Goodness

Christians are good people. You can be a good person and not be a Christian, but you cannot be a Christian and not be a good person. Christians love their neighbors as themselves (Matthew 22:39; Luke 10:25-37), they speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15), they serve one another (Matthew 25:31-46) and they behave properly (Galatians 5:19-21). People can do good or kind things in unloving ways, just as one can speak the truth in unloving and unkind ways. If we do good things with wrong motives, we are fooling ourselves if we think we are honoring God. Our goal as Christians is to do the will of God with good motives, including being good persons.

Thomas Baxley is a young Gospel preacher, a husband and a father. He serves the Highway Nine Church of Christ in Piedmont, Alabama, USA.