"You will know them by their fruit"

How do you tell a righteous person from an unrighteous person? Jesus teaches in his "sermon on the mount" that we will know the righteous persons by the fruit that they produce in their lives. So "doing the will of the Father" is important to being a good follower of Yahweh. "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven." (Matthew 7:20-21)

Certainly performance was key to the apparent thwarting of a terrorist act on the train in France. last Friday. Jane Hartley, U.S. ambassador to France, expressed gratitude to the three Americans who acted with these words: "The word 'hero' has never been more appropriate. They are truly heroes. When most of us would run away, Spencer, Alek and Anthony ran into the line of fire, saying 'Let's go.' Those words changed the fate of many." I believe that it is the kind of person they are in the beginning which led to their actions. If you know a faithful person by their works, you can look for the roots of their response in their inculcated values.

But how do you motivate someone to "put their actions where their commitment is?" Certainly you can teach them the basic principle to "love your neighbor as yourself." Many people traveling on vacation look out for themselves without thought of neighbor. How often on vacation trips today-- or even on everyday commuting trips-- do you hear of people refusing to be a Good Samaritan to a person in need? We don't want to get involved because we are fearful that our involvement will effect us negatively. But if we follow Jesus' commands to "love one another, as I have loved you" and "to be a neighbor like the Good Samaritan" we will not immediately insulate ourselves from possible harm, but will commit ourselves to helping others.

The anxious environment in which we live often leads to loving ourselves and our loved ones first, and not even getting to loving others. As Christians we need to hear and believe Jesus' earlier words in the Sermon on the Mount "do not be anxious about your life ... because if God so clothes the grass and flowers in the field and the birds of the air, won't God also care about you?" Then feeling secure in God's love and care, we can act on the behalf of others. We will do the will of our Father who acts on our behalf. We will care for others when we see them in need.

There is a place for doing our duty in all approaches. But even more so there is a place for realizing that our acts of kindness and valor are really reflexive. They reflect the love of God in our lives. And "we know Him by His immeasurable fruit."