Tea Reasons for good works set out to solve seven known injustices in our world. They promote and ensure: provision; relief; inclusion; patience; increase; management; and thanks.

1. Poverty and Provision

We know that where our treasure is, our heart will also be (Matthew 6:21; Luke 12:34). Jesus talked a lot in the gospels about not hoarding things for ourselves. Every good law protects and provides for the poor – this is a fundamental biblical premise. We too must show due partiality and favor to the needy, the orphans and the proverbial widow.

Those who have must share (Acts 2:45).

2. Hunger and refuge: empowerment and relief

Suffering is everywhere. The ‘blessed’, that is, materially, will often not see the forest for the trees here. It wasn’t until I was 36, almost thirteen years after I became a Christian, that I got to see the suffering. That’s because I had never suffered until then. It was my own folly tripping me up – God calling attention – so that I could finally see the plight of the many who suffer in this world.

Hospitality is a great and timely work of faith (Romans 12:13; 1 Peter 4:9). We who have such simple provisions – shelter, food and water – still have to share.

We must also open our ‘hunger’ paradigms and alleviate spiritual hunger in the name of Jesus, the Bread of Life (John 6:35).

3. Including the marginalized

The Jesus portrayed in Luke’s gospel, and elsewhere, was very much the Savior of social outcasts; the lame, the lepers, women (yes, women were not so highly regarded in ancient times), and cultures other than Jewish, etc.

James forbids favoritism, in the name of the Lord, in James 2:1-13. And yet, we are inherently apt to give esteem to those who seem to have it, relegating the outcasts to the comradeship leftovers. Schools are refuges from this phenomenon; however, so are workplaces. It’s everywhere.

We must be friends with the marginalized, sharing our compassion.

4. Indulgence for the imprisoned and persecuted

The first time I set foot in a prison, which was relatively recently, I was surprised by the harshness of the environment. Hard floors and huge locks on the doors; there are no smiles. Too often we don’t see this harshness in everyday life, not where I live, anyway.

For the coerced we do not show mercy, but empathy. We cannot change their situations; only God really can. But we can go in next door, and as the Kairos Prisons Ministry says, “Listen, listen; love, love.”

5. Nutrition and growth for ‘the smallest of these’

Jesus identified himself with “the least of these.” (See Matthew 25:31-46; Mark 10:14, etc.) And we must do that too. God encourages ‘the least of these’ to climb one more step and we have our part in this mighty plan. Shepherding is a function of the Almighty; as God shepherds us we shepherd others and so on.

Growth is truly the key to life, because whoever does not grow capitulates. ‘Less than these’ are not always allowed opportunities to grow, that is for us to make sure that there are opportunities and that they are safe. What we encourage.

6. Donations, philanthropy and administration

Good works are fundamentally about money: the use of tangible provisions to provide others with many things of human need.

Many of us are not rich, but there are many who are too. Wealth is a gift to be shared, proportional to the measure of heart that the rich have to give. But in western society we are all relatively rich.

And stewardship is genuinely not just about money. We must wisely manage our time and effort, channeling it for God’s purposes. Pooling our resources with the intention of sharing them and making them go far is a very pious and good deed.

7. Response of grace or fruit

Justice by works seems like a great place to leave. Grace is guaranteed to those who cannot see their lack; a lack rooted in the lack of a tangible Presence of the Lord’s grace through faith.

We cannot work for our salvation.

This is also why we identify ourselves, certainly sometimes. Great heaps of grace on all of us in these cases!

© 2010 SJ Wickham.

Other reading: Thomas C. Oden, The good word reader (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm.B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2007).