Title: Standards of Good Deeds (Romans 1:17)
Contents
I. What is the standard for my good deeds?
God has given us the supreme commandment that God has given us, the complete commandment of this law: “Love God and love your neighbor as yourself.”
However, as we live our religious life, God has made us so that our personalities can grow in the image of the Lord while always dealing with people and practicing dealing with the Lord. Therefore, the person I am dealing with is dealing with the Lord.
Nevertheless, since we forget this and deal only with people, we make many mistakes, that is, we do not love God and love our neighbor as God wants us to do, and we often commit sins and do many things that do not please God and disappoint Him.
In this matter, I have a lot to look at from many angles, but in this time, I only look at the standards of good deeds. If our standards of good works are right, we will have to practice them with patience. You should do the work of doing good with normal standards as you wish.
I can divide this good deed into several stages, but I would like to think about it by dividing it into three stages. First, doing good deeds according to what the person I meet is doing to me, then doing good deeds by setting my own standards regardless of the other person, and finally, receiving the guidance of the Holy Spirit regardless of the will of the other person and me. Therefore, we are going to look at the three stages of doing good deeds through faith.
II. The three steps of good deeds
i. good deeds according to the other
First of all, I think that this standard is the standard for the most good deeds for us members. How the other person treats me will change the way I behave towards that person. For example, if the other person is nice to me, I will do it too, and if the other person harms me (when they cheated or harassed me in both ways), I also tell him, in our words, “You don’t even have broth.” You can easily find the way he treats you by drawing a cool line.
Also, if the other person is nice to me, I will also be nice to him, so I can see how we get along well with each other. This can be said to be the driving force behind the gathering of each other.
It is easy to discover that this method is the most elementary standard of good deeds and is far from God's standard. From the point of view of Christ Jesus, who judges good and evil according to what he has done, he will be judged as “You are playing well”.
ii. self-centered standards
What is slightly better than the previous example is that now, regardless of the situation of the other party, we can find that we can do good by setting our own standards. A typical example of this example is a parent dealing with their child, a teacher dealing with their disciples, and the way Jehovah's Witnesses deal with those who oppose and slander their witnesses with laughter without being angry. to be found, etc. Besides this, you can see many people doing good deeds according to this standard. The gaze of the person who sees such a person will be evaluated quite favorably.
However, if we examine this criterion carefully, we find that there is a very high evil lurking in it. When Adam ate of the forbidden fruit, he rebuked him, saying, “We have become like one of us in the knowledge of good and evil.” This was the standard of good deeds in which he was expelled from the Garden of Eden, which God had created.
This is because it is not a standard of faith that is directed toward God, God-centered, and guided by the Holy Spirit. This is also an object of rebuke to our God, no matter how many good deeds we do or how long we do good deeds. It will not pass the judgment.
iii. good deeds by faith
Then, the final standard to look at is not the same standard as in the previous two examples, but a standard based on faith, following the guidance of the Holy Spirit, no matter what kind of person or situation you meet. The representative of this standard is Jesus, Daniel’s dealings with the king, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego’s dealings with the king, Abraham’s choice against Lot, Stephen’s dealings with Saul, and Paul’s dealings with the king. It was the standard for all who persecuted him.
This standard was the way one had to deny oneself, and it was the way of the cross. In some cases, it is a path that we have to walk while weeping endlessly, it is a path that we must go through with forgiveness and love even after suffering a lot of material damage to save the other person, and it is a path that cannot be walked without giving up even our lives.
However, if it is the training process and refinement process in which God and God's promises and the atonement of Jesus are considered and He wants to raise us as people who resemble the Lord in the end, it is necessary to have material, work, time, material, work, time, and It is the path that we must carry the cross with a joyful heart, not only focusing on our body and mind, but also saying that death is justified, and it is the path we can take.
Our goal is to grow up to this point, and this is the path we have to walk this time as well.
This step is the path that God is with, and although it looks like the way of the cross from the outside, it is a prosperous path because God is with him. When Joseph took this step, didn't Potiphar's house, prison, the whole of Egypt, and Jacob's family enjoy God's blessing because of Joseph? This is the fulfillment of the promise made to Abraham that all peoples under the world will be blessed through you.
However, if you give up and go on this road because it is the way of the cross, when Jonah tells you to go to Nineveh and cry out the gospel of repentance (a vicarious love to fulfill God's love for Nineveh through Jonah), when you turn away from that path and go your own way, because of Jonah All the things on the ship were thrown into the sea, and their lives were in jeopardy.
Even today, it is revealing to us that if we do not follow this path of faith, all who go on a boat with him because of the saint will suffer material, religious, and life losses.
III. Let's have a standard of faith
Therefore, we believers, from this time on, do not care what the people we meet do to me, and follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit who comes to me and leads us to the truth, so that the Holy Spirit becomes our active person, and we become the passive person. We should become those who follow the path of faith, that is, have the standard of good works of faith, dedicate their heart, strength, will, and life to practice the love of God and brotherly love, and end their life as a stranger and martyrdom.
In order to do that, we must not imitate this generation who lives by this evil standard, but we must constantly read the Bible, pray, pay close attention, find the good will of God and walk in obedience. At that time, he said that he would provide for the rest of the food, clothing, and shelter and for all of us.
Win.