And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? none is good, save one, that is, God. Luke 18:19
As I meditate on this verse, I marvel that God would allow us to have any part in His work at all. Yet, redeemed by the blood of Christ and empowered by the Holy Spirit, He has sent us forth as His ambassadors and ministers of reconciliation. (2Cor. 5:18-20)
In recent home Bible-study groups, we have spent a bit of time looking at the goodness of God as shown in Genesis. “And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good…”
Looking around me, I have sought to discover good things in my life that have happened without intention.
What good things have happened by accident? It seems to me that behind everything that is good someone was acting with intention to make it so. I’m still looking to see good things that happened without purpose, work, and design. From the clothes that we wear, the tools that we use, the food that we eat, the stores where we shop and the places where we live, I see a whole chain of good things coming together to meet needs. In a free market, good things rise to the top because we buy the things which serve us the best. Wealth is created as we serve one another.
As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith. Galatians 6:10
My research on being good and doing good brought up more than a dozen pages of Bible verses. Maybe acting intentionally to be good and do good is something that God cares about deeply.
Why do I want to invite people to know God and serve Him? It is because He is good.
Psalm 34:8 O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.
I believe that inviting Christians to join us in doing good, to preach God’s goodness and proclaim His glory is good.
Being good to people who have no access to the Good News about Jesus takes a lot of intentional work. It takes steps of faith, in God, which include building a team to make the work possible, going to where they live, establishing relationships that permit learning their unwritten language, deciphering their mysterious culture, creating an alphabet, translating the Bible, preparing lessons and teaching all that Jesus commanded.
Here is how one team did this: Yembiyembi
When the work is completed, then the believers in the new church, too, will be equipped for being intentionally good; blessing others in the same way they have been blessed.
To invite Christians to recognize and declare His worth even to the ends of the earth is a very high calling.
In what ways can we be intentionally good for the glory of God?
Here are some ideas:
Updated: 20200415