Good Deeds

Excerpt from The Local Church: Minimum Vs. Maximum by John Piper

The most common NT answer to the question, "What makes a maximum local church?" is good deeds: doing good things for other people. Keep in mind that the question now is not, What is the ultimate goal of the church? That was last week: the ultimate goal of the church is to live in such a way that God's wisdom (and all the other aspects of his glory) will be displayed to the world and to the hosts of heaven. The church's job is to live so that people can see that God is real. The question now is: What does that life look like? And the answer again and again in the NT is that it looks like good deeds.

Jesus said, for example, in Matthew 5:16, "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good deeds and give glory to your Father in heaven." Are there any deeds that you have planned into your life which you think it would be reasonable for people to look at and then conclude that because of your deeds God deserves their praise? Or is your life made up only of deeds which don't take any power beyond human nature? According to Jesus the good deeds of his disciples are the window in this world through which people come to see and adore the glory of God. Therefore, if maximum church means maximum glory for God, then maximum church must also mean maximum good deeds.

Other texts in the NT are in perfect harmony with Jesus' command. According to Ephesians 2:10, the church is "God's handiwork created in Christ Jesus for good deeds." God made us to do good deeds. We exist as Christians for that purpose. And this is not at all in conflict with the first chapter of Ephesians, which says that we exist "for the praise of God's glory," because Jesus showed us that it is precisely the good deeds of his disciples which convince people that our heavenly Father is glorious.