Words Need Action
Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them,
Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,”
but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?
(James 2:15-16 NIV).
You will notice something when you read the Gospels. Almost every time Jesus performed a miracle, it was combined with an action.
Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed” (Matthew 8:3 NKJV).
When He cleansed the leper, He could have done it with just a word, but He touched the man. That touch did not just heal the man physically, it healed him emotionally. A leper was considered an outcast of the outcasts. His diagnosis doomed him to a life of loneliness and isolation. He had to avoid people and cry out “unclean, unclean” wherever he walked. He was cast out from his family, no longer permitted to feel the touch of a loved one or receive hugs from his children. He was shunned and looked upon with horror and scorn. Picture then, after such years of anguish and misery, a hand of love and kindness reaching out and touching that leper. Can you imagine what that must have felt like?
And He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be healed of your affliction” (Mark 5: 34 NKJV).
When Jesus healed the woman with the issue of blood (Mark 5:21-34). He could have simply walked on after He felt her touch the hem of His garment. But He turned and called her out. Her medical problem would have affected every part of her life. It made her unclean, which meant she could not touch her husband or children. She would not have been allowed in the temple and would have been socially ostracized. She would not even have been allowed to take care of her own home because anything she touched would also have been deemed unclean. Jesus not only restored her health, but through His touch He restored her socially.
When He raised Jairus’ daughter from the dead, He followed it up with a practical action. He told them to get her something to eat. “Then He took the child by the hand and said … arise. Immediately the girl arose and walked … He commanded them strictly that no one should know it and said that something should be given her to eat” (Mark 5:41-43 NKJV).
When He healed the two blind men, He touched them. “Then He touched their eyes, saying, ‘according to your faith let it be to you’” (Matthew 9:29 NKJV).
When He healed Peter’s mother-in-law, He touched her. “So, He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and immediately the fever left her” (Mark 1:31 NKJV).
The list goes on and on, but the message is clear. Words need action. That not only applies to our interaction with people, it also applies to how we share the gospel and tell the world about Christ. Whoever we touch, Jesus touches. When we comfort someone, we need to touch them and walk with them through their pain.
In her book, Out of the Saltshaker and Into the World, Rebecca Manley Pippert reminds us we don’t “give” the gospel, we “are” the gospel; we don’t “do” evangelism, we “are” evangelism; and whomever we touch, Jesus touches. We are the only Bible some people will ever read, and we are the only Jesus some people may ever meet. Our actions and our behavior present Jesus to the world. That is an awesome responsibility that literally could mean life or death.
Words and action—a practice we Christians need to emulate.
