eat.” To feed these hungry spirits is the great need of our times. It is not sufficient that we educate the masses, but that we evangelize them. “If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?” (Luke 11:11-12). Hungry stomachs need bread, not bones; hungry hearts need God’s Word, not man’s theories.
A PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY
This command points up a personal responsibility, ” … give ye them to eat.” The church of Christ is composed of individuals; therefore, the church as such will never fulfil her responsibility in the matter of feeding a hungry world until each individual Christian faces his own responsibility in the matter. Upon each believer there devolves this responsibility of getting the Gospel to the ends of the globe.
” … give ye them to eat.” Unless I deliberately close my eyes, I cannot but see the hungry world. The task is urgent, for “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?” (1 Peter 4:7). Am I facing and accepting my responsibility in doing my part in the urgent task of feeding a famishing world?