Charity vs. Cruelty: When to shake the dust from your feet

Trying to help someone out of a tough or dangerous situation is a lot like bringing the Gospel to them. You want to offer a hand to lift them out of their misery and lead them closer to Christ.

If they refuse, you have no choice but to shake the dust from your feet and move on.

On the other hand, you don’t want to be cruel, and you certainly don’t want any harm to come to them and so you pray, sacrifice, and even fast for them. You simply can’t force someone to change their ways or accept help if they don’t want to. By the same token, you can’t allow someone to take advantage of you, especially if it circumvents your following God’s will for your own life. There’s a fine line between being charitable, and enabling dependency.

Sometimes, as Jesus instructed the Apostles, you just have to shake the dust from your feet.

Image: Edward Musalak, Flickr.com