THE GOSPEL OF GOOD DEEDS -- Devotional for November 14, from "Good Seeds"

In all things show yourself to be an example of good deeds, with all purity of doctrine, dignity of life, and soundness of speech, so that those who oppose you may be at a lost to find something bad to say about you – and may be ashamed for trying. (Titus 2:7-8)

Two of my favorite New Testament epistles are James and Titus. I like them for the same reason that I like the dessert course of a meal. Kids will tell you they don’t have much use for food that doesn’t taste good, no matter how “good for you” it may be. This is why kids have parents, to make sure they eat nutritious food, and to get it first. Once their tummies are full, maybe then it will be safe to let them indulge in what they would have started with if you had let them: dessert! Most of the epistles start with the meat and potatoes: DOCTRINE, followed by dessert: DUTY. We tend to want to skip the ponderous foundational truth section and jump to the more interesting application part. But James and Titus give us instant gratification, getting into application right away, without first taking us through a theological dissertation. James is The Proverbs for the New Testament Church, filled with many small and memorable, but wise and powerful, statements of truth. Titus is the Handbook of the New Testament Church, giving the qualifications for leadership and guidelines for Christian behavior. Martin Luther’s favorite book was Romans, with its emphasis on the grace of God: that we are saved by trusting in the work of Christ, but putting no confidence in our own good works. Maybe that’s why he struggled with the book of James, with its easy to misinterpret proverb: “Faith without works is dead” (2:17). And he may have had trouble with Titus, too (for no less than five times in its three short chapters it sings the praises of good deed doing 1:16; 2:7,14; 3:1,8,14) – if it weren’t for Titus 3:5: “He saved us, not on the basis of any good deeds we may have done, but according to His mercy and the washing of regeneration.” With a little careful digging, one can find grace in the book of James, too, mixed in with and balancing out James’ emphasis on good works. I think today’s church may need a little tuning up on its understanding of faith vs. works. A true Christian doesn’t walk around gloating about his salvation (even though he should always be glorying in the One who saved him!) It is so often the case that the world is turned off by the confidence of Christians that so easily looks like arrogance and so quickly turns to pride. How much better to sing that song of longing: “I wanna be a more righteous man; I wanna be a godly man; teach me to do what I can to follow closer to You. I wanna follow a different drum, even if I’m the only one; I wanna hear when I’m done, “You did well, My son.”