Some food for thought from my sermon last Sunday: since all Christian’s are created for and called to do good works (Eph. 2:10), we should carefully consider what constitutes a good work.
My position is that good works have three essential components: love, wisdom, and action. Biblically and logically, any work without all three components cannot be a good work as intended.
The first is love: the willful desire for the best for another. You can think it through and apply your action, but if your works are done without love, they are not good, they are performative. Consider Isaiah’s (and Jesus’) complaint about false worship: “these people honor Me with their lips but their hearts are far from Me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely traditions of men.” (Matt. 15:8-9).
The second is action: the thing that makes a work a work is the doing of it. You may be wise and loving but if your hands do not toil, it is of no effect. This is the criticism often aimed at those who send “thoughts and prayers” only. Now this criticism is usually aimed at manipulating, but there is a truth behind it. As James says, “What good is it, brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds?… Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead” (James 2:14-17).
The third and most overlooked is wisdom: works in a good heart but with no connection to reality are foolish and can have the effect of evil. Consider helping a drug addict with money for food. A wise person would point out that you are simply enabling. On a larger scale, consider youth who want a world of equality but lack the wisdom to achieve it. Thus, they work to form monsters of communism and fascism instead of schools and businesses.
Peter is a constant example of loving actions with no wisdom- rebuking Jesus’ plans (Mark 8:33) or attacking people Jesus willfully submitted to (John 18:10-11). One instance had him working against God, the other had him acting in violence again God’s will.
For a work to be good we must have all three: love, wisdom, and action.
Hebrews 10:24 “Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works.”

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