As Protestants we tend to have an uneasy relationship with good works because the Church of Rome uses them for salvation, when it is the finished work of Jesus and believing in Him and it that saves us (John 3:16, Romans 10:9-6, Acts 15:7-11). We often have to recite to our Catholic and Eastern Orthodox cousins, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast.,” (Ephesians 2:8-9) and thus are compelled to downplay works lest they be used erroneously for merit and penance. And yet Martin Luther and many fear that this can lead us to an apathy towards doing good. We struggle because we must remove good works from salvation, and must get into a the vein of doing good works because we are saved, and Christ lives in us, from whom alone we can bear fruit, “Remain in Me, and I will remain in you. Just as no branch can bear fruit by itself unless it remains in the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me” (John 15:4).
How are we to then measure good works? What is criteria? The world often makes us jaded by saying, “when you help homeless person they will just use the money to do drugs,” or “soup kitchens enable addicts,” and so forth. Cynicism creeps in eating away the rest of the zeal to do any good. I confess I have not been immune to this, and then reading a devotion it occurred to me we are looking at how to measure doing good works all wrong. The world wants us to measure it by outcome and mathematics, results that fit more a business model, when that is not how God measures things, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the Lord, As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9).
In Thomas A Kempis’ book he makes a astounding discovery,
“Without charity, the external work profit nothing; but whatever is done from charity, however trifling and contemptible in the opinion of men, is wholly fruitful in the acceptance of God, who regards more the degree of love with which we act, than what or how much we have performed. He does much, who loves much..” (The Imitation of Christ, Chapter 15: Of Works of Charity). In there is the secret, what matters is the “degree of love in which we act.” That is God is measuring if what we do whither small or big is from love, not obligation, not resentfulness, and not to achieve some penance. This is alignment with Christ’s own teaching, “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me,” (Matthew 15:8), “But I have this complaint against you. You don’t love me or each other as you did at first! Look how far you have fallen! Turn back to me and do the works you did at first. If you don’t repent, I will come and remove your lampstand from its place among the churches,” (Revelation 2:4-5 NLT), “Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments,” (Matthew 22:37-40), and “By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:35). The Measure our Lord God uses is not the outcome, not the progress our charity achieved in someone’s life, but by how much love was in our hearts when we preformed the act of good works. Meaning it is an unseen thing God is checking, not what the world can measure. There are plenty of people who give begrudgingly, to write it off on taxes, and to look good, “Many actions, indeed, assume the appearance of charity, that are wholly selfish and carnal; for inordinate affections, self-will, the hope of reward, and the desire of personal advantage and convenience, are the common motives that influence the conduct of men.” (Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Chapter 15 Of Works of Charity).
We have to be careful we do not become Pharisees, religious people who do good for appearances and out of selfish piety, to somehow bargain with God. No, it must be from love of others that we do things, and it is not the result of how they respond or if they get out of mire they are in that God is measuring, He is measuring your heart, your love for that person. Thus we must recondition ourselves as the King David said, “create a clean heart in me O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” (Psalm 51:10). For if what we are doing is not from love, then is flithy rags, and our hearts are truly stone.
Our a greatly concerned by how easily our hearts can mirror the Pharisees, that we lose our First Love (Revelation 2:4-5) and become either totally apathetic to helping others or worse do so not from love but selfish ambition, and self-gratification. We need to do some resetting of our affections, as the passage in Revelation tells us to (Revelation 2:4-5). For that is by which Christ our Lord will measure our works, not by the multitude or praises of the world. Amen.
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