What you are becoming can be more important than what you are doing. Faith in the risen Savior is not about tasks. Our call to discipleship isn’t about getting credit for the religious things we do. Filling our calendars with more activities does not equate faithfulness. It may even be getting in the way.
What matters more is what fruit the Holy Spirit is producing within our hearts. Are we becoming more loving? More patient? Is our trust in Jesus growing? More to the point, is our life reflecting Jesus more today than it was before?
At the same time, what you are doing is fruit of what you’re becoming. I could tell you I’m becoming more patient. If I’m yelling at everyone at the most minor inconveniences, you’d suspect otherwise. Or if I preach on the importance of caring for the poor, but ignore anyone that comes to me for help, what would you think?
So, what we do as we are becoming what we are is important. Ephesians 2 would call what we do “good works.” And not just any good works. The good works “God prepared beforehand so that we may walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10).
Our lives become echoes of the incarnation of Jesus as we set to do what God has prepared. I would say you don’t have to, necessarily, do more. Following God’s grace, you do more that’s meaningful.
It’s quality vs. quantity. Grace vs. quota.
The good works become our way of living. And, to be sure, what we do is a response to what we learned God has done.
With no help from us, God saved us and raised us with Christ. We were dead, doing dead-people things, but God raised us with Christ. The dead-people things stay in the grave as we learn to be alive together with Christ. Now, we are risen servants of Jesus.
Stay blessed…john