10. Warriors of Word and Deed
"At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion in what was known as the Italian Regiment. He and all his family were devout and God-fearing; he gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly. One day at about three in the afternoon he had a vision. He distinctly saw an angel of God, who came to him and said … 'Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God'" (Acts 10:1-4). Two aspects of Cornelius' faithful walk before God are shown in these verses – twice over: his generous gifts to the poor and his prayer. Perhaps we cannot prove it, but given the fact of Cornelius' evident concern for those with needs, the final verse in this section of scripture may well indicate he was praying for the poor as well as giving to the poor. Doubtless the poor were not all Cornelius prayed about, but the story of this centurion reminds us that prayer and giving are both important in helping others and in learning the spirit of true giving ourselves. Just as we can give without concerned prayer, we can pray without actual giving, and in either case our concern is limited as well as our effectiveness as warriors of the Way.
This is a point the apostle James makes so clearly in his Epistle: "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). It's a vital combination. James doesn't suggest that our words of comfort are not important, just that they should not be alone: we should not speak without doing. This applies as much in terms of our words spoken in prayers, of course, as it does in our direct relations with others.
Cornelius clearly understood the importance of both speaking and doing. He reminds us of that other centurion, at Capernaum, who told Jesus:
"… just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, 'Go,' and he goes; and that one, 'Come,' and he comes. I say to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it" (Matthew 8:8-9 and Luke 7:1-10).
We do not know the name of this other centurion, but Christ honored his understanding that if this soldier said something, there would be action to back up his words and he believed the same would be true of Christ.
Both these professional soldiers had been trained to understand the relationship between speaking and doing – both understood that speaking of itself is not enough. They knew that any announcement must be followed by action. But while the one centurion's story stresses what God does as a result of our requests (God hears and acts), the other story stresses what is the expected result of our words (what we say needs to be followed by action).
We must train ourselves to see that words and deeds are always interrelated, in prayer as in other areas of Christian life, and the more we learn that, the more we can accomplish.