Christianity Good Work

[wikey321]

Is Good works are the below too based on Christianity Bible teaching ? I have problem understanding the good works.

1. Charity
2. Thoughtful words (i.e. polite, patience, respectful and not Jealousy, Hypocrisy, Fraud, Denigration, Domineering etc). I assume anything came out from the mouth is a work?
3. Compassionate actions (i.e. helping others whom in need, uplifting others, encouraging, leadership, etc)

 

[disciple Clint]

Is Good works are the below too based on Christianity Bible teaching ? I have problem understanding the good works.

1. Charity
2. Thoughtful words (i.e. polite, patience, respectful and not Jealousy, Hypocrisy, Fraud, Denigration, Domineering etc)
3. Compassionate actions (i.e. helping others whom in need, uplifting others, encouraging, leadership, etc)

View attachment 329134

Good works are expressions of love, things done for other without any expectation of self benefit. If we love God we will obey His instruction to love one another.

 

[wikey321]

Good works are expressions of love, things done for other without any expectation of self benefit. If we love God we will obey His instruction to love one another.

So without good works as you mentioned then salvation can be granted as per picture i had posted?

 

[disciple Clint]

So without good works as you mentioned then salvation can be granted as per picture i had posted?

Good works are not a prerequisite for salvation, rather they are a result of salvation.

 

[ViaCrucis]

So without good works as you mentioned then salvation can be granted as per picture i had posted?

God saves because God graciously loves us and wants to save us. When you see a man stuck in a well and you rescue him, is it because the man stuck in a well did something that benefits you, or because the man needed your help?

God sees us broken and stuck in the well, and He--for no other reason than because He loves us--rescues us.

That's what salvation is, by the way, rescue. The Greek word the New Testament uses that is translated as "salvation" or "save" literally means "rescue". God rescues us. That's salvation.

Christ coming to earth and suffering and dying and rising is God's rescue mission for the world that He loves.

So good works are not about things we do for God, as though God benefits from them. God doesn't get hungry, so He doesn't need us to feed Him, He doesn't get thirsty, so He doesn't need us to give Him drink.

But our neighbor, our fellow human beings, they get hungry, thirsty, they need food, water, clothes, shelter, and compassion.

As God so loved us, He now says, "Go and do likewise". That's what good works are about.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[Bob Crowley]

When Paul was writing about "works" he had in mind the legalism of the Pharisees and all the "works" the Jews believed they had to do to gain salvation. I don't think he was primarily thinking about charitable work.

"Works" as we understand them - charity, caing for others, insisting on justice for others, assisting the downtrodden - are a result of faith, or if you like, faith in action.

 

[ViaCrucis]

When Paul was writing about "works" he had in mind the legalism of the Pharisees and all the "works" the Jews believed they had to do to gain salvation. I don't think he was primarily thinking about charitable work.

Yet Paul speaks, for example, in Titus 3:5 that it is not "by righteous works which we have done" that save us. We can't limit Paul's words about works to be exclusively "Jewish works". Paul really means works, including works of charity, which are really the only things that could be classified as "good works" (Galatians 5:14, 1 Corinthians 13:1-3).

"Works" as we understand them - charity, caing for others, insisting on justice for others, assisting the downtrodden - are a result of faith, or if you like, faith in action.

This I, and I feel confident saying this, Lutherans in general would agree with. This is why the Apostle says to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. Faith in action is love, love which produces good works, this is the new obedience which we have as followers of Jesus according to the new life we have received from God. Such are the product of freedom. Wherein works done to seek God's favor and earn righteousness for ourselves are not borne of freedom, but captivity. For the one who works to be righteous in the sight of God is condemned by his works, for the Law shows him to be a sinner, "that sin might be shown to be sin" (Romans 7:13). Instead, "But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code" (Romans 7:6), it is therefore in this:

"There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." - Romans 8:1-4

-CryptoLutheran

 

[Soyeong]

Is Good works are the below too based on Christianity Bible teaching ? I have problem understanding the good works.

1. Charity
2. Thoughtful words (i.e. polite, patience, respectful and not Jealousy, Hypocrisy, Fraud, Denigration, Domineering etc). I assume anything came out from the mouth is a work?
3. Compassionate actions (i.e. helping others whom in need, uplifting others, encouraging, leadership, etc)

View attachment 329134

God's law is His instructions for how to equip us to do every good work (2 Timothy 3:15-17). The issue is that there can be many reasons for doing good works, some of which are correct while others are not, so the Bible can speak against our justification requiring us to choose do good works that are done for incorrect reasons, such as in order to earn it as a wage (Romans 4:1-5), while also also speaking in favor of our justification requiring us to do good works for the right reasons, such as faith (Romans 2:13). Our salvation is from sin (Matthew 1:21) and sin is the transgression of God's law (1 John 3:4), so while we do not earn our salvation as the result of obeying it as if it were a wage, living in obedience to it through faith in Jesus is the content of the gift of him saving us from not living in obedience to it.

 

[Soyeong]

Good works are not a prerequisite for salvation, rather they are a result of salvation.

In Titus 2:11-14, our salvation is described as being trained by grace to do what is godly, righteous, and good, and to renounce doing what is ungodly, so doing these works is neither the prerequisite nor the result of salvation, but rather God graciously teaching us to do them is itself the content of His gift of saving us from not doing them.