Being a do-gooder

Acts 4:5-12  - Peter and John are accused for doing good - healing - yet challenging power - in the place of Peter’s denial  the name of Jesus is proclaimed. 

by what right is good done?   - Who decided who does good? what is good? who is healed? who is not healed? - who is helped who is not helped? 

Decisions are made everyday for instance in health care - treatment, drugs etc. or social care - who is deserving - do we feed failed asylum seekers - or deport all who commit a crime? 

Be accused of being a do-gooder - it is the way we live out our faith and when we do good by those who much of society would cast aside then we are subverting those in power and releasing the power of God’s reign.

1 john - “let us not love in word or speech but in deed and in truth”

"The word, here, includes the notion of boldness, standing upon one's own feet, speaking freely and openly (literal etymology: saying anything, parrhesia). Love does not generate a subservience of dependent grovellers, but a group of people free and able to be themselves ... We get what we need when we engage in the life of God and are doing God's commandments. It is a way of affirming the sufficiency of God and God's love. http://wwwstaff.murdoch.edu.au/~loader/BEpEaster4.htm

Ephesians 2:10 "For we are what God has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life."

- witnessing to the good news of Jesus Christ - do-gooders as a reflection of God’s love, as a witness to God’s love, as a response to God’s love

Do not be afraid to be a do-gooder

Do not be afraid to let it be known that your good deeds are done in the name of Jesus Christ - who brings salvation.