Deuteronomy 22:1, 3-4: Thou shalt not see thy brother’s ox or his sheep go astray, and hide thyself from them: thou shalt in any case bring them again unto thy brother…In like manner shalt thou do with his ass; and so shalt thou do with his raiment; and with all lost thing of thy brother’s, which hath lost, and thou hast found, shalt thou do likewise: thou mayest not hide thyself. Thou shalt not see thy brother’s ass or his ox fall down by the way, and hide yourself from them: thou shalt surely help him to lift them up again.
Love, service, and kindness to others is the lifestyle of Christians in response to the love and kindness of God toward us. Here Moses gives specific examples of how that actually works out in agrarian life. These are just a couple out of thousands of examples that could be used in everyone’s life. The principle is clear: we love, help, and serve other people whenever the opportunity presents itself to us. The temptation to steal, lie, and exploit others is always present, but the Overcomer in us helps instead.
Humans are constantly being presented with the choice to use others or to serve them. But we love because He first loved us. This is the natural response of the Jesus who lives in us. God’s Love is real life and real living, and it works itself out in thousands of social interactions and practical situations. We love, serve, and help God by living in humble serve and loving kindness to family, friends, neighbors, fellow believers, even strangers and enemies. Others first!
The Christian’s response to finding something that belongs to another person is to return it. And even more, we go out of our way (go the extra mile) to find things we can do or say to make others feel better.