How to be Good: Part 3 of 4

In case you just joined us . . .

I'm trying to figure out where 'being eager to do what is good' fits into our Christian lives, especially in the life of our local churches

Paul’s letter to Titus has a lot to say about doing good. In three short chapters, Paul pushes ‘doing good’ no less than eight times! (Ch 1:8, 1:16, 2:3, 2:7, 2:14, 3:1, 3:8, 3:14)

Paul ‘s focus here is not just on sound teaching (good doctrine) but on good living. He tells Titus to set an example to the younger men by ‘doing what is good’, that he must remind people to do what is good (here in 3:1 he is talking about being good citizens in our relationships outside the Christian community), and in 3:14 that we must learn to be good so that we can be productive and not a burden.

But a watershed moment is when you realise the difference between being good and doing good. Being good is a status that none of us can achieve without the death of Jesus to redeem us from sin. Nowhere does Paul ever tell us (in Titus or anywhere else) to ‘be good’. That would be a stab in the back to the gospel of grace. Two of the key verses in Titus (2:14 and 3:8) make that crystal clear.

However, Paul can’t bear to offer his gospel nugget without wrapping it up by saying we must therefore be ‘eager to do what is good’ and ‘to devote ourselves to doing good, for this is excellent and profitable.’

You don’t become a Christian because you are good, but once you’ve become a Christian, we are free to do good born out of grace, and we gobble up opportunities to make that happen.

Next time: How we (at St James) might be able to ‘do good’ in Kenilworth.

PS: I have no idea why Titus appears to missing half a finger btw . . .

How to Be Good: Part 2 of 4

In case you just joined us . . .

I'm trying to figure out where 'being eager to do what is good' fits into our Christian lives, especially in the life of our local churches.

Here are my answers to the questions from the previous post . . .

As a local church, where does doing good for your community fit on your list of priorities?

It's always been there, but perhaps recently it climbed a few steps. Not sure if we have all caught up yet however.

If you try to pursue what is good for your neighbourhood, do you feel a little guilty that you’re not using that time and energy to evangelise them instead?

Yes.

If you were to decide to devote yourself to doing good for your community, where would you start?

Thanks to the vision of that wonderful women I'm married too, we actually have a plan for that now! But more in a post or two . . .

Do you think doing good just needs the church to be a bit ‘nicer’, or would it take a paradigm shift?

Both. Speaking for myself, I certainly need to relax a little and be willing to look outside of my normal sphere of concern. However, I haven't stumbled into this, it hit me like a truck, so I'm also going to put a hand up for 'paradigm shift' as well.

Next post is something which will clarify lots and put some head scratching to rest . . . "What's the difference between being good and doing good?"

How to be Good: Part 1 of 4

I thought this might be a catchy title because a few years ago I read a novel by Nick Hornby (of ‘High Fidelity’ fame) called, ‘How to be good’. It was a great read, if not a little depressing.

It was a story about Katie Carr who thought she was a good person, but had to come to terms with the fact that she had just committed adultery. She had done this because her husband was not a good person, but quickly undergoes a transformation which makes him nauseatingly good. Katie’s moral compass starts to spin and what it means to be good is up for grabs. As I said, an interesting read.

I’ve been thinking a bit lately about how we feel as local churches about doing good.

Doing good with no strings attached, not as an icebreaker to evangelism, not as a lay ministry training opportunity.

Just doing good because we value the neighbourhoods we live in and we think that they could be better, and that we as a church are in a unique position to help.

We know where evangelism should be taking us.

We know where edification punches it’s weight.

But, like Katie Carr, have we lost our bearings on doing good? Have we forgotten what it’s there for and what we’re meant to use it for?

My guess is that this will either hit home, or bounce off you like bullets off superman.

So I’ll leave you with some questions to ponder:

As a local church, where does doing good for your community fit on your list of priorities?

If you try to pursue what is good for your neighbourhood, do you feel a little guilty that you’re not using that time and energy to evangelise them instead?

If you were to decide to devote yourself to doing good for your community, where would you start?

Do you think doing good just needs the church to be a bit ‘nicer’, or would it take a paradigm shift?

Tomorrow (Sydney time), I’ll give you my honest answers to these questions.

Welcome Back!

According to Scott has undergone a face lift. New template, a nice pic of our holiday beach up top there, and a few changes down the side. But we stopped short of botox.

The reincarnation is to keep me on my toes during sabbatical. Yes, I know it's half way done already. So there might be a little catching up to do. But the trouble with having space to think is that if the thoughts aren't committed, then they just float off.

So this is to keep some speculation . . . well, honest.

I'm hoping that tomorrow I'll have a new post up, 'How to be Good'; Reflections on the local church, community and Titus.

Till then