A Holy Charge (16)

 

 

“See that no one repays another with evil for evil, but always seek after that which is good for one another and for all people” (1 Thess. 5:15).

 

As I write this it is early morning, the sun has yet to rise, it is dark and quiet on our cul-de-sac. There are nine other homes on our street, and on the dead-end street that leads to our cul-de-sac are seven other homes. An element of our morning prayer together is, “Lord, help us to be a blessing to others. Please make us a blessing to others.” As we make this request to our Lord Jesus the people who live in these sixteen homes are very much in our hearts and minds, we want to do good to them, we want to be a blessing to them and others in our neighborhood.

 

One of the things I miss about the workplace is the opportunity to do good to others; to coworkers, customers, suppliers, and vendors. In the workplace I engaged with people throughout the day, people to whom I could seek to do good.

 

When my friend Bruce Harrison moved from Fredericksburg to Richmond, VA, he visited a number of dry cleaners, looking for one to which he could take his shirts. He had one question for each one, “What business are you in?”

 

One after another the response was, “We are in the dry cleaning business.” At each of these responses Bruce left the establishment, knowing that was not the one for him.

 

Finally he found the response he was seeking, “We are in the service business. We are here to serve our customers.”

 

In much the same way, are we not in the “doing good to others” business? That is, are we not to live our lives seeking to do good to others, to bless others, to encourage others, to give to others?

 

“So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of faith” (Gal.  6:10).

 

Since we are to live in koinonia in Christ as His People, since we are to share life together in Him, it is natural that we will especially do good to those with whom we are in intimate relationship; just as a husband ought to especially do good to his wife, and the wife ought to especially do good to her husband, and parents ought to especially do good to their children. A fruit of the members of the Body of Christ doing good to one another is that they also do good to all people, that blessing flows from the People of God to the people of their street, their neighborhood, their broader community, to the ends of the world.

 

What would it look like if churches sought the good of other churches? If churches sought the good of their communities, and sought the good of those beyond their communities?

 

Paul writes, “Let us not lose heart in doing good” (Gal. 6:9). We give because our heavenly Father gives. We do good because our heavenly Father does good, “causing the sun to rise on the evil and the good, sending rain on the righteous and the unrighteousness” (Mt. 5:45). We cannot control what others do, but we can control (by God’s grace) what we do, we can decide (by God’s grace) to do good to all people.