Ever considered who gets to be included in “all”? It means good to all, everyone in your family like your wife, kids, and extended family. All also means good to all, everyone you happen to work with, serve with, walk past, or encounter. That’s right, if you are called to “do good to all” it means everybody you know or don’t know.
How often do you happen to run into people who would be a part of “all”? Is it in person or online? Do you realize those are opportunities for you to do good to them? Do you realize that you don’t actually have to leave your home for you to have the opportunity to do good? Imagine an extra layer where if they are from the household of faith, you especially have to do good.
Topic: Good to All
Verse: Galatians 6:10
10Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.
As I see this, the first thing that comes to mind is the fact that it starts with “therefore” meaning “for that reason” or “as a result” which makes me want to step back to understand what triggered the “therefore”.
Context Verses: Galatians 6:7-10
7Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. 8Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. 9Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. 10Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.
So, why should we “do good to all people”? It’s because “at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up”. Why should we look for every opportunity? Same answer, because “at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up”.
Good to All opens the door to healing
Today’s Devotional kicks off telling us the reason, the purpose, the value of God having created the church when it says: “God created the church for us to work together to bring others to Him, to reach out, and to serve the world as no other group will.” Today’s Devotional even points to the church being like a hospital and points us to God’s Word to reinforce it using the example of Jesus when he called Matthew.
Matthew 9:9-13
9As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him. 10While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. 11When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 12On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.13But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Do Good to All in order to point people to Jesus!
So, let’s choose to take every opportunity to do good to all people, “because there is no other way to correct the human condition.” We need to be doing good to point people back to Jesus because “the lost are in need of spiritual surgery” and He is the “Great Physician” who is able to “restore them to spiritual health and vitality”.
All – not some, not many, not several, and not various. All – not none, not any, not one, and not zero. We aren’t to be selective about who gets to be healed. We need to start in our homes and “remember to care for” our wives, our kids, our church, “as well as those we are trying to reach for Christ”!
If the church would only be the church —
Vance Havner
If Christians would only be Christians —
nothing could halt our onward march.
