Good Works

I've been thinking. Why do we do good works?

If I understand correctly, the Muslims do good works for rewards at the judgement day. Allah (God) looks at the good and the bad things we do and if the good things outweigh the bad things, then we are rewarded somehow.

With the Jews, they do good works because of the laws. Yahweh (God) looks with favor on the Jew who obeys the laws.

I am not sure any more about Christians. Some say that simply having faith will save us and there are plenty of scripture verses in in Bible to suggest this to be true. A popular verse is Ephesians 2:8-9

New International Version

8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.

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And then there are these verses:

James 2:14-26

New International Version

Faith and Deeds

14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? 15 Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

18 But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”

Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. 19 You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.

20 You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless[a]? 21 Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. 23 And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,”[b] and he was called God’s friend. 24 You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.

25 In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? 26 As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.

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So, some Christians try to have faith and do good works but so often will fail at some point in their lives.

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A Pharisee by the name of Nicodemus came to Yeshua (Jesus) one night and started asking him questions. Jesus said something very interesting and puzzling. He said, "Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”

Here is the exchange of words between Nicodemus and Jesus:

John 3:5-21

New International Version

5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit[a] gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You[b] must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”[c]

9 “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.

10 “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? 11 Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. 12 I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? 13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man.[d] 14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,[e] 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”[f]

16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.

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True children of God do good works out of LOVE. They do it because they LOVE Father God. They do it because they LOVE Yeshua (Jesus). And they do it because they LOVE the people. This is agape love, the highest form of love, the same LOVE God and Jesus have for all human beings.

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4/24/2024

I was looking through some of my old posts and came across 'The faith that justified Abraham'. This is a long read but I feel like it goes very well with this post and the 'Judgement Day' post.