Thank you.
If I think I love my neighbour in action, but by doing so, I’m slowly destroying the environment - air, water, soil, flora and fauna - and accumulated actions over the time cause big problems like climatic disaster or famine or w or even risk complete extinction to the descendants of my neighbour, can it be considered loving?
I mean, avoid doing that if you can help it, but yes, loving your neighbor--even if you are unaware of all possible consequences, is the right thing to do.
We recognize that our good works are always small and meager. That's why works cannot justify us before God and "doing good works for God" doesn't really mean anything. Even our most noble of works are always going to be contaminated by good old fashioned run-of-the-mill sin.
This is why understanding the proper place and purpose of good works is important.
On the one hand, the more honest we are with ourselves and about ourselves, the more we see the insufficiency of our works. Sometimes, maybe even most of the time, my best efforts seem to fall short. Good intentions might have unforeseen bad consequences. Or maybe, if I'm honest with myself, I acknowledge that I could have done better, or I could have done something else that would have been preferable. Any number of possibilities exist here. And if we let ourselves start to be overwhelmed by this, we start to drown in our own guilt. It leads us to despair, hopelessness, it's destructive.
That's why the Law cannot save anyone. There is no remedy to the guilt-ridden conscience of the sinner found in good works.
That's why the Gospel declares sinners forgiven, on account of Christ's righteousness. A righteousness that is made theirs by a free gift of God's compassionate and merciful love-kindness toward sinners. The Gospel declares forgiveness of sins, and gives faith by which to cling to God's promise of forgiveness in Jesus.
Thus as Paul says in Romans 1:16-17, "
I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God to save all who trust, the Jew first and also the Greek; by it the justice of God is revealed from faith to faith, just as it is written, 'The just shall walk by faith.'"
The righteousness or justice that is by faith is the freely given righteousness of Jesus, imputed to sinners. The sinner is reckoned righteous on Christ's account.
And in the freedom of conscience before God which is ours because of this forgiveness and grace received; to take that freedom to take up our own cross as disciples of Jesus. And thus good works are works of freedom in faith, for the sake of our neighbor.
It's not about the quantity, or even the quality, of those works. What matters is did my neighbor get fed? Did my neighbor receive drink? The question of whether the work is "good enough" for God is already done and dealt with--the answer is the imputed justice received through faith in Jesus Christ which is freely found in God's grace, given through the Gospel. All that remains is, where is my neighbor, that I may love them? And turns out, we're surrounded by neighbors. Friends, family, co-workers, strangers. The world is filled with over 7 billion neighbors.
It's not about acting big to impress anyone. It's about loving our neighbor. That includes not being a jerk to our friends and acquaintances, or random people you talk to on the internet. Or offering a hug when your friend really needs a hug. The call to take up that cross and love, to deny self, to say no to our pride, to exercise our bodily members--our mouths, our eyes, our hands and feet--to acts of kindness, love, and justice. Blessed are the poor, blessed are those who mourn, blessed is the peacemaker; love your enemies, turn the other cheek, walk the extra mile.
In this, though we continue to sin and fail and falter, we nevertheless fulfill the Law (Galatians 5:14), not by our righteousness measuring up to an impossible standard; but because God promises that, somehow, in someway, all of these broken things will be put back together.
"For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." - Ephesians 2:10
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Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain." - 1 Corinthians 15:58
-CryptoLutheran
