Many people still think Christianity is about being good and doing good. One evidence of that is Christians are often “concerned” about those who are living immorally. But they are almost never concerned about those who are living good and wholesome lives. Why? Because of the assumption that Christianity is mainly about being good and doing good. Therefore, a person who is living morally must be a good Christian therefore could be left alone. But a person who is living immorally must be a bad Christian and therefore needs to be dealt with…

But the gospel is such that, at times, doing good could be worse than doing bad. Being moral could actually be worse than being immoral! How is that?

Consider why a Christian might want to do good. He wants to keep his good reputation. He wants people to think highly of him. He “sees” why doing good is more beneficial in the long run than doing bad. And usually this person sits in judgment of those who are doing bad, thinking to himself, “why can’t they be more like me? Why can’t they have wisdom to see the consequences of their sins like me?”

This person is doing good for himself. And this person is no different than a person who is doing bad, for the person doing bad is also doing bad for himself – he thinks it’s good for him even though it’s bad…

But at least the person who is doing bad does not deceive himself in doing bad. But the person who is doing good only for himself is deceiving himself thinking that he’s doing it for God or others, when he’s really doing it for himself. He is a hypocrite.

That is the only type of person Jesus objected to!

Remedy? Heb. 12:2, “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross…”

Do good because Jesus has done all the good on our behalf, not in order to earn it but because we are grateful. He’s already done it all. What more can we add to it? That’s the only way our good will truly be good.

PH