Today we will be looking at the place of good works in the life of the believer. Puritan Richard Baxter will help provide us with a good look at this. We already looked at redeeming or buying/purchasing the time for holy (set-apart) use by God in things like prayer, Bible-reading and study, and family worship. We haven’t yet looked at redeeming time for good works. After this devotional, we will be looking at redeeming the rest of our time, putting our whole lives under the Lordship and government of Christ.
Richard Baxter has written extensively on the subject of redeeming the time and on good works. I will include some of his teaching here. You can find the rest at digitalpuritan.net, in his Body of Divinity, volume 1 for good works, and volume 2 for redeeming the time. In short, Baxter said,
Your lives must be laid out in doing God service, and doing all the good you can, in works of piety, justice, and charity, with prudence, fidelity, industry, zeal, and delight; remembering that you are engaged to God, as servants to their Lord and master; and are entrusted with his talents, of the improvement whereof you must give account (Body of Divinity, vol. 1, p. 320)
In other words, we are God’s servants that He has commissioned to do particular work for Him. (Please note that Baxter is not saying that we cannot do things that we enjoy, such as going on walks or flying a plane, but that all of our time needs to be put under the umbrella of that which is honourable or serviceable to God, which also includes how we use our recreational or “free” time; all that we do in life needs to honour Him). Some of this work has been covered in prior devotionals in this series. Sadly, many Christians in the West do little (if any) intentional effort at performing good works, especially those that take careful planning, a disciplined mind, or inconveniencing ourselves. Baxter said of this,
He is called our Master, and we his servants, because he is our Rector, ‘most-excellent king’ with absolute propriety, and does not give us laws to obey, while we do our own work, but gives us his work to do, and laws for the right doing of it: and it is a service under his eye, and in dependence on him for our daily provisions, as servants of their lord. God has work for us to do in the world; and the performance of it he will require. God requires us as his sons, “Go work to day in my vineyard [Matt. 21:26];” and expects that we do it [v. 31]. His “servants” are as “husbandmen,” to whom “he entrusts his vineyard, that he may receive the fruit [v. 33, 34, 41, 45].” “Faithful servants” shall be “made rulers over his household [Matt. 24:45, 46].” Christ delivers to his servants his talents to improve, and will require an account of the improvement at his coming [Matt. 25:19]. Good works, in the proper, comprehensive sense, are all actions internal and external, that are morally good: but in the narrower acceptation, they are works, not only formally good, as acts of obedience in general, but also materially good, such as a servant does for his master, that tend to his advantage, or the profit of some other, whose welfare the servant regards (p. 320-321; emphasis added).
The point is that we do not have our own work to do. Rather, we all have only His work that He has commissioned for us to do. Remember, we were bought for a price. Our life is not our own, but is fully commissioned for the service of God, in whatever station God has allotted for us. So, we can be mechanics, janitors, house-wives, or ministers, and all be fully-engaged in the work of God in our common, regular life. Baxter went over many different kinds of good works in his definition (bolded). They include (1) internal works, such as guarding our minds from temptation, being gentle, loving, slow to anger, and so on. They also include (2) external works, such as lending without expecting repayment to those in need, helping the sick and weak in tangible ways, devoting ourselves to spiritual disciplines (such as learning the Bible or helping others with it), and other like things. However, it is significant to know that nothing is regarded as a good work before God that is not done from a proper heart, which is the inner-man. Baxter lays this out well:
God looks not only nor principally at the external part of the work, but much more to the heart of him that does it: nor at the length of time, but at the sincerity and diligence of his Servants. And therefore, though he is so just, as not to deny the reward which was promised them, to those that have borne the burden and heat of the day; yet is he so gracious and bountiful, that he will give as much, to those that he finds as willing and diligent, and would have done more if they had opportunity [Matt. 20:12-15]. You see in all this, what our doctrine is about good works, and how far those Papists [Roman Catholics] are to be believed, who persuade their ignorant disciples, that we account them vain and needless things (Body of Divinity, Vol. 1, 323-324).
The heart is the key as to whether or not something can be truly regarded as a good work. It is not the things of itself, but the attitudes, motives, and willingness of the heart to joyfully obey the Father. Our hearts need to be aligned with what God desires from Scripture. The material aspects of good works are important as far as it helps those in true need, and especially those of the household of God. Tangibly filling a true need of others, while having a heart right with God, is what is required for doing an external good work. In a second-century early church document called the Didache (meaning “teaching”) or Teaching of the Apostles, it taught, “Let your alms sweat in your hands, until you know to whom you should give.” The idea is not to be stingy, but to be diligent to give to those who do have true need, and especially to those who cannot pay us back. We need to show the same diligence when looking out for good works.
We will have a taste for how we ought to use of the rest of our time in the following quotation from Baxter (we will look at that in more detail in a later devotional). However, here, I want you to pay special attention to things that pertain to good works. Here, Baxter describes (1) what is meant by redeeming the time, (2) what is included in redeeming the time, and (3) the goals and uses for which we redeem the time. These points give us a good overview of good works. Baxter said,
To Redeem Time supposes,
That we know what we have to do with time, and on what we ought to lay it out, and of how great worth the things are, for which we must redeem it.
That we highly value time in order to do this necessary work.
That we are sensible of the greatness of our sin and loss, in our negligent and willful losing so much as we have done already.
That we know the particular season of each duty.
And that we are willing to part from what is not well redeeming of the time, instead for things with its proper ends, or it will not benefit us.
And these five things are presupposed, so these following are contained in our redeeming time.
To redeem time is to see that we cast none of it away in vain; but use every minute of it as a most precious thing, and spend it wholly in the way of duty.
That we be not only doing good, but doing the best and greatest good, which we are able and have a call to do.
That we do not only the best things, but do them in the best manner and in the greatest measure, and do as much good as possibly we can.
That we watch for special opportunities.
That we presently take them when they fall, and improve them when we take them.
That we part with all that is to be parted with, to save our time.
And that we forecast the preventing of impediments, and the removal of clogs, and the obtaining of all the helps to expedition and success in duty. This is the true redeeming of our time.
The Ends and Uses which time must be redeemed are for these.
In general, and ultimately, it must be all for God. Though not all employed directly upon God, in meditating of him, or praying to him; yet all must be laid out for him, immediately and mediately: that is, either in serving him, or in preparing for his service; in mowing, or in whetting; in travelling, or in baiting to fit us for travel. And so our time of sleeping, and feeding, and needful recreation is laid out for God.
Time must be redeemed especially for works of public benefit: for the church and state: for the souls of many: especially by magistrates and ministers, who have special charge and opportunity; who ‘must spend and be spent’ for the peoples’ sakes, though rewarded with ingratitude and contempt.
For your own souls, and your everlasting life: for speedy conversion without delay, if you be yet unconverted: for the killing of every soul-endangering sin, without delay: for the exercise and increase of young and unconfirmed grace, and the growth in knowledge: for the making sure our calling and election: and for the storing up provisions of faith, and hope, and love, and comfort, against the hour of suffering and of death.
We must redeem time for the souls of every particular person that we have opportunity to do good to; especially for children, and servants, and others whom God hath committed to our trust.
For the welfare of our own bodies, that they may be serviceable to our souls.
And, lastly, for the bodily welfare of others. And this is the order in which these works lie, for which and in which our time must be redeemed” (Body of Divinity, vol. 2, p. 121-123).
God is always at the center of good works, and good works are to benefit (profit) the Lord in things like what Baxter listed: (1) works of public benefit, (2) working on our own salvation or sanctification, (3) the conversion of unbelievers and the edification of believers (including all in our sphere of influence, and especially those under our care), (4) to care for our own bodies so that they can be fit for service to the Lord, and (5) for the bodies and personal welfare of others. Many do not realize that working on our own sanctification (growing to become like Christ) and caring for our bodies are good works when done as service to God. We also tend to neglect the public good when looking at good works. Nonetheless, all of these things we do as our service to God. We are His workmen. We do not have our own work. Rather, we only have God’s work to do, and we are to do this in every area and aspect of our lives. May we be diligent in watching for these opportunities, studious in carrying them out, and have hearts rightly ordered towards God in doing those good works. God not only prepares in advance things for us to do, but He furnishes us with what we need to do so. So, take heart. He is with us in this.
Next time we will be looking at specific principles that can be applied to all of life, so that we can filter between what honours God and what does not, and so seek to redeem the time in these evil days.