Tuesday Feb 12,2002 "Daily Devotions"
"WHEN IS IT WRONG TO DO GOOD"
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Luke 9:38 ¶ Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman
named Martha received him into her house.
39 And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his word.
40 But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my
sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me.
41 And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things:
42 But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.
You have heard it said that if you always do right you will never go wrong, But when is it wrong to do right.
Four things to look at here
1. It is wrong to do right when: My motives are not pleasing to God. People work their selves to death try to do some good for
humanity and thinking they are doing God a favor, when all the time their motive is wrong and God does not bless that kind of work,
he only lets you do good in your own power. Martha, I have no doubt was saved, and the thing she was doing was a good thing, she
was fixing a meal for her saviour, But her motive was wrong when she told Jesus he did not care that she had to do it alone, she
humiliated her sister in front of the master. And also she was complaining about what God had her doing. The thing she was doing
had diverted her from worshiping God.
2. It is wrong to do good when I think doing something good makes me spiritual, Work does not make one spiritual, Spirituality is
a relationship with Jesus. you can do all kinds of work for God and be pleasing to him if you are first in a relationship with him,
God's salvation is By Grace and is a gift from God, and there has been instances where someone got saved and died and went to
Heaven immediately after salvation. When you got saved God could have taken you to Heaven right then, and you would not have
done anything for God, But that is not the normal way God works in the life of a believer, God does not give A salvation by grace that
does not work: But work does not bring salvation.
3. It is wrong to do good when everything I do becomes the norm for everyone else; In other words if you are doing a work for
Jesus and you think everyone else should be doing the same thing you are in order to be right with God it is wrong for you to do it.
God made every one of us different we all have different jobs in the kingdom, each one must do the job God called him to do and
most of the time do it alone, because you are responsible to God for your Actions not the actions of others, so don't get all bogged
down when other people are not doing things the way you think they should.
4. It is wrong to do Good when doing good divests me from doing my best. God wants us to give him our best, why is it when you
think you are doing good for someone and you want to give them something, you will go to your closet and get something you have
that you don't like or something you will never wear or that you have worn it out and give it to them. Do you think that pleases God.
God Gave his best for you, should we not give our best to God. May I remind you of a verse of scripture: Mt 25:40 And the King shall
answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have
done it unto me. We are to give God our best in worship first and then in works, Don't get the cart before the horse, the cart is not
the power, the horse is. If you are doing work for God and it is not producing fruit, you are doing good work but not the best work,
the best work produces fruit, and is done when the power is in the right place. Worship produces fruit, work produces results that
can be good or bad, Goodness without God is worse than badness. Let me ask you a question, How is your, prayer life, how is your
witnessing, how is your Bible studying, these are the things that produce fruit. Most of us spend all our time doing good but not
worshiping. It is wrong when my work comes before my worshiping. Good things are not always the best things. sometimes we get
to busy to pay attention to God. In Gen 3:28 God told us to be fruitful, not busy, one must work to eat and one must worship to live, I
am being busy in stead of being fruitful, Let me give you an example, I am busy all week visiting people and trying to get them to
come to church or to ride the bus to church where they can hear the gospel and get saved, But I am not fruitful, why because the
fruit of a Christian is another Christian, Jesus said, I have chosen you that you should go forth and bear much fruit and that your
fruit shall remain. Getting people to ride a bus, come to church to have a house full should never be our motive for witnessing. We
need to let go of those things that keep us from worshiping. If you are beating a dead horse then get rid of the carcass. A bible
study that has become a duty instead of producing fruit, is a dead horse. Let go of things that keep you from worshiping God.
Martha probably regretted what she had said to Jesus But I am sure she asked forgiveness and got it from The saviour.
I said there were four things, but here is another one for free:
5. It is wrong to do good: when a man is up to his head in debt and cannot pay the bills he has, and uses his credit card to put
money into the hand of a charity, or to give money to someone in need. There are a lot of other things you could give them like Peter
and John said, " Silver and Gold have I none but such as I have give I thee, If you don't have it don't give it. God wont bless it. You
Have Jesus give them Him. Give a man a fish an he will eat today, give him a fishing pole and teach him to fish and he will eat the
rest of his life and feed others.
The Potter's Clay
Jim Haga