In my last article, I wrote about the importance of rightly understanding what Peter meant when he wrote, “...in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect...” in 1 Peter 3:15. I explained that contrary to its popular interpretation and Apologetics application, Peter was not instructing the Church to be ready to give a defense of their Christian faith. Rather, he was instructing them to be prepared to give a defense of their godly behavior. I went on to suggest that, for Peter, doing good works and abstaining from sin serve a broader purpose in the world than merely demonstrating our obedience to God and our love for one another. They also serve Jesus’ mission of making disciples. As a follow up to that, I want to take a minute to expand on the role of godly living in the disciple making mission.1
First, a caution. We must be careful to preserve the distinction that exists between law and gospel. In other words, we mustn't ever confuse our good works for the gospel itself. If gospel means good news and news is information that must be communicated coherently to be understood, then we must conclude that our good works, by themselves, are insufficient to explain the gospel. They have no explanatory power. So, good works are not the gospel. Jesus and him crucified, risen, and exalted, he is the gospel.
That said, good works do showcase the gospel by making it more attractive to outsiders (Titus 2:7—10). That’s not to say that our good works add any saving power to the gospel, it’s only to say that our message is more compelling when our behavior is consistent with our good news message. Think of it as evidence supporting a claim. A claim by itself is merely an assertion. But a claim buttressed with evidence is a persuasive argument. The evidence of the claim is not the claim itself, but the evidence is proof that the claim is true. So, good works are not the gospel, but good works being performed by the Church are an evidence to the world that our good news about Jesus is true (James 2:18).
It’s shocking to see what Peter actually writes in his letter. Remember, 1 Peter was written to people who were being persecuted for following Jesus. His instruction is counterintuitive. At least to my thinking it is. He doesn’t tell the church to go underground or to lay low until the persecution passes, instead he tells them to abstain from sin and to do good works. He doesn’t write, “Run for the hills!” He tells them to submit to the governing authorities who were oppressing them, to work hard for their masters, to submit to one another in marriage, and to suffer with joy. Why did he do that? Well, two reasons, I think. First, Peter understood that good works are centripetal, they project a light that attracts the attention of curious eyes. Curious people ask questions and faithful disciples boldly give witness to the living hope residing within them. Second, he realized that the mission of making disciples of Jesus was more important to the Church than the suffering of any of her members — persecution was not an excuse to push pause on the mission, it was an opportunity to make the gospel even more believable. In fact, we can extrapolate from 1 Peter 2:12 that Peter is teaching us that persecution actually makes the light of our good works more brilliant by providing a contrasting backdrop of suffering. A diamond is beautiful sitting all by itself, but put that diamond on piece of black velvet and it’s absolutely radiant.
Our situation as it currently stands in the United States can hardly be compared to the persecution that was experienced by our triumphant brothers and sisters who suffered under Nero, nineteen centuries ago, but there’s little doubt, we are being marginalized in our culture. And that’s not a bad thing if your priorities are aligned with Jesus’. Because the further the Church is pushed to the margins of the culture the more brilliant the light of our good works will shine. And the brighter we shine the more compelling our gospel will become.
Steve Timmis has said, “People are often attracted to the Christian community before they are attracted to the Christian message.” I think that is true (2 Corinthians 2:15—16). But that can only be true for a church if they don’t hide the lighted lamp of their good works under a steeple. God has called his Church to be a City within the city (Matthew 5:14). A contrast community, in the midst of the world, who are zealous for good works. The more hostile the world becomes, the more vigilant we ought to be in the outworking of our love for God and for our neighbor. So stop sinning and do good works for the sake of the gospel. Because when you do, people will start asking you questions.
Examples from Church history:
Julian the Apostate
Emperor Julian the Apostate reigned 1700 years ago. He was called the ‘Apostate’ because of his fierce rejection of Christianity and his sometimes brutal attempt to repress it. Julian was smart. He knew that he could not just eradicate Christianity without dealing with the things that made it attractive. He complained:
“Whilst the pagan priests neglect the poor, the hated Galileans devote themselves to works of charity, and by a display of false compassion have established and given effect to their pernicious errors. See their love-feasts, and their tables spread for the indigent. Such practice is common among them, and causes a contempt for our gods.”
In response, Julian launched government philanthropic programs in an attempt to render the Christian message impotent.2
Dionysius
“[Sociologist Rodney] Stark notes that there were at least two great plagues in the first three centuries (160 and 250 AD) that actually were instrumental in the nascent church’s incredible growth rate, which he estimates at 40% per decade. When the plagues came, those who were able fled the city but not the Christians. They stayed and ministered to the sick and dying--Christians and non-Christians alike."3
"Most of our brother Christians showed unbounded love and loyalty; never sparing themselves and thinking only of one another. Heedless of danger, they took charge of the sick, attending to their every need and ministering to them in Christ, and with them departed this life serenely happy; for they were infected by others with the disease, drawing on themselves the sickness of their neighbors and cheerfully accepting their pains. Many, in nursing and caring for others, transferred their death to themselves and died in their stead…. The best of our brothers lost their lives in this manner, a number of presbyters, deacons, and laymen winning high commendation so that death in this form, the result of great piety and strong faith, seems in every way the equal of martyrdom. The heathen behaved in the very opposite way. At the first onset of the disease, they pushed the sufferers away and fled from their dearest, throwing them into the roads before they were dead and treated unburied corpses as dirt, hoping thereby to avert the spread and contagion of the fatal disease; but do what they might, they found it difficult to escape."
Eusebius
“Then did they show themselves to the heathen in the clearest light. For the Christians were the only people who amid such terrible ills showed their feeling and humanity by their actions. Day by day some would busy themselves with attending to the dead and burying them (for there were numbers to whom no one else paid any heed); others gathered in one spot all who were afflicted by hunger throughout the whole city and gave bread to them all. When this became known, people glorified the Christians’ God and, convinced by the very facts, confessed the Christians alone were truly pious and religious.”
Tertullian
"It is our care of the helpless, our practice of loving kindness, that brands us in the eyes of many of our opponents. 'Only look' they say. 'Look how they love one another...Look how they are prepared to die for one another."
The Epistle of Mathetes to Diognetus
For the Christians are distinguished from other men neither by country, nor language, nor the customs which they observe. For they neither inhabit cities of their own, nor employ a peculiar form of speech, nor lead a life which is marked out by any singularity. The course of conduct which they follow has not been devised by any speculation or deliberation of inquisitive men; nor do they, like some, proclaim themselves the advocates of any merely human doctrines. But, inhabiting Greek as well as barbarian cities, according as the lot of each of them has determined, and following the customs of the natives in respect to clothing, food, and the rest of their ordinary conduct, they display to us their wonderful and confessedly striking method of life. They dwell in their own countries, but simply as sojourners. As citizens, they share in all things with others, and yet endure all things as if foreigners. Every foreign land is to them as their native country, and every land of their birth as a land of strangers. They marry, as do all [others]; they beget children; but they do not destroy their offspring. They have a common table, but not a common bed. They are in the flesh, but they do not live after the flesh. They pass their days on earth, but they are citizens of heaven. They obey the prescribed laws, and at the same time surpass the laws by their lives. They love all men, and are persecuted by all. They are unknown and condemned; they are put to death, and restored to life. They are poor, yet make many rich; they are in lack of all things, and yet abound in all; they are dishonored, and yet in their very dishonor are glorified. They are evil spoken of, and yet are justified; they are reviled, and bless; they are insulted, and repay the insult with honor; they do good, yet are punished as evil-doers. When punished, they rejoice as if quickened into life; they are assailed by the Jews as foreigners, and are persecuted by the Greeks; yet those who hate them are unable to assign any reason for their hatred.
Questions for your consideration:
What are your neighbors’ opinions of you?
If you moved from your home, would your neighbors notice your absence?
Is the life you live in front of your neighbors compelling enough to invite their inquiry?
If you were asked by your neighbor for the reason for your good works, would you be prepared to give witness to Jesus?
How are you doing life in community with your church family?
Are you hiding your good works under your steeple; aside from gospel proclamation, does your church do anything else to benefit your city?
Does your church community invite inquiry from the outsiders living in your city? Does your church’s existence demand an answer that only the gospel can explain?
1 By godly living we mean abstaining from sin and doing good deeds (doing justice and showing mercy) demonstrating love for neighbor, both to those within the church and to those without.↩
2 http://sntjohnny.com/front/christians-should-not-use-the-government-to-do-their-good-deeds/598.html↩
3 http://ericswanson.blogspot.com/2005/12/how-gospel-grew.html↩
