Good or Evil: Living For Your Fellow (Wo)Man

Job 35:2-8, ‘Do you think this is just? You say, “I shall be cleared by God.” Yet you ask Him, “What profit is it to me, and what do I gain by not sinning?” I would like to reply to you and to your friends with you. Look up at the heavens and see; gaze at the clouds so high above you. If you sin, how does that affect Him? If your sins are many, what does that do to Him? If you are righteous, what do you give to Him, or what does He receive from your hand? Your wickedness affects only a man like yourself, and your righteousness only the sons of men.’ Most of us think that when we are doing good, we are doing God a favor, but ask yourself, how does He profit when you care for the needy, when you love your neighbor as yourself. How does it affect Him if you decide not to love your neighbor, when you live a life of selfishness and greed? Not one of your deeds affect Him. It is only people, fellow men and women, that are affected by your deeds here on earth and will either be uplifted, encouraged, soothed, comforted, enriched, informed, corrected by your deeds of love or destroyed, crushed, hurt, persecuted, punished, misled by your deeds of selfishness and hate. God is love and is good. He loves us with a deep unconditional love and it grieves Him when we suffer either by our actions or actions of others and that is why by His Grace, He crafted a way for us not to suffer eternal death – that is separation from His loving presence and all good – by sending His Son, Jesus the Christ to suffer this fate on our behalf so that we can enjoy eternity in His presence. He is God is also just and has allowed us to choose our own fate. His righteous justice dictates that the wages of sin and wickedness is death and all those that are not willing to receive His gift of righteousness in and through Christ will be judged by their own deeds at that Day of judgment. We will reap what we sowed during our life on earth. By nature all men are selfish and wicked at heart and therefore we can never have right standing before God on our own. But through Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, we are reconciled, redeemed and restored to God the Father. Will you continue to live in selfishness and arrogance, listening to the lie that it profits you nothing to sin, thinking that by doing good you are doing God a favor, or will you be humble enough to recognize your sinfulness and repent, and surrender to Him who was tested in all ways and yet was still found sinless, so that He, as the author, perfector and finisher of your faith, may build you up and bring you up as a spotless and unblemished child of God, so that you may receive your inheritance in and through Him. You decide!