Strengthening the capacity to do good

Lieber Anker

Do you ever ask yourself, "Why can't I do good in the way Christ Jesus did?" Well, you can begin to. And one way to start might be to practice the Golden Rule as if it were worded this way: "Do unto others as Jesus did."

Just what good did Jesus do unto others that we can do? For one thing, he expressed divine Love in his pure, selfless love— first for God, then for all mankind. He showed his love for God in his love for others. He recognized that he was seeing evidence of God's pure spiritual creation wherever he discerned spiritual qualities in his fellow beings—even though these qualities might not always be easily apparent to others. On one occasion, while Jesus was dining with a Pharisee in a certain city, a woman of low reputation came into the gathering and began to wash Jesus' feet with her tears.^{See Luke 7:36–50 .} Others present saw a sinner. But Jesus must have seen so much more, because he said to the woman, "Thy sins are forgiven." Love gave Jesus the spiritual discernment to recognize what the woman truly yearned for—healing and freedom.

What enabled Jesus to do such good to those in need? An important part of the answer must be that he understood God as good—not only good in quality but good itself and the source of all goodness. Jesus knew that God, the source of all good, was man's origin and all that could be reflected in man. God is Spirit; so His goodness, reflected in man, must be spiritual and be free from human limitations. The good Jesus did met needs and healed without limit because it was consciously derived from God.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

Alone at Christmas?