Doing good: The shape of the Christian life (Part 1): Why we don’t

Stuart Heath argues that the Christian life is more than just having faith, it’s about doing good.

This is Part 1 of a three-part series. Read Part 2 and Part 3.

“Being Christian is not about doing good things”, quoth the preacher. “It’s about trusting in Jesus.” Here is the uniqueness of the Christian story: God in Christ has acted on our behalf. We could never be good enough to satisfy God’s requirements—we deserve to be condemned. But Jesus took our punishment for us, rescuing us from God’s right anger. God calls us not to earn our salvation, but to trust that he can save us. This is a beautiful, soul-satisfying truth. But when we talk about being Christian, if we only ever speak about ‘believing in Jesus’, we are dangerously out of step with the New Testament.

For the whole New Testament insists that being Christian is, in fact, about doing good. Jesus sets the bar improbably high when he calls on his followers to “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you” (Luke 6:27). They were to copy him, for Jesus “went about doing good” (Acts 10:38). This is also the refrain of Paul’s letters: “[L]et us not grow weary of doing good”; “[A]s we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone” (Gal 6:9, 10; cf. 1 Thess 5:15, 2 Thess 3:13). Those who are wealthy must also be “rich in good works” (1 Tim 6:18). Indeed, all “those who have believed in God [should] be careful to devote themselves to good works” (Titus 3:8). This is the apostle’s consistent prayer and exhortation (Col 1:10, Eph 4:1, 1 Thess 4:1). Meanwhile, James famously scoffs at the lifeless ‘faith’ that is not accompanied by good deeds (Jas 2:14-17), and Peter calls on believers to “turn away from evil and do good” (1 Pet 3:10-12). Furthermore, ‘doing good’ is part of worshipping our Saviour (Heb 13:16).

In fact, we might go so far as to say that the purpose of God saving us is that we might do good works: we are called in order to be a blessing (1 Pet 3:8-9). Why have we been saved by grace through faith? “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Eph 2:10; emphasis mine. Cf. Eph 2:8-9). Therefore, if we were to ask ourselves whether we (or others) are, in fact, Christian, we would do well to examine deeds along with doctrine. John puts it starkly: “Whoever does good is from God; whoever does evil has not seen God” (3 John 11; cf. 2 Cor 13:5-7, 2 Pet 1:5, 1 John 1:5-7, 2:6).

But when I look around in my circles, many of us are far more concerned with right thinking than we are with right practice. We manage to overlook the wealth of scriptural material which commands us to live rightly and which shows us why and how we should do so.

In this series of articles, I argue that the gospel itself carries a moral command: it is not enough to believe, we must also repent; we must not merely wait, but serve (1 Thess 1:9-10). In this article (Part 1), I hope to clear some ground for us, theologically and philosophically; in Part 2, I will demonstrate the difference the gospel makes; and in Part 3, I will look at the shape of ‘doing good’, which is described as love and wisdom.

That said, I should sound a note of caution first. It is right for Bible-believing Christians to be concerned about clinging to truth and refuting error, but sometimes in order to avoid one error, we plunge headlong into another. When we discuss ‘doing good’, we shy away from errors we detect elsewhere. “It’s all very well to talk about good deeds”, we might say, “but the danger of focusing on that is that it leads to the ‘social gospel’/triumphalism/a works-based salvation”. Thankfully, the New Testament writers managed to avoid these errors; under God, so might we. It is true that some so-called Christian groups go on doing good long after the Christ has departed centre stage, but we shouldn’t make the error of thinking that it is because these groups do good that they have marginalized Jesus. By the same token, it would be strange indeed if we proclaimed one aspect of Christ’s work while we steadfastly ignored his call to live like him.

Let’s now outline some obstacles to hearing Scripture’s plain call to do good, to put sin to death and to live like our Lord Jesus. We’ll begin by examining Jesus’ lordship over creation. This should cause us to reflect on creation afresh, which will, in turn, lead us to rethink sin and salvation.

Jesus’ lordship affects how we live now

We have a tendency to think of Christ’s lordship in a very abstract way. We talk about ‘the kingdom of God’ as if it just means ‘Christian people’, and then we apply the notion of God’s people (Christians) in God’s place (heaven) under God’s rule (reading the Bible, praying, going to church, and evangelizing). But Jesus’ lordship is firmly grounded in the real world. He has “[a]ll authority in heaven and on earth” (Matt 28:18). He has given us a model of prayer which asks for God’s will to be done “on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt 6:10). He will use his authority to judge the whole of creation, and all creation will confess that he is Lord (Acts 17:31, Phil 2:10-11).

As his people, we need to live now in the real world, acknowledging that he is Lord. The implications of this are far-reaching. Obviously, we must recognize the judgement that we and the people around us are facing. In addition, our view of ‘ministry’ should be radically altered: in the new covenant, we’re all priests (1 Pet 2:9), but we don’t serve in a temple, nor is Sunday morning our sacred space. Instead, our whole lives are our worship (Rom 12:1). The bulk of ‘ministry’, then, is unpaid—done by ‘rank and file’ Christians. We serve and we are a blessing in God’s real world, as, in word and deeds, we proclaim and show Jesus’ lordship. Submitting to Jesus will affect the way we live in every detail. It affects how we live as men or women, as spouses, parents, workers or students; how willing we are to forgive or to sacrifice self-interest; how we interact with governments; how we advocate for refugees and mentally ill people, and so on. We must be seeking to see our Lord’s will done on earth now.

The real world is fundamentally good, and God seeks to bless it

But why must we seek to carry out Jesus’ will in the here and now? Isn’t the material world debased and evil? Many Christians have thought so, but this idea comes from ancient Greek philosophy, not from the Bible. On the contrary, the earth is still God’s “very good” creation which he has blessed (Gen 1:22, 28, 31).¹ For even after humanity was banished from the Garden, God’s kindness led him to seek blessing for his creation—a blessing which we know has been fulfilled in Christ (Gen 12:1-3).

Indeed, the Christ event shows us just how committed God is to his creation. Firstly, there is the fact that God became flesh (John 1:14). Secondly, the redemption he won is not just for humanity, but for the whole creation (Rom 8:21). Thirdly (and this is the most relevant point for our present discussion), Jesus was raised with a body. Imagine a world in which Jesus died for sins, but was then translated to another immaterial dimension where he went straight from the cross to the ascension. In such a world, we would do well to shun our bodies, along with the rest of creation. We would be wise to think about saving souls out of the world, for God would have completely abandoned it. As it stands, however, Jesus’ bodily resurrection speaks an unmistakeable ‘Amen!’ to God’s declaration that the world is “very good”.² Salvation is, therefore, of whole people in the world.

And so we must seek to be a blessing in the world.³ We must not imagine the world as essentially and irredeemably defunct, waiting to drop off into oblivion. Instead, we should live in the world according to God’s good purposes. Thus Paul can say (in the very earthy context of sex and food) that “everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving”, and that to reject God’s good world is to subscribe to the doctrine of demons (1 Tim 4:1-4). We work out our salvation, our righteousness and our holiness not in the abstract, not in ‘private’ (Bible reading, prayer, attending church, and so on) and not just in evangelism, but in the nitty-gritty of everyday life. That is why the Bible abounds with instruction on how to parent, how to work, how to use money, how to forgive—how to live.

It is true that we await a new, material creation in which we will have material, resurrected bodies, given life by God’s Spirit (Rom 8:23, 1 Cor 15:44). But that reality should inform the way we live now in this world (Rom 8:12-14, 1 Cor 15:51-58). After all, we already share in the life of that new age (John 3:36, 5:24, Rom 6:11-12). Yes, there will always be poverty, injustice, and sickness in this world, but if we wish to emulate the God of blessing, our task is not merely to shake our heads in pity or to offer up occasional prayers (though we must not do less than that!); we must act in concrete ways for the good of the poor, the oppressed and the ill. Of course, this will mean more than asking them, “So, what is God teaching you through this experience?”

‘Doing good’ is woven into God’s creation

There is a second reason why we must seek to carry out Jesus’ will on earth and that is because ‘doing good’ is woven into God’s creation. Most of us are comfortable with the idea that there is a ‘physical order’ (i.e. the world is governed by laws of physics) but we may baulk at the idea of there being a ‘moral order’ (i.e. the world is governed by moral laws). But there is a good order to God’s creation: what he has made has a nature (“according to its kind”) and a purpose (“for food”, “to rule”, etc. See Genesis 1). While we may not find the language of ‘moral order’ in Scripture, a few facts suggest the idea.

1. The way humans live

Firstly, human society bears some witness to a created moral order, even if sin has skewed our behaviour in one way or another. Take the example of marriage. Marriage is not an arbitrary relationship: we cannot make a relationship a marriage simply by saying, “I declare this to be a marriage”. The essence of marriage is stitched into creation. It is a lifelong, committed, exclusive, sexual, consensual, public relationship between a man and a woman.⁴ It also has set purposes: to create a new family, to enjoy fellowship and to produce children (Gen 1:28, 2:18, 22-24, 1 Cor 7:3-5).⁵ But marriage is not just for God’s covenant people, it is for all who have been created ‘male’ and ‘female’ in God’s image.

Thus we notice that non-covenant people have legitimate and inviolable marriages. Cain had a wife, and he seemed to act in line with the commission to fill the earth (Gen 4:17). All of Noah’s sons were married. Joseph recognized the exclusivity of the marriage between Potiphar and his wife (Gen 39:9). Even Pharaoh and the Abimelechs seemed to understand the importance (and sanctity) of marriage when Abraham and Isaac tried to pass their wives off as their sisters (Gen 12:19, 20:3, 26:10). Therefore marriage is clearly something that exists independent of any covenanted law of God: it is simply part of how he has made the world—part of a created moral order. The fact that he judges those without any revealed law shows that this moral order extends well beyond marriage.

2. God’s judgement

Secondly, God’s judgement points to a moral order. God will judge his creatures according to a standard—a standard that does not depend on revealed laws, but on the moral order he has created. This is an obvious point as soon as we allow God to be a judge at all: God has not explicitly created a covenant with the great majority of people, and yet he calls everyone to account for their actions. Thus God promises Abraham that he will bring judgement on the Amorites for their sin (Gen 15:16), he says he will condemn the Assyrians for their arrogance and wickedness (Isa 10:12), and Israel and her neighbours alike suffer his wrath because they have offended him and mistreated his creatures (Amos 1-2). In the New Testament, Paul argues that Gentiles who do not have the Law can unwittingly live in accordance with it, and will also face God’s judgement (Rom 2:14-16). God is the God and judge of all.

Moreover, there is a judgement inherent in sins themselves. Like a tool used improperly or a car driven carelessly, the creation itself revolts against the breaking of this moral order (Lev 18:26-28). Sin damages both the sinner and the one who has been sinned against. Yes, there is a total end time judgement when God will avenge the victims of sin. But there is also a partial judgement now. This is seen most clearly in the way God hands people over to sin (Rom 1:24, 26, 28). The fact that God allows people to sin—the fact that, rather than set all to rights immediately, he allows people to be self-destructive—is itself a kind of punishment. As Paul puts it, when people sin, they receive “in themselves the due penalty for their error” (Rom 1:27).

If we allow that God judges according to the standards he has established in creation, then it follows that morality is not something we can opt in to or opt out of. I have often heard it said, “You can’t impose Christian morality on everyone; they’re not Christian!” But the point is that doing good is not a distinctively Christian responsibility, it is a human responsibility. Lying, being selfish and engaging in ‘casual’ sex are bad for all humans, Christian or non-Christian. In the present, all humans are hurt by sin; in the future, God will call all humans to account for their works (Rom 2:5-6). As Christians, we have extra knowledge of the moral order (revealed in God’s word) and we have a capacity to obey (by God’s Spirit). This gives us a special reason to do good, but it does not mean that others have no responsibility to do good. If that were so, how could God judge?

3. The way the New Testament writers describe morality

Finally, the existence of a moral order is suggested by the writers of the New Testament, who seem to draw on creation principles to describe what is good. For example, to defend the right of an apostle to be paid for gospel preaching, Paul invokes the old covenant treatment of both priests and beasts (1 Cor 9:1-15: v. 13; cf. Deut 18:1; v. 9, cf. Deut 25:4). Clearly the literal meaning of these commands is not immediately applicable to Paul’s situation; he is neither a priest, nor an animal, and, as a Christian, he is not obliged to follow the Mosaic Law. But the underlying principle (that workers should be paid) is still valid. We might argue that this underlying principle is part of the created moral order. The Mosaic Law did not create the moral principle, but it does express it.⁶

Sin is not just rebellion and salvation is not just justification by faith

So morality is woven into creation, and humans will face judgement according to God’s moral order. This implies that there is more to judgement than just our attitude: what’s important is not just what we think about God, but also how we live in his world. God is angry not just with rebellious hearts, but also with individual acts that damage his creation.

Yes, we may talk about a ‘sickness’ of sin (rejecting God) that leads to the ‘symptoms’ of sins (doing bad things). But we undermine Scripture if we always focus on ‘sin’ and never talk explicitly about ‘sins’. Certainly, Paul showed that God’s wrath is coming against those who have a bad attitude to God, but he is also happy to name specific sins and concrete wrongdoings (Rom 1:18, 29-31). It is not just an abstract ‘idolatry’ that excludes people from inheriting God’s kingdom, but the specific, evil deeds of improper sexual practices, stealing, being greedy, getting drunk, slandering, and ripping people off (1 Cor 6:9-10). On the positive side, we are not encouraged to ‘improve our attitude towards God’, we are encouraged to act—to do things which are compassionate, kind, humble, patient, gentle, self-controlled, and so on (Col 3:12, Gal 5:22-23).

Too often we imagine that ‘salvation’ means nothing more than having a right view of Jesus’ death. When we ask if someone is ‘saved’, we talk about their view of the atonement, not about the life they are living. We think of salvation merely in binary terms: you are either ‘in’ or ‘out’—‘innocent (in Christ)’ or ‘guilty’. This is true and important, but it is incomplete. This kind of thinking pushes all salvation to the future (“We will be saved on the last day”), and loses sight of our being saved now. It focuses exclusively on the book of life and ignores the book of deeds (Rev 20:12). It allows a flabby Christianity that is big on doctrine but low on godliness—the kind of Christianity that might say, “Why would I strive to do good when I am already perfect in Christ? I’m just waiting to die. After death, God will make me good.”

But God didn’t save us from sin just to leave us captive to self-destructive sins. Again, we are saved from sin for righteousness (Titus 3:5-8). As we begin to think in this direction, it may help if we allow the multitude of biblical images to expand our view of God, sin, and salvation. Consider these few examples (there are many more!):⁷

Righteousness is more than good intentions

So let us turn now to explore how we are to live out this multifaceted salvation—that is, how we can live in line with God’s moral order. We may quickly notice that some Christians want to focus either just on motives and intentions (i.e. what I mean to do is all that is important), or just on actions (i.e. the outcome of my intentions is all that matters). But the biblical picture is more complex.

Firstly, the Bible talks about ‘hidden’ faults: I can do something wrong, even though I don’t know about it and even if I didn’t mean to do it (Ps 19:12, Lev 5:17, 1 Cor 4:4). Of course, there is a difference between malicious wrongdoing and unintentional wrongdoing (and therefore the Law provides for manslaughter in Deuteronomy 19:4-6), but we must be able to admit that accidental wrongs are still wrongs. This frees us up, for example, to apologize for hurting someone, even when we didn’t mean to. It also allows us to admit to and repent of the shortcomings of our institutions. Our churches, schools and workplaces were probably not set up in order to wrong people, but if people are hurt by them, we can admit to error, ask for forgiveness and seek to change.

Secondly, bad actions may very well spring from good motives, or vice versa. Consider Paul, whose (good) zeal for God led to his (evil) persecution of the church (Acts 22:3-4; cf. Phil 3:5-6). Consider also his opponents: Paul can rejoice in the good gospel preaching that they do, even though they do it out of envy and rivalry (Phil 1:15-18). Certainly, the ideal is for good actions to be accompanied by good motives (Matt 6:2). But we are not righteous when we wish well but do nothing (Matt 21:28-31, Jas 2:16)!

We need help with the details

‘Doing good’ requires a transformed heart, but it also consists in concrete details. The problem is that there are far more possible actions in life than there are attitudes. Therefore, even with all our fine principles in place and even when possessing the best will in the world, we often need help knowing what to do and the context in which to do it.

For example, shortly after becoming Christian, I came to hold the principle that it was good to be generous with my money. I didn’t do very well at this, however, until someone gave me the idea of setting up a separate bank account for giving. Then it was easy to see (at least!) the money in my giving account as being there especially for generosity to others. Some time later, I was reading Beyond Greed and came across the idea that I should be at least as generous to others as I am to myself—that every time I spend money on luxuries for myself (be it takeaway pizzas or movie tickets), I should consider giving the same amount to poor people.

Most of us are not good at working out details by ourselves. We need to help one another. Obviously lived examples are vital here: we learn lots from watching godly people! But it seems to me that our churches should be places for us to get help more broadly. Often our weekly Bible talks are good at dispensing sound principles, but not so good with details. Of course, our pastors can’t be experts on everything, but we need to encourage and help them to think hard about the concrete difference Scripture makes to the details of our lives. Our churches have lots of tools and hands-on training for evangelism; why not spend some time learning hands-on skills for godliness in other areas of life? We might consider such things as: useful techniques for managing time and money, being hospitable, conflict resolution in the family and in the workplace, ways to discipline our children, how to fix things around the home, and so on.

Groups of Christians might also supply us with a context in which to use our gifts to bless others. We might long to serve the poor of our community, but have no obvious way of doing it. If that’s the case, we could join or set up an op-shop, soup kitchen or drop-in centre, which would provide us with a context in which to do good. Similarly, it would be easier for us to bless refugees or other recent arrivals with English teaching, legal aid or simple cultural orientation (e.g. how to buy a bus ticket) if collectively (say, as a church, or with some other group of like-minded Christians) we set up appropriate structures and programmes.

In brief, God tells us clearly in his word that he expects us to live rightly. We may need to adjust our philosophical suppositions and our theological emphases at some points so that we can take him at his word. But we cannot escape the imperative to do good—in all areas of our lives.

With the ground thus cleared, we can now consider how our ethics must grow organically out of the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is the subject to which I turn in Part 2.

This is Part 1 of a three-part series. Read Part 2 and Part 3.

Endnotes

¹ For a fuller discussion of this idea, see AJB Cameron, ‘How to Say YES to the World: Towards a New Way Forward in Evangelical Social Ethics’, Reformed Theological Review, Vol. 66:1, 2007.

² This is a key insight of Oliver O’Donovan’s thesis in Resurrection and Moral Order: An outline for evangelical ethics (2nd edition, Apollos, Leicester, 1994), which has been a major influence on much of my thinking for this article.

³ This is like the old covenant. Israel was not translated to some morally pure planet or dimension; instead, God wanted them to be light to the surrounding nations in partial fulfilment of the promise that blessing would come to all the families of the earth through Abraham’s seed.

⁴ For the full argument behind this, see Christopher Ash, Marriage: Sex in the service of God (IVP, Leicester, 2003). Chapter 4 summarizes helpfully the place of marriage in the created order.

⁵ Of course, in a fallen world, these purposes can be tragically thwarted. The pain of involuntary childlessness attests to this. Unfulfilled purpose, however, does not deny the real nature of a marriage.

⁶ Sometimes the underlying principle is expressed overtly in the Law (“Honor your father and your mother”—Exod 20:12); sometimes seeking an underlying moral principle will be difficult, and will require hard thinking to apply.

⁷ Thanks to Sam Chan and Byron Smith for help with this table.