“Do gooding” is antithetical to Gospel living. Christians certainly will be those who do good but our good deeds will increasingly flow from love, from right motive, from a transformed heart. We are called to love the Lord with all our heart, mind, & strength and that will lead to lived-out obedience to Him. Yet to do good without it being driven by love is sin and less than the Christian calling. Christians while delighting in doing good, should delight even more in showing mercy & forgiveness (driven by the mercy & forgiveness we have received) and even more our delight should be in loving God through bringing pleasure to Him.
Love mercy, do justice, and walk humbly with Thy God. Micah 6:8
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3 comments:
I found your site, because we have a favorite movie in common... Wit. Anyway, I was curious about how "to do good without it being driven by love is sin." Do you mean that good deeds motivated by pride or a desire to be rewarded or in order to get ahead are a sin? What about good deeds out of a sense of obligation? Just curious.
Aside: I am curious what about Wit you identified with.
Aside #2: That movie has moved me to love and read to my kids "The Runaway Bunny".
Regarding your question:
I am posting a response on my blog.
Thanks for engaging me and drawing me back to the blog. Sometimes pursuing authentic Christianity means, at least for me, sacrificing computer time to engage flesh-and-blood folks around me.
Over the past several years, I have spent some time working with some chronically ill children. I think it is because of those experiences that I like Wit. I love the way Wit examines death as a process. And I love that nurse, who doesn't seem very smart, but ultimately does more than anyone else to help Emma Thompson's character cope with her illness.
Hmmm. I guess to relate it to your original blog, the nurse is the character who's actions seem to be most motivated out of love (besides her professor, of course.) The doctor seems motivated by a sense of duty, and the resident is motivated by his desire to complete his residency and move on to his research.
Anyway, thanks for your response. You answered my original question quite thoroughly.
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