Do good.
It seems such a simple statement. How many times a day do we say this to ourselves, our kids, maybe friend? But sometimes it's a hard road to walk. We get busy with life and frustrated with things, so doing good works is the last thing on our mind.
Enter the beautiful phrase in Titus that Paul writes:
"...our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us that He might redeem us from all lawlessness, and purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good works."
Titus 2:13b-14
How grateful can we be for such a statement in Titus 2? Christ gave Himself up for us to redeem us. Our sinful, lawless, wretched souls. In giving Himself up, He purified us and claimed us as His own and gave us a fire in our hearts to do good works.
James 2 tells us that faith without works is dead. Putting this verse from Titus together with James 2, it is very clear that God redeemed His people to belong to Him, and to glorify Him through good works. But, what does that look like in a practical sense?
We understand that these are directions to believers in the context of a body of believers. We are to be doing good to one another within the body. This can be expressed in a myriad of ways: praying for one another, checking on each other, making a meal for someone, helping with a project, being there in a time of need...just being a good participant of the body. And this can be a struggle sometimes. It's easy to close in on ourselves and not want to break out into other people's lives. Being hurt, tired, sick, or just rebellious: these things can lead to not "doing good" to the body of Christ.
That being said, if we look at the context of the reason we are to do good and see that it is meant to be an outpouring of what Christ has done for us in our lives, it makes it so much easier and more joyous.
May we always remember that our good works are dead if not for Jesus. But because of Him, may we have a ZEAL to love others!
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