A Thought For The Week Of August 31, 2015

"... I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good." (Titus 3:8) As a Christian I obviously believe that a person is saved by the grace of God and not by their own works. But over the years I've noticed that a lot of Christians have a tendency to look rather sneeringly at those Christians who actually do a lot of good works, and then they say rather dismissively and accusingly that "they're trying to be saved through their works." Some Christians, undoubtedly, are legalists who do believe that it's all about works. Maybe too many Christians believe that, actually. We need to be careful about being too quick to dismiss good works or to assume that any Christian who does a lot of good works is doing them for their own sake (to be saved) and hasn't really understood the gospel. In fact, the New Testament, while witnessing to God's grace as the source and means of our salvation, is actually very clear about the central place of works in a Christian life.There are, of course, James' famous words that "faith without works is dead." But for anyone who sees that as a one-off, isolated message, here we see essentially the same message in Titus. Those who have trusted in God must be careful to devote themselves to doing good. Why? First, because faith must - if it's real - transform and re-orient us so that our concern shifts from our own needs to the needs of those around us. That's essential, because that's how we reflect Jesus, who was always oriented toward the other. And that's also the second reason. Our works are the witness to our faith. As an old saying tells us, our faith can be so heavenly minded that it's of no earthly use. But faith must be of earthly use. Otherwise, it's not real. It's an illusion; a sham - because it doesn't witness to Christ, whom the Bible tells us did many good works. To hold faith within ourselves accomplishes nothing. We devote ourselves to doing good so that others can see in us the most important change that faith in Jesus makes in our lives: it makes us die to self, and to begin to live for God and for others.