There are a number of Bible verses that clearly indicate that God’s plan for each of His children includes following Christ’s example of doing “good works.” This mandate is so foundational to the Christian life that it could be said that it is part of the DNA of every Christian. In Jesus’ last instructions to His disciples before the Cross (John 13-17) He talks about them bearing “fruit that will last.” Christ spent His life exemplifying what it means to produce this lasting fruit, and Paul, in Galatians 5:22 refers to the fruit of the Spirit as including kindness and goodness (in some versions “goodness” is translated as “generosity”).
The following two essays address my thoughts on Christ’s call to doing good works and the ethics associated with following these admonitions.
The Immortal Life of a Life’s Good Works
Bruce Wrenn
A confluence of several Bible verses has been swirling around in my mind lately:
“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Ephesians 2:10
“I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’” Matthew 25:35-36,40
“And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward.” Matthew 10:42
“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” Galatians 6:9.
“18 Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. 19 In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.” Timothy 6:18-19
What is common to these verses is the imperative obligation of God’s children to do good works—to be rich in good deeds. Contemplating the implications of this central theme to these verses has recalled two other quotes that have pricked my conscience:
“I am only one, but I am one. I can't do everything, but I can do something. The something I ought to do, I can do. And by the grace of God, I will.” Edward Everett Hale
“He laid the foundation of the National Park Service, defining and establishing the policies under which its areas shall be developed and conserved unimpaired for future generations. There will never come an end to the good he has done.” Tribute to Stephen Mather, the first director of the National Park system on plaques at various National Parks
These quotes have been making regular appearances in the gumbo of thoughts that occupy my conscious hours in a typical day. Sometimes they are on a back burner, simmering away, and sometimes they are up front, demanding close attention. I recently had lunch with a good friend, who reminded me that Ephesians 2:10 might be behind the idea for a book I had been working on. He said that the book idea, long in gestation, could be a “good work” God had planned in advance for me to do.
Perhaps the idea of this book is an example God responding to our hearts yearning to make a difference for the good in our twilight years. I do know that my own sense of obligation and urgency to do those “good works” has been much on my mind of late. Let me try to string together these Bible verses and quotes that are listed above as I struggle to synthesize these thoughts:
John provided a standard that reveals what we must do if we want to be Christ-like when he wrote “Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did” 1 John 2:6. Walking as Jesus did means following his example by serving others as he did in his earthly ministry. Ephesians 2:10 provides some more detail into how God in fact created us to do those good works like those Christ describes in Matthew 25. Christ wants us to understand that while some may achieve great good works that might serve to help millions (e.g., Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine, Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation proclamation, Norman Borlaug’s work on improving crop yields which is credited with saving a billion lives, the anonymous person who wrote Psalm 119), such magnanimity is not required to receive His approbation.
In Christ’s mind, the performance of some act of kindness as seemingly inconsequential as giving a child a cup of cold water (Matthew 10:42), is treasured in his heart as though He were the recipient of that good work (Matthew 25). Edward Everett Hale says that we should not shirk our moral obligation to perform such good works just because we can’t be a Salk, Lincoln or Borlaug.
No, we should do the good we can, whenever we can, where we can, for whom we can. As Zechariah says, “Who dares despise the day of small things?” Zechariah 4:10. Certainly not Jesus. Paul, in Galatians and 1 Timothy provides some perspective on this lifelong effort to do such good works, be they grand or slight, for the sake of many or for few, when he hints at their life span as eternal and their value as immeasurable.
The author(s) of Stephen Mather’s tribute implied as much when he/she/they wrote that the good work done by Mather for the park service would never end, continuing long after his demise. We might appreciate the true worth of our good deeds only on the other side of eternity when Jesus puts his arm around our shoulder on a walk with us and tells us how our doing those good works He planned for us to do continue to warm his heart. Storing up treasures in heaven indeed. There is no good work so small that it is inconsequential to God. There really will be no end to the good you have done in Christ’s name
The Bible makes it clear that doing good is a moral obligation:
Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due,
when it is in your power to act.
Do not say to your neighbor,
“Come back tomorrow and I’ll give it to you”—
when you already have it with you. Proverbs 3 :27-28
Jesus shows that doing good should be considered an opportunity to demonstrate gratitude for all God’s mercies that we so freely receive every day:
“Return home and tell how much God has done for you.” Luke 8:39
Properly seen, doing good is as much a blessing as it is an obligation:
“...blessed is he who is kind to the needy.” Proverbs 14:21
Seen either as obligation or opportunity, motivated by moral compass or by having a heart of flesh instead of stone (Ezekiel 36:26), we are compelled by the love of Christ to walk as Jesus walked to do those good works God planned for us to do before He created us.
“Doing good” has no metrics, no quantitative measure or goal, no quota or order of merit, no Gold or Platinum status. You don’t do good to reach the next level of heavenly rewards. You do it because it springs spontaneously from a bountiful heart. You can’t not do good. It is our heart’s desire to walk as Jesus did, and let Him receive the credit for our good deeds:
“...let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your father in heaven.” Matthew 5:16.
“...whoever is kind to the needy honors God.” Proverbs 14:31
“There will never come an end to the good he has done.” If your Curriculum Vitae had just that line on it you could be satisfied that your life was well lived. This would mean your life had borne the fruit that will last that Jesus talked about in John 15:16. Fruit that exists because our branch is attached to his vine. Fruit that is evergreen in Christ’s heart.
The Bible refers to this approach to decision-making process as “faith that works.” Whatever you call it, it is increasingly clear that the need for us to step up and do the good God has planned for us to do has never been greater.
“I cannot do all the good the world needs, but the world needs all the good I can do.”
Jana Stanfield
Doing good is like truth: it is stubborn, resistant to eradication, it persists and lingers because its source is eternal. It is the personification of Love, God’s singular essence. Yes, we are free moral agents, able to exercise free will, but when you commit to doing the good that God has planned in advance for you to do you are also aligning yourself with the most powerful force in the universe—Love. As Paul says: it always protects, always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres.
Good works spring from an all-conquering and everlasting source, and so there will never be an end to the good that they bring into the lives of those touched by them. Moreover, when you commit to this course, you are open to unimaginable opportunities to do good. When David says in Psalm 31 that God has “set my feet in a spacious place,” he could be saying that God can provide a kaleidoscope of opportunities to do good in ways that can constantly amaze you. Can you imagine a better way to live an amazing life?
If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.
Emily Dickinson
The Ethics of Doing Good Deeds
Bruce Wrenn 2024
If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them. James 4:17
Ethics involves more than pursuing morally correct behavior when presented with a choice between right and wrong. It also means looking for an opportunity to do good in any circumstance, and then proactively carrying through with the impulse. Failure to perform a good is unethical, according to James 4:7, even when to not act is what may be the social norm. Most people may not even see the good that could be done in those circumstances and might even be surprised that someone else would see it and act on it. Doing good has become a heroic act.
Doing good may be risky. It doesn’t involve moral hazard, because as Martin Luther King said: “the time is always ripe to do what is right.” But there will always be those who will criticize, obstruct, or even seek to punish those who do good. When Christ healed the man with the shriveled hand on the Sabbath (Luke 6:6-11), scripture says the Pharisees and teachers of the law “were furious and began to discuss with one another what they might to do to Jesus.” But if we want to be like Jesus, we will “
Rather, we should follow Paul advice to Timothy (6:18-19):
“18 Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. 19 In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.”
Don’t you love that phrase: “take hold of the life that is truly life”? Maybe this is something of what Christ called the “abundant life” (John 10:10). Apparently, doing good has rewards in this life as well as proving “a firm foundation for the coming age,” but those rewards are in a heavenly currency, not a secular one.
This recalls an easily overlooked verse in Psalm 119:50: “My comfort in my suffering is this: Your promise preserves my life.” One way of understanding this verse is the Psalmist is stating his confidence that all his labor to serve others is not in vain—God preserves the results of a life spent doing good works. The consequences of those good works live on after we are gone, blessed by God to continue to reap a harvest of good in this world, and treasured in God’s heart in heaven.
In the grand scheme of things, where would you prefer to lay up your treasure? Here is an investment strategy that pays dividends throughout eternity—truly there will never be an end to the return from doing those good deeds.
Let’s all commit to making daily deposits in that account, whether they be big or small.
Ethics and God’s Plan for our Life
Bruce Wrenn
Gen18:19 [God talking about Abraham] “For I have chosen him [have a plan for his life], so that he will direct his children and his household after him [be a role model] to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just [act as a moral agent guided by the Lord], so that the Lord will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him [so that God’s plan for blessing his life can happen].
Comment: God’s plan for each of us is to be role model for others by acting ethically (“doing what is right and just”) so that God can prosper and bless our lives in bearing fruit that will last. When we act unethically we remove ourselves from that plan—God cannot and will not prosper and bless unethical behavior that bears bad fruit. Thus, the stakes for our behavior, ethical or unethical, are very high. It is not just the plan for our lives at stake since we will be a role model for others for better or worse. Resolving to “walk in the light” is the best guarantee that our lives will be blessed and be a blessing to others. Every ethical choice, no matter how big or small, enables those blessings to occur. Do not think that some ethical choices are of such small consequence that God is unconcerned whether you make an ethical or unethical choice. No choice is so small that it doesn’t matter. It matters to God. Does it matter to you?
