A friend is always loyal, and a brother is born to help in time of need. Proverbs 17:17
“Behold, my brother, we have shared the same destiny, ploughing the same furrow; I now fall in the field at the end of my day. I know that you greatly love your mountain; but do not for the sake of the mountain give up your work of teaching.”
Cyril (c. 827-869), a monk, on his deathbed, to his older brother, Methodius (c. 815-884), a missionary teacher and bishop. Together Cyril and Methodius were brothers from Thessalonica (a.k.a. Salonika). They would become known as the “Enlighteners of the Slavs” as they followed God’s call to serve as apostles to the Slavs.
There are not many sacred writings from the era known as the dark ages, but the story of two Thessalonian brothers encouraged me. These “last words” of Cyril move me greatly, as recounted in a recent book by William J. Bennett in Tried by Fire: The Story of Christianity’s First Thousand Years (Nashville: Nelson Books, 2016) 362.
Both Cyril and Methodius loved monastic life back at Holy Mountain monastery near the Black Sea in the northern part of Turkey. Though they both felt the calling to serve as missionary teachers among the Slavs, Methodius could have bailed on the vision with the death of his brother at the age of 42. Cyril urged him from his deathbed not give up the work for God and run back to a comfortable place (the mountain)!
Why cite these brothers today, and what does this have to do with generosity?
God generously gives us brothers with whom to co-labor in God’s work. I am profoundly thankful for my older brother, David Hoag, who is ministering in Jamaica this weekend. Thankfully his wife, Joanna, is with him. They can encourage and support each other.
I am also grateful for my National Christian Foundation Colorado brothers, with whom I am on retreat in the mountains. We share a deep passion for helping people in Colorado to understand biblical principles that inspire generosity and to grasp how asset-based giving positions them to maximize the stewardship of God’s resources for building His kingdom.
As each of us lives the journey mapped out for us, one of God’s greatest and most generous gifts to us is brothers and sisters with whom to plow. When God seemingly snatches these people from our lives by death or other circumstances, we must not give up our work for God and run back to comfortable places, but persevere knowing that God’s providence will sustain us like it did Methodius, who persevered and would go on to lead many Slavs to faith in Jesus Christ.