A man commits armed robbery and gets sent to prison for 15 years. He pays his debt to society and gets out. I want to consider four different possibilities that might happen after his release. I’m labeling them bad, good, gooder, goodest.
Bad
Under this scenario the felon leaves prison and again commits a crime, say another robbery, and gets sent back to prison. Criminologists call this recidivism, the tendency of a convicted criminal to reoffend.
Definitely a bad outcome.
Good
In this case, the felon returns to society, gets a job, pays his taxes, obeys the law and becomes a self supporting citizen. When this happens, society jumps for joy and considers the man a fantastic success.
Definitely a good outcome.
Gooder
But from a Christian perspective, something even better could happen. The felon comes to know the Lord, perhaps in prison, as some do. He then gets out, gets a job, pays his taxes, obeys the law, and becomes a self supporting citizen. But he also joins a church, worships regularly, gets involved with other Christians, and develops a personal walk with God.
I’m calling this outcome “gooder” than good.
Goodest
Many Christians would consider the former result the best possible outcome for the felon. But according to Scripture, there is something even better than gooder. It’s the “goodest” outcome of all.
In this scenario, the felon gets out of prison, becomes an outstanding citizen and a faithful, godly Christian man. But then he does something even more: he finds someone with a long term need, say a widow or single mom, and starts helping that person by giving her some of his hard earned money. In other words, he not only no longer robs, he reverses the effect of his robbery and gives instead.
This is how the Word of God describes this type of outcome:
“Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need.” (Ephesians 4:28, NIV, emphasis mine)
The problem we face in churches today is that we tend to equate being a good Christian (attending church, etc.) with being a good citizen (working hard, obeying the law). When the church confuses the two, it forgets the importance of meeting the needs of both its own and those outside the church. And when we do, we miss out on the goodest possible outcome of all.
And that’s not good.
This post first appeared in NewCommandment.org.
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