I was talking to someone last night who made a point about doing good works and being good, and you'll go to heaven. If that is the case, then a person who didn't do one good thing, wouldn't make it into heaven. Heaven is a perfect place and if good works get a person there, then it would be an empty and lonely place.
Nobody and I mean NOBODY is perfect. Perfection is a sinless existence. If someone says they are sinless, then they are a sinner because they lied. All have sinned! If someone says they are perfect, they are lying, which makes them imperfect even more. God is so holy, so perfect, He can't even look at sin. So good works mean nothing because the moment you don't do something, you have committed a sin. Plus, good works can cause a person to boast of their accomplishments, i.e. "I did that for this person" or "I gave money to charity".
People don't realize that God's grace is what's needed to get into heaven. We have to accept Him unconditionally, have a relationship with Him, and give ourselves over to Him in love and openness. His grace is what saves us from destruction. It is by His grace we are even able to love Him, speak His name, and to worship Him.
I wrote about grace in another post, and what it is. Does this mean we are not to do good things? That is up to you. If you love the Lord and want to do what He wants you to do, then performing acts of kindness to strangers, with no strings attached are great things to do. Why? Because the Commandments are based upon this: You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind. And, Love your neighbor as yourself. (NLT based upon Luke 10:27)
If what I am doing doesn't fall inside of this simple (but powerful!) bit of logic, then most likely it wasn't done with God's love. And to add my own thoughts, I'm not perfect at following this logic, but I try and ask for forgiveness when I do fail because I know the Lord is full of grace and will forgive me!
Ultimately, its all up to you and only you can decide that life is full of selfless grace or full of yourself doing good works.
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2 comments:
One part of the commandment "Love your neighbor as yourself" that is often missed is the "as yourself" part. If you do not love yourself, it is hard to love others as yourself. By loving yourself, I am not talking about vanity or selfishness, but self-love as in self-acceptance. If we do not feel comfortable with who we are, then we will spend more time focusing on ourselves, trying to find our true identity, searching for satisfaction and meaning. Self-doubt, or worse, self-hatred, invariably leads to self-centredness (italicized text taken from http://www.christianity.co.nz/esteem3.htm).
That is so true because I sometimes do that to myself. Yet, I haven't thought about it that way, until you mentioned it. Thanks.
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