The Good Work

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW

 THE GOOD WORK

Matt 5:14-16

14 "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

NIV

We thought about being the light, and letting our light shine, that is allowing Jesus to shine through us into a dark world. This is our calling to go into all the world and spread the light of Jesus. But this idea of living as the light so that men can see our good works and praise our Father in heaven has us a little discombobulated. Jesus spoke against the way the Pharisees lived, being religious so men would see their holy-like living. But their lives were not reflecting the love of God toward his people, but rather they wanted the praise of men for their good works, so to speak. Here Jesus is saying that our lives should be lived in a manner that reflects God. Again, we might go back to the words of Jesus when he was asked what work God requires of us, and He answered the work of God is to believe in the one he sent. So perhaps, just maybe this is the good works that are required of us so that men might see and praise our Father in Heaven. That is, we need to show them our faith, our believing in Jesus needs to be open and before men. We cannot hide our faith, that is work in this world like everyone else works, laboring to success, putting all their faith in their efforts. Besides, a lot of unbelievers do a heck of a lot of good works as far as the world is concerned. Many humanitarian efforts are just that, good works are done in the name of humans.  We need to live as the light shines, showing that we put all our faith in Jesus for all we have, all we do, and all we are. Jesus said that apart from him we can do nothing. So, the work of men that is absent of faith in Jesus is nothing, meaningless, void of any value whatsoever. However, the work we do is in Christ, our faith in Jesus, our being connected to the vine is everything and therefore we need to live like that all the time in front of all men, so they see that we are different. They need to see that we believe in God completely for everything in our lives. They need to see our love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, and self-control and want some of that for themselves. That truly would be a good deed.