Some Key Words (3/27/03)

Engage (proistasthai [4291]):

a present infinitive, indicating a continuous and repeated action. | from pro: in front of, prior, and histemi: to stand. To stand before, preside, or practice. | to superintend, preside over. To be a protector or guardian. To care for, give attention to.

Pressing (anangkaias [316]):

from anagke: necessity. Something necessary due to some physical, moral, or spiritual need. Intimate or closely connected. | from anagke: constraint or distress, from ana: up, at, etc., and agkos: ache. Necessary, or close. | necessary, indispensable. Connected by bonds of friendship. What duty requires to be done. What conditions make imperative.

Needs (chreias [5532]):

from chraomai: to use. An occasion, use, or need. A necessary business. | from either chraomai: to furnish what is needed, give oracle, or chre: it must or should be. Employment, occasion, demand, requirement. | necessity or need. Duty or business.

Unfruitful (akarpoi [175]):

| from a: not, and karpos: fruit, from harpazo: to seize, from haireomai: to take for oneself. Barren. | without fruit. Not yielding what it should.

 

Paraphrase: (3/27/03)

14 Teach the people to do good works, for this not only meets the immediate need, but also bears fruit in their life.

Key Verse: (3/27/03)

3:14 - Be doers of good deeds. This is the means God chooses for meeting your needs.

People Mentioned: (3/27/03)

N/A

Some Parallel Verses (3/27/03)

3:14

Ti 2:8 - [Teach them to be] sound in speech, above all reproach, leaving no room for people to speak shamefully of them. Ti 3:8 - You can count on this, and should teach it with confidence: those who have believed God should take care to be busy in good works, for they are good for men. Ro 12:13 - Provide for the needs of the saints. Practice hospitality. Php 4:16 - You have more than once sent gifts to provide for my needs. Mt 7:19 - If a tree doesn't bear fruit, it is cut down and burned. Php 1:11 - You have been filled with the fruit of righteousness coming through Christ Jesus to glorify and bring praise to God. Col 1:10 - Walk as worthy of the Lord, pleasing Him in every way, bearing the fruit of every good work, and growing constantly in the knowledge of God.

 

New Thoughts (3/28/03)

The call here, and as the sampling of other verses shows, throughout Scripture, is to be active in our love. This, to my mind, is the very thing that defines a good work as good: it is an act motivated by love, even as God's actions towards us are motivated by His great love for us. We are called to reflect our Father in heaven. As all His works of providence reflect His loving nature, so all our actions should reflect the love He has 'shed abroad in our hearts.'

By this men will know we are His disciples, that we have love for each other (John 13:35). How will they know that we have such a love? It won't be because we walk through the streets of the city proclaiming our love to each other. That would merely mark us as goofballs or worse in the minds of those who watched such silliness. No, the world will know that love because it is active. It is displayed not in empty words, but in meaningful acts.

Such active love will not just look upon the needs of those around us and shake its head in sorrow. It will do something about it. It will seek to help, recognizing that God has put us in this place at this time to see this situation and be the solution in His power. As we take up the task of doing those deeds God has put before us, His power will be displayed, and it will be recognized. He will be glorified as His people get about the hard task of being like Him in deed. When we reach the place where such a reaction to the pressing needs around us is our habit, then that power of God we hear that people are looking for will have been found.

When faced with such active goodness, those still caught in the darkness will see a great light, and seeing that light, they will be drawn to it. No pamphlet campaign, no presentation of movies, no confrontational sidewalk morality plays are going to have such an impact. Indeed, is there anything in the Scriptures to support such activities? I'll not say conclusively that there is not, but what I do see is that there are any number of calls for us to be busy in doing good. Not talking about good, not writing about good, not thinking about good, but doing good.

That is the call to the believer. That is the power of the Gospel to turn worlds upside down. That is the fruit that must flow from a true believer's life. Every call to love that we find in John's writings is a call to this doing of good, for love cannot help but do what is good, cannot help but find ways to supply the need. Throughout Paul's writings, he urges his churches back to active works. Why? Do works save, after all? Not at all! Works promote the glory of the God who saved us. Works display the reality of the change He has wrought within us. Works fulfill, in the life of the believer, the greatest of God's commandments: to love Him (shown here in doing what He has asked us to do), and to love our fellow man (shown here in caring for them, actively caring for them).

The social gospel that became so prevalent amongst the liberal churches in the seventies was not completely wrong. Bad doctrine rarely is. What happened was that they lost sight of the gospel in their anxiousness to do these good works. Their works became null and void again because they left God out of it. It became an outgrowth of the flesh rather than the Spirit. How are we to know the difference, then? Where is the line? Paul tells us that God has prepared good works specifically for each one of us, planned them out (and planned us out), to coincide so that we are there at the right moment to do what needs doing. He has prepared us, through the tutelage of the Holy Spirit, to do what needs doing. He works within us to see that we are willing to do what needs doing, and He works within us to do what needs doing. What an awesome God! What an awesome privilege for every believer, that God will accomplish His great deeds through us! What a powerful witness when we begin to truly and actively reflect the God we serve.

Oh my Lord, how slothful we have become in pursuing the things You have for us to do! Forgive us that we have grown so callous to the pain and suffering around us every day. Forgive us that we have not been more active in bringing Your love to bear on that pain. Indeed, my God, train us, train me, to have the habit of doing good to those around me. Work in me, my God. Work in me to see Your will be done. May You find in me a willing vessel, well pleased to do Your will, well prepared for Your use.