Rich in Good Works

“He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing”. (Ephesians 2:10)The Message.

“For we are his masterpiece, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them”. (Ephesians 2:10)NKJV.

“Let them do good, that they be rich in good works……”(1 Timothy 6:18)NKJV.

Another area we are admonished to be rich is in” good works”. Good works can simply be referred to as good things, doing good generally is good works. Even Jesus did good works (John 10:32).   Our Christian witness will be much helped if we can just be good to others.

Love for God and man should be our motive as we do these good works so that we can receive a reward eventually (Hebrews 10:24) which comes from God (1 Corinthians 15:58).Wrong or impure motives may make it difficult to maintain good works as discouragement may set in (Galatians 6:2). When we do good to others, we actually show that we honour the God in whose image they have been made, in short what we do to people is counted as what we do to God ( Matthew 25:31-43; 1 John 4:12.).The Word of God equips us to do every good work (2 Timothy 3:17).

 There are several ways we can do good; acts of kindness, loyalty to employers (1 Samuel 19:4),bringing up children, being hospitable to strangers(1 Timothy 5:10), fighting the cause of the oppressed, checking on an elderly neighbour, visiting the sick or those in prison .

However these good works  should not be confused as prerequisite for salvation. It is by grace we have been saved (Ephesians 2:5,8).Even Cornelius who was a very good man with kind  neighbourly acts  was still instructed to send for Peter to show him the way of salvation(Acts 10:1-8).Rather  good works are the evidence in our lives that we have been changed(Titus 3:14).

It is the  plan, purpose and will of God for us to do good works. (Ephesians 2:10). By our good works, we fulfill our role as lights in this world and bring honour and glory to God (Matthew 5:16, Romans 2:10). It also silences false accusers (1 Peter 2:12). Our good works will outlive us, even as Tabitha’s good works caused the widows to send for Peter when she died. She was brought back to life! (Acts 9:36-41).

God is the one whose Spirit enables us to do good works (Philippians 2:13).Doing good is not an option for a Christian neither should we let our emotions deter us from doing good. (Titus 2:7). We have been redeemed to be energetic in good works  (Titus 3:8 MSG),which we should maintain for we are made beautiful by doing them(1 Timothy 2:10 MSG). Let us seek daily to do good to someone else. Sometimes it may be as little as a smile or a compliment.

   Grace Tom-Lawyer