Tuesday
Feb 12,2002
"Daily
Devotions" Luke 9:38 ¶
Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain
village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her
house.
"WHEN IS IT WRONG TO DO GOOD"
39 And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at
Jesus' feet, and heard his word.
40 But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to
him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left
me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me.
41 And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha,
thou art careful and troubled about many things:
42 But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good
part, which shall not be taken away from her.
Four things to look at here
1. It is wrong to do right when: My
motives are not pleasing to God. People work their selves to death
try to do some good for humanity and thinking they are doing God a
favor, when all the time their motive is wrong and God does not
bless that kind of work, he only lets you do good in your own
power. Martha, I have no doubt was saved, and the thing she was
doing was a good thing, she was fixing a meal for her saviour, But
her motive was wrong when she told Jesus he did not care that she
had to do it alone, she humiliated her sister in front of the
master. And also she was complaining about what God had her doing.
The thing she was doing had diverted her from worshiping God.
2. It is wrong to do good when
I think doing something good makes me spiritual, Work does not
make one spiritual, Spirituality is a relationship with Jesus. you
can do all kinds of work for God and be pleasing to him if you are
first in a relationship with him, God's salvation is By
Grace and is a gift from God, and there has been instances where
someone got saved and died and went to Heaven immediately after
salvation. When you got saved God could have taken you to Heaven
right then, and you would not have done anything for God, But that
is not the normal way God works in the life of a believer, God
does not give A salvation by grace that does not work: But work
does not bring salvation.
3. It is wrong to do good when
everything I do becomes the norm for everyone else; In other words
if you are doing a work for Jesus and you think everyone else
should be doing the same thing you are in order to be right with
God it is wrong for you to do it. God made every one of us
different we all have different jobs in the kingdom, each one must
do the job God called him to do and most of the time do it alone,
because you are responsible to God for your Actions not the
actions of others, so don't get all bogged down when other people
are not doing things the way you think they should.
4. It is wrong to do Good when doing
good divests me from doing my best. God wants us to give him our
best, why is it when you think you are doing good for someone and
you want to give them something, you will go to your closet and
get something you have that you don't like or something you will
never wear or that you have worn it out and give it to them. Do
you think that pleases God. God Gave his best for you, should we
not give our best to God. May I remind you of a verse of
scripture:
Mt 25:40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily
I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least
of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. We
are to give God our best in worship first and then in works,
Don't get the cart before the horse, the cart is not the
power, the horse is. If you are doing work for God and it is not
producing fruit, you are doing good work but not the best work,
the best work produces fruit, and is done when the power is in the
right place. Worship produces fruit, work produces results that
can be good or bad, Goodness without God is worse than badness.
Let me ask you a question, How is your, prayer life, how is your
witnessing, how is your Bible studying, these are the things that
produce fruit. Most of us spend all our time doing good but not
worshiping. It is wrong when my work comes before my worshiping.
Good things are not always the best things. sometimes we get to
busy to pay attention to God. In Gen 3:28 God told us to be
fruitful, not busy, one must work to eat and one must worship to
live, I am being busy in stead of being fruitful, Let me
give you an example, I am busy all week visiting people and trying
to get them to come to church or to ride the bus to church where
they can hear the gospel and get saved, But I am not fruitful, why
because the fruit of a Christian is another Christian, Jesus said,
I have chosen you that you should go forth and bear much fruit and
that your fruit shall remain. Getting people to ride a bus, come
to church to have a house full should never be our motive for
witnessing. We need to let go of those things that keep us from
worshiping. If you are beating a dead horse then get rid of the
carcass. A bible study that has become a duty instead of producing
fruit, is a dead horse. Let go of things that keep you from
worshiping God. Martha probably regretted what she had said to
Jesus But I am sure she asked forgiveness and got it from The
saviour.
I said there were four things, but here is another one for free:
5. It is wrong to do good: when a
man is up to his head in debt and cannot pay the bills he has, and
uses his credit card to put money into the hand of a charity, or
to give money to someone in need. There are a lot of other things
you could give them like Peter and John said, " Silver and
Gold have I none but such as I have give I thee, If you don't have
it don't give it. God wont bless it. You Have Jesus give them Him.
Give a man a fish an he will eat today, give him a fishing pole
and teach him to fish and he will eat the rest of his life and
feed others.
The Potter's Clay
Jim Haga