Pastor's Blog

The old evangelist, Bob Jones, Sr., was well-known for his signature ex-hortation, “Do right!” It was his way reminding his hearers that Christians are to live godly lives. Recently another New Testament obligation for Christians has been impressed upon me; it is: “Do good!” The Apostle Paul was concerned that the churches for whom he had oversight not neglect the responsibility of doing good works. Writing to his associate Titus, he says: “Our people must also learn to engage in good deeds to meet pressing needs, so that they will not be unfruitful” (Titus 3:14).

Since the mid-20th century, we evangelicals have argued over the place of good works in our theology. Along with our orthodoxy, should we have a social conscience? In some cases, a social conscience has superseded the commitment of believers to the biblical Gospel, and the result has been the current obsession with social justice. That, of course, is to lose our focus and allegiance to the truth. But Paul is clear: it’s not enough to live com-placently in our evangelical enclaves, content to believe sound doctrine, but virtually unconcerned for the needs of others.

“Our people must also learn to engage in good works.” Note what Paul say here. First, this is something God’s people need to learn; this isn’t a spontaneous response to becoming a Christian. Good works involve per-sonal sacrifice—of our time and our treasures—and sacrifice is not natural. Church leaders need to teach God’s people, both by precept and by example, to practice acts of kindness. Towards whom? Just our fellow believers? No. Paul writes to the Galatians: “So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith” (Gal 6:10). So both individually and as congregations, we need to be sensitive to the needs of our church family (our first priority) and our community. Good works towards those outside the church are a powerful testimony God can use to bring lost sinners to himself.

Then Paul says that we should especially be alert to “meet pressing needs.” Obviously, no church or individual Christian can meet every need about which they become aware. But we must be prepared to meet urgent needs, doing what we can within the limits of our resources. Sometimes this may require special appeals and sacrificial giving on our part. At other times it may mean that we join hands with sister churches or organizations within our communities to address the need. And it may also require spe-cial times of intercession, since our prayers can be powerful and effective in addressing needs. In response to our prayers, the Lord may well supply through us and through others in ways we cannot anticipate.

Paul adds that God’s people should engage in good works “so that they will not be unfruitful.” Our kindness and self-sacrifice in meeting the needs of others produces spiritual fruit for which we will receive rewards, possi-bly sometimes in this life, but certainly someday in the life to come. In oth-er words, good works make good sense.

Brethren, the extraordinary needs of our congregations and communi-ties are our responsibility, especially in bad economic times. If your church doesn’t have a benevolence fund, perhaps you could encourage the leader-ship to start one. Perhaps your family can set aside some money for a fund to help others. Certainly pray for those who struggle with need, but then do more than pray . . . give.

If you need persuasive examples, read the stories of George Mueller, Amy Carmichael, Charles Spurgeon, or a host of other well-known saints. Spurgeon, for example, once said (paraphrasing Elijah in the Bible): “The God who answers with orphanages, let Him be God!” So . . . do right? Of course, always! But also, do good!

In all of the political bickering surrounding this election season, there has been agreement on one thing: the overriding challenge facing America is that of the weak economy, and the solution proposed by many is to get the American public spending again. To that end, our government has at-tempted to jump-start the economy with massive bailouts.

Political and economic rationale aside, there is a spiritual dimension that is almost entirely overlooked. We have built our society, not on pro-duction or thrift, but on consumption. In many cases this consumption has been virtually obscene—people buying luxuries they can’t afford because they yield to desires they can’t control. They want it; they even think they deserve it. So they get it—even if they can’t pay for it. What has been lost in all of this, as in so much of our lives, is the biblical virtue of self-denial.

Self-denial is the willingness first to please God, and then to please oth-ers at the expense of pleasing ourselves. The Lord Jesus Christ put it this way: “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me” (Mt 16:24)—that in the context of a person’s gaining the whole world and losing his own soul. The Apostle Paul charges the Christians at Rome in a similar way: “Each of us is to please his neigh-bor for his good, to his edification. For even Christ did not please Himself” (Rom 15:2-3a).

What does this mean? Well consider this. The Lord Jesus was willing to endure all manner of abuse, none of which He deserved, for the sake of sin-ners, so that He could die as an innocent sacrifice for sinners. He became our template: “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness” (1 Pet 2:24).

The problem here is that most of us Christians only think of salvation as being from sin and hell. Our daily lives, however, are largely devoted to pleasing ourselves. That’s true isn’t it? But a real Christianity is seen in liv-

ing the crucified life. Paul said it: “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live” (Gal 2:20). This means voluntarily surrendering ourselves to the cross—putting to death what Scripture calls the “old man” of self and sin. When we do so, self-denial becomes our way of life. It extends to everything in our lives, and that includes not only what is sinful, but also what is per-mitted and what is indifferent. We are no longer our own highest priority.

Self-denial begins by subjecting our bodies to the life of the cross; it means placing our bodies under subjection to Christ and refusing to satisfy every desire with which we are tempted. The key to this self-denial lies in our subjection to God’s Word. We refuse to reason our way out of compli-ance with Scripture, willingly sacrificing our own wisdom and fleshly judg-ment. We are ready humbly to hear God’s Word, learn from it, and live it.

But self-denial also operates at the very core of our beings. Our souls are subjected to the life of sacrifice; our passions and desires, the things we love and the things we hate, the things we want and the things we give up, are controlled by it. We find this hard to do because we live with divided hearts. That’s when we have to force ourselves to live in self-denial. The resulting pain comes from our reluctance. Once we surrender to it, howev-er, this life actually becomes a delightful privilege—the deeply satisfying joy of communion with Christ. Nothing is really a sacrifice if it is for Jesus.

Self-denial is not the cloistered life—the life of the monastery. It is the Christian’s ordinary life—lived out in his day-to-day existence. Isn’t there a degree of self-denial each time we do something to make someone else hap-py? Then why should we balk at living a life of selflessness when our su-preme object is to please the One who “did not please Himself”? As Andrew Murray has written: “What He was we must be. What He did we must do.”