Doing Good Does You Good


Meditation

There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.
(Romans 2:9-10)

What is evil? We have a human definition of what is evil and then we have God’s. Our definition, at least when it comes to the things we do, might be less damning than God’s. However, we hold other people’s transgressions against us to a much higher standard. We have a kind of graduated scale of what’s evil. In other words, a little white lie is not as bad as a real whopper. We don’t believe that taking office supplies home from work is as bad as embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from our employer. We don’t think that hating someone is as bad as murdering them. Both instances of all three of those examples are evil in God’s eyes and not to be condoned. However, are we really going to call a white lie evil, or the pilfering of office supplies, or hating someone who deserves it?
As far as the human definition is concerned, we would be right. None of the first of those three examples would put us in prison, for instance. However, when it comes to the matter of where we spend eternity, we don’t get to use the human definition of evil. Our problem is, we think we’re making the rules. We don’t think we have to be subservient to anyone else. We think of ourselves as the most powerful, evolved beings in our universe. We don’t think we’re all that bad. In fact, we think that the good things we do will eventually out-weigh all the bad things. We are foolish if we think we’re going to stand before the Judgment Seat and give a spirited defense of our “small” sins because they were not really evil. We will only be allowed to bend our knee and acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord of all.
We see people doing really evil things and seemingly getting away with it. I used to casually know a man who was heavily involved in organized crime. As far as I know, he died a very rich man and never spent a single day in jail. I know that even though he got away with something here on earth, he’ll pay in eternity. Vengeance belongs to God; he will repay them for their evil. Our hope for eternity rests in doing what the Lord Jesus has told us to do. He said we must love the Lord our God with all our hearts and with all our souls and with all our minds. He follows that with, love our neighbors as we love ourselves. If we do those two things our hearts will be filled with goodness and evil will not be found in us.





Prayer Time

Father God you want only what’s best for us. You love each and every one of us, no matter how egregious our sins are. You are willing to forgive us if we just request it. Before we turn our lives over to Jesus, our final journey's end will be hell. We know hell is not a good place to go, mostly because Satan will be there and not you. After all, you said, hell was created for Satan and his angels, not for anyone else. Help us to realize that it’s not a place we can go in the afterlife to “hang out with our friends.” It is going to be a place of torment for eternity. It’s not the place you want any of us to end up, it’s the destination we choose ourselves by rejecting Jesus. As we go through the process of turning our lives over to Jesus, please give us peace to overcome all those who doubt our conversion. Turn us into a reflection of who Jesus is, so there can be no uncertainty that our faith in you is real. Make us more like Jesus every day. It’s in his precious name, we pray. Amen!
Location: Raleigh, NC, USA

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