The goodness that carry no blessings: the one that happens out of trickery or force.
- Vicent Nemeyimana
- January 1, 2015
- Word of Life
Okay, we discussed parts of this article few months ago and we just need to upgrade the idea this time. Just yesterday, I posted on facebook that I was soon going to drop down the ‘friends’ that show no interest in me and move on with ones that respond to my love and care. The real body of the message was the disappointment we receive whenever we text someone, call that person and even write to him at times all the times yet he or she can’t spare a single minute to reply your message or call you and share his or her life with you just as you do. So what could be the point of going on with the expression of love, care and goodness to such a person? How do you tell that she or he is happy with what you do if no response? What if you annoy him more by such ga messages or calls? And do you expect blessings in such kind of goodness?
Look, there are so many people out here who have been misled by the message of good Samaritan to the point of selling their households or other self-attached things in the name of helping and doing good for others. From the teachings of the holy book, bible, we learnt that it is only faith that pleases God (Hebrews 11:6) though faith without action is useless (James 2:26). In the book of Romans 10:17, we read that faith comes by hearing the word of God (note that it is the word of God not just any word). The actions talked of in the above insights that make faith meaningful are products of faith (actions that are motivated by faith are the ones that count and make it valuable not actions that produce faith for they never exist). In other words, hearing the truth comes first, faith follows and then action. With this explanation, I think I have answered those who used the above verses, including Romans 12:21 to continuously do good even to the flying birds in the name of serving eternity or achieving blessings.
From the above paragraph, it is clear that any good action done out of trickery or force lacks the basis of faith and hearing the right word. Take an example. If a strong and rich person disguises himself and appears on the street as a lame beggar, and as you pass you get caught by compassion and leave behind 20 dollars only to discover that you have been tricked into giving in your money, what do you think happened? Got blessings? A man comes to your home and pretends to be a refugee and needs your help. In return, you sign a cheque of 100 dollars and you expect blessings? It is Satan’s goal to make us poor both in soul and physical, tangible things by all the means he can, including trickery and God won’t bless any action done out of trickery simply because it was good. He rewards faith not the action or, simply, He rewards actions done out of faith.
So my message is now clear. In the first article, the reason for doing well, we agreed that the first and foremost motivation for every action we do should be serving the eternal requests and thus achieve eternal rewards. We deducted that we will always face disappointments if our services are only motivated by people’s appreciations and other tangible rewards. In the principle, action-reward principle, we agreed that we can only be able to do an action if the action carries a reward of some kind. Thus, everyone has a motivating reward behind whatever he or she is doing. In the last message, I had stated that not every good action carries a blessing and here I am explaining why faith is important for God to count your actions.
Lastly, let’s pick a lesson from the book of Mark 7:24-30. In the story written here, Jesus met a person who needed help. This woman was non-Jewish which automatically disqualified her from any Jewish help, but Jesus was never blocked by such cultural beliefs from helping others. For Jesus, all you needed was faith and have your wishes granted. So the woman approaches as a beggar and indeed she was and asks Jesus to help her and heal her demon-tormented child. The reply from Jesus to the woman with a dying child was a ruthless one, non-comforting and more degrading but carried a password or a request of which when passed would guarantee the answers to the request. Jesus didn’t deny that He had no help (you didn’t or don’t deny that you have the money or whatever to give in), He just said that His help or food wasn’t fit for the woman or the child. He had the help but the woman wasn’t worthy of it.
The first message is that not all the people who ask for help really deserve it. And if those who ask for help, some don’t deserve it, how about those who don’t even ask for it? (the other people who I text and even call when they haven’t asked me to and have never shown any appreciation or what my messages and actions of love and care mean to them). Okay, fortunately, the woman proves that she deserved the help by accepting that she was a dog and thus deserved some crumbs from the table where the boss or the children could be having their meals (verse 28). By this assertion of the woman, Jesus had no any other excuse but to grant the wish. “Because of your answer, you may go. The demon has left your daughter”, Jesus said (verse 29).
We are settled. My argument is done. My point is brought home and I am sure you have picked the message. It is not true that all people deserve your help, never. Look, the woman’s answer showed the faith that Jesus needed to offer the service. Yeah, Jesus turned down many requests for many people who would disguise themselves into things that would catch someone’s sympathy while ultimately darkening our own souls. Jesus knew who to help and who didn’t deserve His help. It is this power of discernment that made Him live without a sin among tricky and violent people and we are no exception if we are to stay righteous just as He is.
Concerning the goodness done out of force, we won’t take enough time explaining that. Even a non-believer knows that things done out of force don’t count before the eyes of God and even people. If you clean the car of your boss only after the boss has decided to withhold the salary, don’t expect appreciation from your boss or blessings from God. If you only released the money to take your mother to the hospital at gunpoint, don’t expect God’s appreciations or even your mother’s. Whatever is done out of force is without the heart, the faith, the love and care that make actions valuable. This is greatly different from doing things out of commitment or, to an extent, out of legal law. Doing things because you are forced to is as useless as doing nothing. Oh no, it is worst for it is easy to sin alongside the delivering of the service and this is the common pattern. You are likely to sin while doing any service because you are forced to.
Remember, I am not telling you to stop helping and taking care of the needy, I am simply saying that do it wisely so you don’t fall into tricks and traps of the devil. I am not saying that always expect love in return, I am simply saying that make sure a reward of kind is available for what you do. However, since we agreed that we can’t be able to do any action that bears no reward of kind, then I may add that we need to be sure the reward we expect correlates exactly with the action done (right action-right reward). In the above introduction, my writing and texting and expressing love to people who don’t care about it or even respond to it still was carrying some rewards but I just felt they weren’t the right rewards for the action. Listen, this doesn’t make them wrong, it just makes me wrong and I am changing the direction. Anyway, don’t worry about that, I may continue but with a changed expectation of rewards.
God bless you
The Complete You Project
