In scripture, good works accompany faith: they’re things that go hand in hand and are vital to the Christian life, to following the Way. But sometimes I have to wonder if we’re too restrictive in our ideas of what good works are. I understand feeding the hungry (which I do), and evangelism (which, again, I do), and a whole litany of other Christlike acts. But where do the scriptures say that the Way is only about other people? It doesn’t. In fact, it’s primarily about God, and then about others. Always in that order.

Doesn’t it follow, then, that our good works should be devoted to God and then to others? Or in a different way, shouldn’t our good works toward other humans flow out of our good works toward the Lord?

And let me ask you this, then. What greater work can there be than understanding the gospel, the scriptures, and mapping out its implications in life? It seems to me that you can’t really start the good work of serving your fellow man until you know how to do it properly - and you don’t learn that in a sort of a priori rabbit-from-the-hat way. It comes by study, and I think that something Calvinists properly understand, and maybe instinctively understand (especially because I’ve never really heard of “theology” as a good work). But isn’t that exactly what it is? Theology is a good work, a necessary work, and when I hear Christians in the blogosphere talking about people being critical of others theology and calling that a bad thing, I wonder where they’re really getting their philosophy from.

Of course, theology does primarily flow from the fingertips: you do what you believe, because the head and the heart don’t actually exist in some sort of Kantian holding cells apart from eachother, separate but touching a bit. And if your theology isn’t finding its way to your hands and feet and mouth, you have to wonder what you honestly believe. I ask myself the same question.

But at the end of the day, that’s a personal thing you need to work out for yourself in fear and trembling. Understanding the scriptures is still a good work, and like I said, a necessary one.

Dan (This is what I get for reading the Internet Monk again. Darn the man…)

Tags: scripture