The Process of Doing Good Works
Yet how do we do good works? As simple as it sounds doing good works is not always that easy, as the Bible often tells us the pitfalls and wrong attitudes we can have when doing good. This article is about this very important process, which, as we have seen above, is essential to not only our salvation but also in bringing others to Christ as well.
The process of Christian growth is spelt out in the following seven steps. They demonstrate how our actions not only fulfill the work of helping the poor and preaching the truth of God, but also how they enable personal spiritual growth to be maintained. While this cycle is based on the scriptures we do not mean to imply that these steps are in any way spelt out by the Bible. They are simply a cycle that the Christian work can be seen to be arranged in. We have no grand delusions that this is the only way that a Christian must grow. Yet the cycle is very practical and the steps will help and others you to continually grow and develop a deeper understanding of what it means to live the life of a Christian. There is a great deal of emphasis on what it means to be converted to Christ, but less of an emphasis on what we do once we are saved. Yet the Bible is much clearer about what we should do than the process of salvation. It also has many warnings that we can loose our salvation if we don’t respect this great gift. We are not guaranteed salvation once we are saved, we must show that we respect this opportunity and grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ, and then God will continue to work with us.
We ask you to check for yourself every scripture that we quote (start with Acts 17:11 and 1 John 4:1), to both become familiar with the Bible and to also check up on us so that you know that what we are saying is in context with the rest of the chapter and book of the Bible. We recommend that you read at least a few verses before and after each scripture to be sure that the context does not shed a different light than what we suggest. Obviously reading the entire book that the scripture is quoted from is the best way to get the full context, but it may take a long time to read this article if you do that! We welcome any comment and corrections on this article. If you feel we are wrong please tell us, we would hate to be misrepresenting the Word of God. Take your time to study the Bible and at the same time ask God for help to understand it; it is His word after all.
These steps are not a one off cycle but a continuous spiral pattern of growth and change where each spiral around has seven steps and each time we go around we build upon our understanding. The steps are not independent but have many overlaps and interrelationships between them. With such a pattern it is not important where we start, as we will eventually get to each of the steps. However, as we needed to start somewhere, we have begun with the step of How we can show love to other people. This step we have called the Foundation as it provides a fundamental perspective upon which our relationships with other people needs to begin.
Step 1: The Foundation
To “Love your neighbour as yourself” is perhaps the most widely known Christian ideology and admonition. This simple statement is often reiterated in both the Old and New Testaments: Lev 19:18, Math 19:19, 22:39, Mark 12: 31-33, Luke 10:27, Rom 13:9, Gal 5:14. One of the easiest ways to implement it is to really listen to other people. Listen to what their cares and concerns are. Listen to how they hurt, how they laugh, what they think is good in the world and what they think is wrong. When we know their joys and troubles then we can direct them to Christ for he says: “Come to Me all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke on you and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest to your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.” (Mat 11:28-30)
Chris also said “I have come so that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). God is not interested in us being weighed down with troubles, he wants us to trust him to take these worries and live the abundant life. Not that we will have everything we want, nor will we live an easy life, for many Christians were murdered and persecuted, including Christ of course. Christ wants us to “find rest to your souls” by trusting him with the worries we have. By listening to others we can direct them to Christ and we can also do good works for them if at all possible.
Listening means we must be interested in people, and Paul gave us a great example of this: “I became as a Jew to the Jews, that I might gain Jews; to those under Law as under Law, that I might gain those under Law; to those without Law as without Law (not being without Law of God, but under the law of Christ), that I might gain those without Law. I became to the weak as weak, that I might gain the weak. To all I have become all things, that in any and every way I might save some. And I do this for the gospel, that I might become a fellow partaker of it.” (1 Cor 9:20-23). Our interest in others should not be cold and objective and purely intellectual, but rather we should desire a deep relationship that is filled with our mutual enthusiasm for life. Too often Christians are judgmental about how others live and this causes us to be cynical and lacking in enthusiasm. Yet Christians should be full of enthusiasm, as the very word means “God in Us”! And we not only do have God in us but we are also able to offer the world the ability to have a meaningful relationship with the Creator of the entire universe! We therefore should be bubbling over with enthusiasm!!
When we are a light to the world people will ask us about God. We therefore must be able to listen and to teach and through this process we ourselves also grow: “But that you, speaking the truth in love (1), may in all things grow up to Him (2) who is the Head, even Christ.” (Eph 4:15 GW). It is through speaking the truth in love that we grow up to be like Christ. Ask God to guide you to learn techniques for listening and teaching so that you will (1) grow in the ability to teach others and (2) grow and change to be more like Christ every day. God uses this process of teaching others to teach us to become more like Christ, and in the process we become more effective teachers, and we then become more like Christ, and we become more effective teachers and… the cycle continues. When we teach others we become part of a cycle of change for both ourselves and those whom we bring to Christ.
Paul realized that this process is essential: “To all I have become all things, that in any and every way I might save some. And I do this for the gospel, that I might become a fellow partaker of it.” Paul tells us that if he did not relate to other people at their level then he himself would not be a partaker of the gift of eternal life. Paul was converted obviously, but he still needed to give of himself to ensure he would be a partaker of eternal life. We therefore also need to listen to Paul and be all things to all men or we also will be in danger of not partaking of eternal life.
This is the door we must walk through in order to gain eternal life. It must also be done sincerely and out of a motivation of deep and unfeigned love. “Purifying your souls in the obedience of the truth through the Spirit to unfeigned love of the brothers, love one another fervently out of a pure heart,” (1 Peter 1:22). We cannot falsify this sort of work but our attitude must also be one of energy and our motivation pure. Any sort of hypocrisy in doing good works will totally undermine their value, this includes not being willing to put in the energy necessary to do the job. God expects us to go above and beyond what he has ordered us to do (Luke 17:6-10), he will not accept mediocrity.
Our concern for others and our enthusiasm for life is actually a reflection of our relationship with God. “If anyone says, I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar. For if he does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?” (1 John 4:20). Our relationship with God is simply the flip side of our relationship with other people. Therefore if you find within yourself a difficulty in loving others, perhaps your relationship with God is less than you imagine it to be?
Our relationship with God is something that should not be taken for granted. Following the warning about the end time in the “Olivet Prophecy” of Matthew 24 are three parables in Matthew 25. Many Christians worry about escaping from the terrible end time events, yet the Bile shows us in Matthew 25 what we should be doing in order to escape. Also in the end time there will be many “servants of God” surprised to find they don’t inherit eternal life. This is a powerful warning, and the context is quite obvious.
Yet it is not too difficult to do what Christ says for he also tells us “My yoke is easy, and My burden is light”. But it is still a yoke and a burden, and it is also essential to carry this weight on our journey to eternal life. That “burden” is however not that heavy for it is simply the burden to love others. The obvious essential first step on this journey is to listen to other people.
Yet do you really love others as yourself? Or are you so caught up in your own problems and desires that the Word of God is not fruitful? (Mark 4: 3-20) How do we listen to others if we do not know how to listen to ourselves? “Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence in the presence of God.” (1 John 3:21). Do you take time to really listen to your heart? To your desires and questions and the underlying motivations that you have? If you don’t then how will you care about other peoples ambitions and problems and cares and concerns? You must first examine yourself, know how you love yourself, before you can listen to other people and know how to love them. For “The light of the body is the eye. Therefore if your eye is sound, your whole body shall be full of light. But if your eye is evil, your whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” (Mat 6:22-23) Also “why do you look on the splinter that is in your brother's eye, but do not consider the beam that is in your own eye? Or how will you say to your brother, Let me pull the splinter out of your eye; and, behold, a beam is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First cast the beam out of your own eye, and then you shall see clearly to cast the splinter out of your brother's eye. (Mat 7:3-5)
Once you have confronted your work of listening to yourself and your problems and motivations then you will then be able to relate to other peoples desires and motivations. In this way you will really love others as yourself and be able to care about other people, if they live or die of if they have happiness or pain.
The above work of listening to other people is not a work of any organisation; it is your work because you as an individual Christian are a light unto the world. While there is a role for the preacher, as Romans 10:9-17 explains, the individual can only fulfill the essential role of being a good listener.
Step 2: The Goal
Pray therefore to be an effective light in the world. That you may be a person who cares for the wellbeing of others, and in so doing be an example of enthusiastic joy for the truth of God’s way of life.
We are not told that we should be a light unto the world but that we are now a light to the whole world! This seems a rather daunting responsibility, particularly when we realize that we are following in the footsteps of Christ who is called “THE light of the world” (John 1:9). Yet that is exactly the example that we are told to emulate: “For let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Himself the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.” (Phil 2:5)
As Christ was made in the likeness of men we now must now be made into the likeness of God! “I beseech you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, in order to prove by you what is that good and pleasing and perfect will of God.” (Rom 12: 1-2, MKJV) The outcome of our change of mind therefore is to prove, or show, to other people what God’s will is: i.e. what he wants human beings to be doing on this Earth.
Yet this required giving of our time and energy to serve others is not to be done out of some kind of obligation: “But I say this, He who sows sparingly shall also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully shall also reap bountifully. Each one, as he purposes in his heart, let him give; not of grief, or of necessity, for God loves a cheerful giver.” (2 Cor 9:6-7) Giving generously is not just measured in the how much we give but more importantly in the attitude and motivation for our giving, as with the widow’s two copper coins in Mark 12:42-44.
Similarly, we must approach our giving from a humble and sincere desire to help others, not one of exalting ourselves. We have been called to be a light, to glorify God, not to exalt ourselves. “For you see your calling, brothers, that not many wise men according to the flesh are called, not many mighty, not many noble. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world (that’s us folks) to confound the wise (people in the world); and God has chosen the weak things of the world (us again!) to confound the things which are mighty (not us); and God has chosen the base things of the world (yep that’s us), and things which are despised (us again), and things which are not (still us), in order to bring to nothing things that are (that’s the great ones of the world!).” (1 Cor 1:26-28) By being humble we can bring down the great edifices of the world and bring in the Kingdom of God, and in doing so we follow the example of Christ who’s humble example is what we follow.
We are also told not to restrict our generosity to just those people we like the company of, but we should be generous to everyone, even those who we don’t like and who also don’t like us! “Give to everyone who asks you for something. If someone takes what is yours, don't insist on getting it back. Do for other people everything you want them to do for you. If you love those who love you, do you deserve any thanks for that? Even sinners love those who love them. If you help those who help you, do you deserve any thanks for that? Sinners do that too. If you lend anything to those from whom you expect to get something back, do you deserve any thanks for that? Sinners also lend to sinners to get back what they lend. Rather, love your enemies, help them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then you will have a great reward. You will be the children of the Most High God. After all, he is kind to unthankful and evil people. Be merciful as your Father is merciful.” (Luke 6:30-36 GW) For us to imitate God, and be the Sons of God, it is essential that we give to others as God does, even those who are unthankful and evil.
However, if we are to do all these good works to attract others to God, why did Christ say not to do our good deeds to be seen of men? “Take heed that you do not do your merciful deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward with your Father in Heaven. Therefore when you do your merciful deeds, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may have glory from men. Truly I say to you, They have their reward. But when you do merciful deeds, do not let your left hand know what your right hand does, so that your merciful deeds may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret Himself shall reward you openly.” (Mat 6:1-4).
Our motivation for doing good deeds should not be to be seen by men so that we then have glory from men. Nor, similarly, should our motivation be one of wanting to be to be seen by God to have the reward of eternal life from Him either, for that is just mercenary. Our goal in doing good deeds is to simply be merciful and generous because we love people and don’t want to see them suffer. This motivation is the goal we should be aiming for, and it is the mind of God in action.
However doing our merciful deeds in secret does not mean we must be totally secretive about doing all good things. These verses simply mean that we should not boast about what we do, nor embarrass the person you are giving to by showing off your great generosity in front of a crowd. It is clear that you should not stop doing good works if it is not possible that those receiving it may perhaps know where it comes from. The very act of listening and visiting the sick cannot be done in secret. Most often when you are doing good works you will simply not be able to hide what you are doing, nor hide your light shining unto the world. The point of this scripture is that you should be graceful in your giving, rather than boastful in your benevolence.
We therefore have a very important balance to maintain: we need to have great faith in God to enable our example to shine unto the world, while at the same time we need to be very humble and not let our knowledge of God and His calling go to our heads.
Fortunately God does not give us His truth and then leave us alone to figure out what to do with it. He provides us with a helper: “when He, the Spirit of Truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth.” (John 16:13). Through His Spirit God gives us continual help so that we are able grow as a light, while also at the same time not being out of touch with the people we are trying to bring to Christ.
In our next blog we will see how we ask for help from God...
