Good deeds that bring God glory

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Sudsy
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Good deeds that bring God glory

Post by Sudsy »

The verse - Matthew 5:16 - 'In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.'

In another thread it was mentioned that sin is anything that falls short of the glory of God. This is taken from Romans 3:23 - 'for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God'. We all sin or miss the mark of representing God's glory.

In Matthew 5 we are to be shining lights or reflections of God's glory and Matthew 5:16 says we do this by our good deeds.

The part of this verse I would like to explore is the last of verse 16 - 'so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.'

This seems to me to have a dimension to good deeds that goes beyond many good deeds done in this world where the doer or organization often gets the glory.

What do you think is this difference that would actually cause those watching and/or being blessed by these good deeds to actually recognize this is God at work in the deed doer and give God the glory ? And when a good deed does not bring this response of giving God glory, did these deeds miss the mark and actually were sin in the sense that God did not get the glory ?
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Hats Off
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Re: Good deeds that bring God glory

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I met a local politician who was campaigning for reelection and told him that while I appreciated the work they were doing, I wouldn't be voting in the election. He was a business man that a number of our people had dealings with in the past and was well acquainted with how we lived. His response was "You people do much for the community already without voting." He recognized the reputation for honesty and generosity that we had earned. Living in an area where farming was in a depressed state, he also recognized the contribution we had made to the local economy. As a nominal christian, he also saw the witness we left in the community and could give God the honour.
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Re: Good deeds that bring God glory

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If the good works were done with the express intention of drawing honour to self, it probably won't bring God glory.
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Sudsy
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Re: Good deeds that bring God glory

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Hats Off wrote:I met a local politician who was campaigning for reelection and told him that while I appreciated the work they were doing, I wouldn't be voting in the election. He was a business man that a number of our people had dealings with in the past and was well acquainted with how we lived. His response was "You people do much for the community already without voting." He recognized the reputation for honesty and generosity that we had earned. Living in an area where farming was in a depressed state, he also recognized the contribution we had made to the local economy. As a nominal christian, he also saw the witness we left in the community and could give God the honour.
This is a wonderful reputation and yet I can say something similar about non-Christian efforts by certain organizations within my community. What I am curious about, and I could be wrong, it has happened :) , is that verse 16 seems to say to me that the good deeds we do as Christians, will in some way out shine those of non-Christians to a point where they recognize God is behind these and will actually give God the glory and not us.

I spent a year in the Salvation Army who are one of the most outstanding group of Christians in good deeds and very often I hear praise for them by non-believers but it is always how good the SA is as an organization. I don't hear the glory of what they do given to God by those watching. My question is 'why not ? If this verse saying our light shining will be such that non-believers will actually recognize God at work in us ? Occasionally, I have heard the phrase for instance 'he is a fine Christian man' which could be close yet still points to the man.

What I'm wondering is if there is something missing in how we shine our lights through our good deeds that others will recognize as different from those other non-Christian efforts that are similar. This text also says we should be like a city on a hill that is quite obvious and to not hide our lights under a bushel. Could we be hiding our lights by not pointing to God in our doing of good deeds enough that people admit that it is God at work.

If I am reading too much into this text, I would like to hear how others interpret it.
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Sudsy
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Re: Good deeds that bring God glory

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Hats Off wrote:If the good works were done with the express intention of drawing honour to self, it probably won't bring God glory.
So, could this be a reason that we don't see greater impact of light disturbing the darkness as it should ? In other words, we are more concerned about the glory associated with good deeds coming to ourselves or to our church group and that is what hides God getting the glory ?

What else could this verse mean if it doesn't mean that our good deeds should have the impact that people see God at work in us to the point were they give God the glory ? I know this seems quite remarkable, at least it does to me, that this is the kind of impact we should be making through good deeds.
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Re: Good deeds that bring God glory

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I don't believe we should be thinking of our "good works." We should be living and doing what needs to be done; this should come naturally to us; then our "good works" can bring glory to where glory is due. When we do what we do without giving much thought to good deeds, God will receive the glory.
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Sudsy
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Re: Good deeds that bring God glory

Post by Sudsy »

Hats Off wrote:I don't believe we should be thinking of our "good works." We should be living and doing what needs to be done; this should come naturally to us; then our "good works" can bring glory to where glory is due. When we do what we do without giving much thought to good deeds, God will receive the glory.
Sorry, I see others agree with you but I don't follow why this text exists if it is just something that comes 'naturally' to us and we don't need to think about the impact of our light shining through our good deeds. Imo, we can be doing 'what needs to be done' and in the way we are doing it, it is not having the impact of how these good deeds as light shining in darkness is to impact those observing.

Anyway, I'll close with this verse that seems to me that we do need to consider the 'how' in a more detailed way to see the impact regarding our good works -
And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works - Hebrews 10:24

Thanks for the replies.
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Re: Good deeds that bring God glory

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I think we look at letting our lights shine as something we do unconsciously as we quietly go about faithfully doing what we are called to do. I think when we consciously try to make our lights shine, we are drawing the attention to ourselves, not to God. I think it says "so let your lights shine" not make your lights shine. We are also not to intentionally hide our light by hiding it under a bushel nor should we dim our light by actions not suitable for a professing believer.

I hope I am explaining what i feel.
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Sudsy
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Re: Good deeds that bring God glory

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Hats Off wrote:I think we look at letting our lights shine as something we do unconsciously as we quietly go about faithfully doing what we are called to do. I think when we consciously try to make our lights shine, we are drawing the attention to ourselves, not to God. I think it says "so let your lights shine" not make your lights shine. We are also not to intentionally hide our light by hiding it under a bushel nor should we dim our light by actions not suitable for a professing believer.

I hope I am explaining what i feel.
OK, I think I follow what you are saying. I'll try to give it my own wording to see if I do. I think you are saying that if we focus on allowing God to shine His light through us as we faithfully follow His guidance, that light will come across as His light and not be an attention getter to ourselves. When I read your post this verse came to mind - 'for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure' - Philippians 2:13. I am hiding His light from shining through me when I am doing or not doing things that are not reflections of His glory.

I'm still kinda stuck on the last part of the verse that seems to suggest if God's light is shining through me as it should through good deeds, that the observers of this will actually give God the praise or glory for what they are seeing. In that sense, I must be doing things and not doing things to co-operate and allow God's light to make this kind of response.

This is how the Living Bible puts it -

You are the world’s light—a city on a hill, glowing in the night for all to see. Don’t hide your light! Let it shine for all; let your good deeds glow for all to see, so that they will praise your heavenly Father.


I just found this link that talks about the 'how' in light shining and thought it gives us good advice on the subject, especially the part of having a heart that desires to live to bring God glory -

https://billygraham.org/story/shine/
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Re: Good deeds that bring God glory

Post by KingdomBuilder »

Perhaps it's not the nature of the good deed or anything we may do, but instead could be viewed as that when we, Christians, do good deeds, the Holy Spirit makes it known that the glory is Gods.
Rivers of living water aren't living because of us- it's the Spirit.
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