What About Joseph?

Seele Faith Editor KB Chakela has been on a tangent this month about authentic Christ-centered living, the kind of tangent that should make us all feel uncomfortable. In her monthly post she challenges us to never be so comfortable in our Christianity that we forget to really care about people...

As I thought deeper about last week’s post titled Even the Mighty Fall this specific scripture from Amos kept running through my mind: “Who drink wine by the bowlful and use the finest lotions, but do not grieve over the ruin of Joseph.” Amos 6:6 (NIV).

The prophet Amos points to something deeply unsettling, he paints a picture of people who were comfortable, they are eating well, drinking and living in luxury when you read Amos chapter six from verses one.  The people Amos is describing are living their lives and have become unmoved by the affliction and suffering of their own.

Joseph in this particular verse does not represent just one person, but represents God’s afflicted people.  And I cannot help but ask, what about Joseph?

While we are busy focusing on ourselves, our lives, celebrating promotions, platforms and boasting about how far we have come in Christ. Many of our brothers and sisters in Christ are struggling in our churches and in our small groups. In her post this month Seele contributor Hazzy reflected on Issachar, a people of tremendous potential who settled for less than what God had intended. Comfort can have the same effect on us in a spiritual sense, when we become so comfortable in the things of God, complacency quietly settles.  We begin to feel secure in our own righteousness, and slowly, almost unnoticed, compassion is replaced with comparison, humility is replaced with self-righteousness.

We stop seeing Joseph entirely.

The tragedy is that the church (and when I say the church I mean you and me) has become silent, and even more heart breaking is that those in the church seek refuge and answers outside of the church when they are going through affliction.  And that should concern us.

The Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 12:26 (NIV) says “If one part suffers, every part suffers with it, if one part is honoured, every part rejoices with it.” We call ourselves the body of Christ, and yet there are parts of the body that are in agony while other parts actively ignore it and live comfortably. The symptoms are loud, parts of the body are crying out, yet we have become so skilled at ignoring them.  The painful truth is this; we are only as strong as the weakest among us.

As long as Joseph is forgotten, the mission of the cross has been completely missed.

Because the purpose of our salvation was not just to be saved, or to accumulate Gods blessings.  We have been called from darkness to light to live Christ-like lives, to love as He loved, heal the broken-hearted and reconcile Gods people back to Him.

I know I have said this repeatedly these past weeks but, love and compassion is not an optional extra in Christianity, it is the evidence that Christ truly lives in us.

Jesus said in John 13:35 (NIV) “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

This warning in Amos still echoes today.

And so woe to us for not caring

Woe to us for not checking in on Joseph

Woe to us if our comfort and Gods blessings have blinded us to the affliction of our brothers and sisters (the affliction of Joseph).

My prayer for us today is this; May we never become so comfortable in our Christianity that we forget the people Christ died to save.

TRENDING

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