Walking with the Weaker Brother

Sometimes God asks us to walk with the weaker brother. He encourages us to be friends with people whom we benefit, but who, in turn do not benefit us. Our family members may develop illnesses or become frail and need us just when we are running our strongest race for Jesus. We are getting dreams and visions that lift us into a heavenly walk, and then there seems a great demand on us to walk on this earth, feet squarely planted beside someone who needs our support. We have purposed to give our best for God, yet by walking with the lesser brother, we see ourselves giving much less. Our thoughts about serving God have included spending all our time and money promoting Him. Because of our ideals it seems foolish, then, to get sidetracked by having to walk alongside someone who is not helping with the same goal. In fact, their hindrance is a stark contrast to our standard of excellence. Not only do we have to spend time teaching and correcting the weaker brother, but if he is foolish or naïve with his finances, that precious money set aside for ministry may get sidelined for supporting him instead. All in all, the “all” we desire to give to God will become “less” in our own eyes if we do not walk with people who have the same standard of excellence.

If the Lord was concerned with our perceptions of excellence in ministry, I suppose that John the Baptist would have been conscripted into Jesus’ ministry at the appropriate time. John was the most spiritual man of his time. And when the Apostles were building God’s kingdom, they would have joined the smaller, weaker congregations to the larger established ones. Yet Jesus did not choose John the Baptist, and Paul chose to not build where other apostles had built. God’s economy of time and effort are different than ours. So different, that He makes mention of how He would view the “lesser” brother. In the parable of the prodigal son the elder brother does not think his prodigal brother worthy of honor. The prodigal did not pay the same price, in his eyes. The same could be said of the laborers in the vineyard who had labored through the heat of the day. They did not think it right that those who had labored only during the eleventh hour should receive equal pay. Perhaps it was these same heat-of-the-day workers who wouldn’t hire those who waited for work. For whatever reason, the Master not only had to hire workers for the eleventh hour, but then deal with the wrongful attitudes of entitlement of those who were giving more. God wasn’t interested in keeping the prodigal son as a servant, nor the eleventh hour workers as last because He saw their worth.

In our perception of kingdom economy, spending time walking alongside the weaker brother may seem like a waste. Yet we find that, time and time again, the Lord brings people into our lives who fit this profile. If we listen to the Holy Spirit, we hear “walk with him.” God asks us to walk with the weaker brother because that is what He would do. God loves the unlovely so that they could learn how to love. Jesus gave Himself to those whose lives were changed forever by His example. His disciples’ lack of understanding was frustrating at times, but Jesus did not forsake them. They became mighty men, and world- changers because He gave them His time and attention.

Paul was one of the mightiest apostles Jesus had, but he had a humble beginning. When he met Jesus, the pure light from Him caused Paul to fall off his horse. All the great things he had planned for God were forever stopped, and a new life began. Though Paul had thought himself fully qualified to serve God, he hadn’t really known God. At the point Paul fell from his horse, he became a student once again, learning about Jesus, Whom he would serve the rest of his life. God took time to build Paul up in knowledge and relationship with Him so that Paul could do the same with others. We see from Paul’s writings that he taught, corrected, rebuked, and encouraged those new converts he wrote to . . . but he did not forsake them because of their weaknesses. His ministry to them was to make them strong, so that they could stand.

Like Paul’s experience, when we come to our first knowledge of Christ it is like falling off a horse. Our life’s ambitions are side-tracked for our new pursuit of knowing God and finding His life’s work for us. Instead of riding into the works that we feel meet our goals and working up to our standard of excellence, we become humbled, falling at the feet of Jesus and starting our life over again in Him. I believe this is what Jesus refers to in the book of Revelation as our “first love.” This term is found in John’s writings to the church in Ephesus. “I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for My name, and have not grown weary. Yet I hold this against you: you have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first,” (Rev 2:1-5).

Though the Ephesians had an excellent standard by which they accomplished great works, they had forgotten their first love. It seems Jesus was telling the Ephesians that serving God was not all about works. It wasn’t all about keeping the false and wicked men out of their midst. It was about loving Him enough that their goals and objectives would operate in the economy of His kingdom, not theirs. Perhaps time should be spent walking alongside those who hindered and sidetracked their agenda at times, and their monies should be spent supporting people as well as causes. Jesus was asking the Ephesian brethren to remember that they once were weak and in need too. The height from which they originally fell was the same as Paul’s; self-ambition. The love which they had forgotten would have kept them in His kingdom.

God brings us weaker brethren, not to hinder the very works He foreordained us to do, but to enable us to do them. He keeps us within His budget of time by hindering our self-ambition and by promoting the development of others. This is His kingdom economy. He side-lines our best so that it can be diverted to those who are weak and faltering, not because we need them, but because they need us. Great men and women have weak beginnings, yet God sees that they will finish well . . . if we walk beside them. Building God’s Church, one believer at a time . . . strengthening, encouraging, rebuking, teaching and correcting them . . . this is a work of excellence. When our heart is to bring up the weaker brother to a place of strength and honor, then we are doing the works foreordained for us. Amen.