Being Good
Tuesday July 8, 2014
Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. (Colossians 3:20 NIV)
As a five year old we’re considered good if we obey our parents, share our toys, don’t pinch our siblings, don’t whine, and use tissues. For adults, goodness is more elusive. We do some things that seem good but there are often alternative motives hidden below the surface. We give a gift to someone in hopes of getting a favor in return. We sell something quickly as a “real bargain” because we know it is pretty much ready to break down. We help someone out and then consider them indebted to us. We look and act politely and friendly to someone’s face but then, behind their back, we gossip and complain about them. Our behaviour is often tainted; our motives often mixed. Jesus had strong words for people who gave the appearance of being good but beneath their skin were total frauds:
For you are like whitewashed tombs—beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people’s bones and all sorts of impurity. (Matthew 23:27b NLT)
Think of meat that is slimy, rotting and full of worms. That’s how Jesus was describing people who were trying to look good without really allowing God to change them on the inside. God, who knows our hearts, invites us to do good things for the right reason: Let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father. (Matthew 5:16 NLT)
The Bible teaches us to have pure motives and compassionate hearts and to live our actions out of these motivations.
And you yourself must be an example to them by doing good works of every kind. Let everything you do reflect the integrity and seriousness of your teaching. (Titus 2:7 NLT)
Part of the sickness of our culture is our need to proclaim innocence when we should be admitting guilt. Many people hold the belief that as long as they are not caught, they really haven’t done anything wrong. As long as there is a problem in our background that we can use to excuse our behaviour, we believe we are not responsible for lives that have caused grief and harm to others. If we commit a crime and can find some lawyer or a reasonable judge or a technicality that can get us off then we don’t worry about the cheating, stealing and assaulting that we’ve done. Even though our reputation holds together for a while the consequences of what we have done remains with us. The only one who can save us from the eternal consequences of our sin is Jesus Christ who shed His blood as a living sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.(John 3:16-17 NIV)
Let’s let Jesus help us overcome the desire to sin and give us the desire to let goodness and mercy follow us all the days of our life.
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