SHARING
By Iggi Khomasurya
St. Paul talked about the wicked person
who married his father’s wife and the “Church people” did not put
him away but kept his company. I am sure that the Church people
thought they were doing “good” by keeping neighborly association
with the man and his wife, but yet they sinned according to Paul
– “Do you not know that
a little yeast makes the whole mass of dough rise?”
(1 Corinthians 5:6b) Leaven
in the Old Testament was a symbol for “sin.”
Thus, we could be doing good and yet be doing wrong in GOD’s eyes. I searched for a clear cut formula on how to discern to do good in the right way. I found the answer while attending a training session on “Preparing for Disaster.” The trainer believed the Revelation prophecies will occur and thus embarked on getting many Churches’ people ready for disasters by training them on how to assist in disaster situations. A participant asked, “What is the purpose of this training?” The instructor replied, “To build GOD’s Kingdom, not Other People’s Kingdom nor My Own Kingdom. After a disaster, taking care of people’s immediate physical needs is important and that we must do, but if we stop there and not see that people’s salvation is paramount in the end, we are not building GOD’s Kingdom.” And so, our motive and objective while doing “good” need to be building GOD’s Kingdom. We need to pray for the right motive or we could stray and do “good” the wrong way.
Right Motive
Many times, my self-interest propelled me to do “good” with no thoughts of building GOD’s Kingdom. I remember becoming a Mass server. There was no leader. So I simply “took over” the Mass servers, organized, trained them well and scheduled them so there was never any Mass without servers. I supposed in my young mind I was doing good. But in hindsight, the motive was wrong. I was building my own, not GOD’s Kingdom.
I kept on doing good the wrong way and became an expert at “wrongness”, until that day when I learned to distinguish between right from wrong motives. Since then I always ask: “In doing good, is my motive to build: (1) GOD’s; (2) Other people’s; or (3) My own Kingdom?”
Right Objective
Romans 7:18b explains the inner conflict between our two natures: “...for to will is present with me; but to how to perform that which is good I find not”. To will was Paul’s attitude but to perform (to accomplish) that which is good, he could not realize. How can I do it well then? I realized, I needed to focus on doing the Father’s will - as expounded in the Our Father’s prayer “...Your Kingdom come, Your will be done.” This is clearly emphasized again; when many claimed to do good works in Jesus’ Name, yet Jesus said “Depart from me you evildoers” because only they “…that does the will of the Father” are welcomed in Heaven. (Matthew 7:21-23) What then, is the Father’s will? It is the Salvation of Mankind. GOD wanted everyone to be with Him forever in Heaven. “For GOD so loved the world, that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him may not be lost but may have eternal life.” (John 3:16) We must believe that Jesus is the only way to Heaven. We must therefore listen to Jesus. His last instruction on earth was: “Go out to the whole world and proclaim the Good News to all creation.” (Mark 16:15) Therefore, nowadays I always ask: “What is the end objective of any organization’s good work?” It has to be “to evangelize” - spread the Good News, bring people into repentance and salvation; and build GOD’s Kingdom, not just to do “good.”
Prayer
In all things and at all times, I now pray to the Holy Spirit for guidance – guidance for the right motive of building GOD’s Kingdom; guidance for the right objective of bringing people to salvation and guidance for doing the right deeds. I believe, if we do so, we will lay up “treasures in Heaven” for our doing “good” on earth and not be turned away by Jesus at the end.