Let’s review what we learned from the Old Testament about the difference between unique, or individual, good works and communal good works.
We learned from our review of the Old Testament that God’s good works fall into two basic categories: unique good works and communal good works. Unique good works are those good works that God calls individual believers to do in their particular time, place, and circumstances. Communal good works are good works that God calls all believers, in all times and places, to do together as an expression of their covenant relationship with him. As such, unique good works promote the purpose of God (the means to the end), while communal good works promote the character of God and the healing of the community (the end itself).
We now come to the practice and teaching of God’s good works in the gospels.
The gospels are both a summation of Old Testament teaching about good works, as well as a precursor to the rest of the New Testament’s teaching about good works. The gospels summarize the problem as to why communal good works failed to materialize to any great extent in Old Testament times: that is, sin that flows from a sinful nature. Fortunately, the gospels also provide us with the solution for how God’s good works can be performed by a community of believers in the future: regeneration of the human heart through faith in Christ as God’s provision for our sin.
Since I have already covered Jesus’ practice of good works in the gospels as the Incarnate Son of God, I will focus on how believers who lived lives that intersected with Jesus’ life performed their good works.
Examples of believers practicing God’s good works in the gospels
Matthew 1:18-25 – Joseph obeys an angel and takes Mary as his wife and Jesus as his son
Matthew 1:18–25; Luke 2:1-7 – Mary gives birth to Jesus
Matthew 2:1-12 – The Magi come from the east and worship the child Jesus
Matthew 2:13-18 – Joseph obeys the angel and takes Mary and the child Jesus to Egypt
Matthew 2:19-23 – Joseph obeys the angel of the Lord, returns to Israel, and settles in Nazareth with Mary and Jesus
Matthew 3:1-12; Mark 1:1-8; Luke 3:1-20; John 1:15-34 – John the Baptist preaches repentance and baptism to the nation of Israel
Matthew 3:13-16; Mark 1:9-11 – John baptizes Jesus
Matthew 9:1–8; Mark 2:1-12; Luke 5:17–26 – Four friends bring a paralyzed man to be healed by Jesus
Matthew 10:1–15 and Mark 6:7–13; Luke 9:1-9 – The twelve disciples go out to proclaim the kingdom of heaven, heal the sick, and drive out demons
Matthew 14:1-2; Mark 6:14-29 – John the Baptist boldly preaches to Herod about his unrighteous marriage and suffers martyrdom
Matthew 15:21-28 – The Canaanite woman exercises great faith
Matthew 16:13-20; Mark 8:27-30; Luke 9:8-20 – Peter declares that Jesus is the Messiah
Matthew 21:1-11; Mark 11:1-11; Luke 19:28-44; John 12:12-19 – Jesus received into Jerusalem by the crowd as a king
Matthew 26:6-13; Mark 14:1-11; Luke 7:36-50; John 12:3 – Instances of people anointing Jesus’ head and feet with expensive oils and perfume
Matthew 27:57-61; Mark 15:42-47 – Joseph of Arimathea buries Jesus’ body in his own tomb
Matthew 28:1-10; Mark 16:1-8 – Mary Magdalene and “the other Mary” become the first witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus Christ
Mark 12:41; Luke 21:1-4 – A widow donates two very small copper coins to the temple
Luke 1:1-4 – Luke writes an historical account of the ministry of Jesus
Luke 1:26-28 – Mary accepts her role as the birth mother of Jesus
Luke 1:45-55 – Mary’s Magnificat
Luke 1:56-66 – Zechariah names his son John as the angel commanded him
Luke 1:68-80 – Zechariah sings his song of praise to God
Luke 2:8-20 – Shepherds report their vision to Joseph and Mary
Luke 2:22-40 – Joseph and Mary take the baby Jesus to the temple, where Simeon and Anna prophecy about the baby
Luke 7:1-10 – The Centurion exercises great faith
Luke 10:1-24 – The ministry of the 72 disciples
Luke 10:25-37 – The good Samaritan saves the life of the waylaid Jew
Luke 19:1-10 – Zacchaeus gives half of his possessions to the poor
John 1:40-42 – Andrew brings his brother Simon Peter to Jesus
John 1:43-51 – Philip brings his brother Nathaniel to Jesus
John 4:1-42 – The Samaritan woman testifies about Jesus
John 6:9 – A boy donates five small barley loaves and two small fish to feed five thousand
An explosion of God’s good works done (mostly) by ordinary people
We see in this list both unique, individual good works (by Joseph and Mary, the Magi, the shepherds, Joseph of Arimathea, John the Baptist, etc.) and communal good works (by the Good Samaritan, the boy with five loaves and two fish, Andrew and Philip bringing their brothers to Jesus, the Samaritan woman testifying about Jesus, etc.). The first group of people do their good works in obedience to our Lord and in preparation for his coming kingdom. The second group do their good works as examples of what it is like to live in that kingdom here on earth.
But with the exception of the Magi, Zacchaeus, the centurion, and Joseph of Arimathea, all of these believers were ordinary people with nondescript backgrounds.
The people doing God’s good works experience a sudden and radical change in their view of spiritual reality as they do them
As they do their good works, all of these individuals are drawn out of their merely physical, mundane lives and into the spiritual and supernatural world of God’s “workshop,” where they personally see God at work and participate with him in accomplishing his work.
God’s good works involve love for God, faith in him and in his Son, compassion for others, obedience to God’s directives, and awe at his power and sovereignty
Sometimes these good works result from a spontaneous outpouring of love for God (those who anointed Jesus’ head and feet, the woman at the well), and sometimes believers are directly instructed to perform them by angels (Joseph, Mary, the Shepherds, the Magi, Mary and “the other Mary” at the tomb). In either case, the people who do these good works know with certainty that their good works are pleasing to God.
All of these good works fit perfectly into the outworking of God’s plan
God’s good works are like pieces in a puzzle. Each piece is different. They all have a unique and useful purpose in comprising the overall picture that the completed puzzle portrays.
The same is true with the individual good works we are considering here. These good works are all very different, but they all play a central role in the outworking of the Incarnation and in Redemption.
Often, these “actors” in God’s grand design have no idea what the implications of their good works are
To continue our puzzle analogy, a completed puzzle exists in two dimensions. But it takes a third dimension to see the entire puzzle all at once and make sense of it.
The same is true with God’s good works. The biblical participants during the time of Jesus that we are studying see only the works they do, and maybe the good works that others do around them. But God exists above time and human history. He sees everything at once; the beginning as well as the end. Nothing surprises him and nothing can countermand his will. Therefore, their good works, as we know now, were not for nothing. They have meaning and purpose and will endure to the glory of God forever.
Jesus’ specific and extensive teaching about communal good works in the gospels
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!
You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin.
But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness.
You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.” Matthew 23:23
During Jesus’ ministry, he summarizes the teaching in the Old Testament about communal good works – what Jesus calls “the more important matters of the law.” He summarizes these as “justice, mercy, and faithfulness.” He devotes large sections in his Sermon on the Mount to the subject of communal good works and throughout his ministry he uses examples from his contemporaries, such as the good Samaritan, the prodigal son’s father, and the centurion’s faith to illustrate what doing these communal good works looks like. Then he founds an organization whose specific purpose is to practice communal good works: namely, the church. And finally, he offers himself up as a sacrifice and propitiation for the sins of the world as the ultimate example of what it means to practice communal good works.
Jesus’ teaching about communal good works
- Matthew 5:16 – “Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”
- Matthew 6:1-4 – “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”
At first blush, Jesus’ teaching about good works in the Sermon on the Mount, which spans three chapters in the Gospel of Matthew (5-7), seems to contain a contradiction. On the one hand, Jesus tells us in 5:16 to “Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds.” On the other hand, he tells us in 6:1-4 “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them.”
What are we to make of this apparent contradiction? What Jesus means is that there is a proper way to do God’s good works, both publicly and privately. For example, marriage has a public side and a private side. It would be odd if a husband or a wife never let on in public that they were married. But it would also be very odd if a married couple talked about their intimate relationship in public.
It is the same way with our good works. We do our good works to glorify God and we should not be surprised when people find out about them. On the other hand, we do our good works as an act of worship to God, not as a way to impress people about how good we are.
Jesus devotes large sections in the Sermon on the Mount to establishing new communal commands:
- Matthew 5:21-26 – Handling conflict
- Matthew 5:27-30 – Adultery
- Matthew 5:31-32 – Divorce
- Matthew 5:33-37 – Oaths
- Matthew 5:38-42 – Retribution
- Matthew 5:43-48; Luke 6:27-36 – Love your enemy
- Matthew 7:1-6; Luke 6:37-42 – Do not judge others
Note that all of these commands are designed to ameliorate social relations. As such, he is describing what life on earth will be like in his coming kingdom when God’s will will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
- Matthew 22:34-40; Mark 12:28-34 – “Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
To the question, “Which is the greatest commandment in the Law?,” Jesus replied by quoting a communal command in Deuteronomy 6:5, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” But then he voluntarily adds another communal command from Leviticus 19:18 that is “like it.” “Love your neighbor as yourself.” By citing this second command, Jesus implies that we are not loving God with all our heart, soul, and mind unless we are also loving our neighbor as ourself.
- Mark 14:3-9 – Jesus calls what the woman who anointed his head did a “good work.”
As opposed to communal good works, this woman who anointed Jesus’ head was performing a unique and individual good work. In the process, she was the only person to “prepare” him for his burial. As a consequence of this unique and amazing good work, Jesus prophesied “Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”
The church Jesus founded to practice communal good works
John 17:20-23 – My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
This passage beautifully summarizes the goal of Jesus’ practice and teaching about communal good works, namely, oneness of believers. Jesus desires the total and complete healing of believers relationships with each other. He prays that this oneness will be the defining characteristic of his followers.
The final example Jesus himself gave us of what it means to do communal good works: his death on the cross
“As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” John 13:35
It is true that Jesus’ death on the cross is redemptive and a propitiation for our sins. But we sometimes forget that his death on the cross is also exemplary. Jesus died to show us how to live.
“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.
And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.
If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them,
how can the love of God be in that person?
Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.” 1 John 3:16
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