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), 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, wherever we can, for whomever 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.
