Hebrews 10:24-25

 

 

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Hebrews 10:24 and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds,  (NASB: Lockman)

Greek: kai katanoomen (1PPAS) allelous eis parocusmon agapes kai kalon ergon
Amplified
: And let us consider and give attentive, continuous care to watching over one another, studying how we may stir up (stimulate and incite) to love and helpful deeds and noble activities, 
(Amplified Bible - Lockman)
Barclay: and let us put our minds to the task of spurring each other on in love and fine deeds.  (Westminster Press)
NLT:  Think of ways to encourage one another to outbursts of love and good deeds. (
NLT - Tyndale House)
Phillips: and let us think of one another and how we can encourage each other to love and do good deeds.  (
Phillips: Touchstone)
Wuest:  And let us constantly be giving careful attention to one another for the purpose of stimulating one another to divine and self-sacrificial love and good works, (
Erdmans
Young's Literal:  and may we consider one another to provoke to love and to good works,

References

Albert Barnes
John Calvin
Adam Clarke
Thomas Constable
Explore the Bible
Dan Fortner
Dan Fortner
Scott Grant
Dave Guzik
Matthew Henry
Jamieson, F, B
S Lewis Johnson
John MacArthur
John MacArthur

John MacArthur
J Vernon McGee
Phil Newton
Phil Newton
A W Pink
A W Pink
John Piper
Gil Rugh
A T Robertson
Chuck Smith
C H Spurgeon
Ray Stedman
Ray Stedman
Today in the Word
Marvin Vincent
Drew Worthen
Drew Worthen
Precept Ministries

Hebrews 10
Hebrews 10
Hebrews 10

Hebrews 10
Hebrews 10:19-36,39 Exercise Confidence

Hebrews 10:19-25 Let Us
Hebrews 10:24-27 How Important Is Public Worship?
Hebrews 10:19-39 Advancing and Persevering in Faith
Hebrews 10
Hebrews 10
Hebrews 10
Hebrews 10:19-25 Entering the Heavenly Sanctuary (or MP3)
Hebrews 10:19-25 Responding to the New Covenant
Hebrews 10:19-39 The Danger of Defection
Hebrews 10:19-39 The Danger of Defection

Hebrews - 115 Mp3's Thru the Bible Commentary

Hebrews 10:19-25 Motivation to Action (1)

Hebrews 10:19-25 Motivation to Action (2)

Hebrews 10:23-25 Consider each other how to stir up love
Hebrews 10:19-25 Hold Fast Your Confession

Hebrews 10 Word Pictures
Hebrews 10:19-25 Our Approach to God
Hebrews 10 Expository Comments
Hebrews 10:19-25 The Privileges of Faith (Book)
Hebrews 10:19-39 Triumph or Tragedy (Sermon)
Hebrews 10:24-25
Hebrews 10: Word Studies
Hebrews 10:22-24 Encourage & Build Each Other
Hebrews 10:25-31 Fall Into Hands Of The LORD
Hebrews Inductive Study Part 2

AND LET US CONSIDER HOW TO STIMULATE ONE ANOTHER TO LOVE AND GOOD DEEDS: kai katanoomen (1PPAS) allelous eis paroxusmon agapes kai kalon ergon: (Heb 13:3; Psalms 41:1; Proverbs 29:7; Acts 11:29; Romans 12:15; 15:1,2; 1 Corinthians 8:12,13; 9:22; 1 Corinthians 10:33; Galatians 6:1; Colossians 3:16; 1 Thessalonians 5:11; 2 Thessalonians 3:9) (Romans 11:4; 2 Corinthians 8:8; 9:2) (6:10,11; 13:1; Galatians 5:6,13,22; Philippians 1:9-11; 1 Thessalonians 1:3; 3:12,13; 1 Timothy 6:18; Titus 2:4; 3:8; 1 John 3:18)

Let us - Another exhortation (click for the 15 "Let us" exhortations in Hebrews) The Jewish readers were in great need of exhortation to move forward in the grace found in the New Covenant and (at least some) were having a hard time breaking with the Old Covenant, with the Temple and the sacrifices. They were continuing to hold on to legalism, ritual and ceremony, all of which represented the outward manifestation of their prior practices in Judaism. Old habits die hard, don't they.

Henry writes that here the writer gives us...

the means prescribed for preventing our apostasy, and promoting our fidelity and perseverance.

The able Lutheran commentator Lenski aptly summarizes the three let us exhortations in this section of Hebrews writing that...

The first ("let us draw near" - see note Hebrews 10:22) admonition deals with the heart, the second with the mouth ("let us hold fast the confession" - see note Hebrews 10:23), the third with conduct (Hebrews 10:24). The first with God, the second with the world, the third with the church.

 

Draw near in Faith
Hold fast in Hope
Stimulate to Love

Let us ever seek to be stimulators and encouragers, not irritators and fault finders for as George Adams reminds us "Encouragement is oxygen to the soul."

Consider (2657) (katanoeo from kata = down [kata can be used to intensify the meaning] + noéo = to perceive or think) means literally to put one's mind down on something and so to observe or consider carefully and attentively. It means to fix one’s eyes or mind upon and to perceive clearly, cautiously, observantly. The idea is to think about something very carefully or consider closely and includes the action of one's mind apprehending certain facts about a thing so as to give one the proper and decisive thought about the thing considered.

Notice the present tense which calls for continuous consideration of how to stir other believers - not to stir them in the sense of causing trouble, but stirring them up in the sense of motivating them to live on earth as citizens of heaven who are anticipating a better hope to be fully realized when "the day" draws nigh. The exhortation is to take careful note of each other’s spiritual welfare, for we are in fact in a very real sense "our brother's keeper" in the flock of God.

Jamieson writes that the idea of consider is...

with the mind attentively fixed on “one another", contemplating with continual consideration the characters and wants of our brethren, so as to render mutual help and counsel.

Expositor's Greek Testament writes that the author is here saying...

let us consider one another, taking into account and weighing our neighbour's circumstances and especially his risks, but this with a view not to exasperating criticism, but "with a view (eis) to incite them to love and good work," acknowledging honest endeavor and making allowance for imperfection.

This is the second use of katanoeo in this epistle, the first use being in Hebrews 3 where he commands the readers....

Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider (aorist imperative - do this now, do it effectively, it conveys a sense of urgency) Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession. (see note Hebrews 3:1)

TDNT writes that katanoeo...

is closely related to the simple noeo, whose literal meaning is intensified, “to direct one’s whole mind to an object,” also from a higher standpoint to immerse oneself in it and hence to apprehend it in its whole compass... It can also denote 2. critical observation of an object: “to consider reflectively,” “to study,” “to examine,”...  3. In literary Greek katanoeo...means especially apprehension of a subject by intellectual absorption in it: “to consider,” “to ponder,” “to come to know,” “to grasp,” “to understand”  (Kittel, G., Friedrich, G., & Bromiley, G. W.  Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. Eerdmans)

Matthew Henry writes that...

Christians ought to have a tender consideration and concern for one another; they should affectionately consider what their several wants, weaknesses, and temptations are; and they should do this, not to reproach one another, to provoke one another not to anger, but to love and good works, calling upon themselves and one another to love God and Christ more, to love duty and holiness more, to love their brethren in Christ more, and to do all the good offices of Christian affection both to the bodies and the souls of each other. A good example given to others is the best and most effectual provocation to love and good works.

Stimulate (3948) (paroxusmos from  para = besides, near + oxuno = literally to sharpen, figuratively to incite or irritate) is a strong word which literally means to sharpen and figuratively speaks of a sharpening of one's mind or incitement to some action. Depending on the context, paroxusmos can have either a positive or negative meaning. In a positive sense (Hebrews 10:24) it refers to a rousing of one to activity by incitement or encouragement. In a negative sense (Acts 15:39, see below), paroxusmos refers to a  state of irritation, a sharp disagreement, a "bristly" argument or a provocation.

Acts 15:39 And there arose such a sharp disagreement that they separated from one another, and Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus.

Paul uses the related verb paroxuno in his "definition" of Christian love noting that such love...

does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked (paroxuno), does not take into account a wrong suffered  (see note 1Corinthians 13:5)

There are two other related words in the NT, both used with a negative meaning - parorgizo (to make angry) in Romans 10:19 (note) and Ephesians 6:4 (note) and parorgismos (anger) in Ephesians 4:26 (note).

Expositor's Greek Testament notes that paroxusmos is frequently used by the classic Greek writers...

of stimulating to good as in Plato (Epist. iv., p. 321) and in Xenophon (Cyrop. 6, 2, 5), et al... The writer, in Hebrews 6:9-10, has set his readers a good example of this considerate excitement.

Hebrews 6:9 (note) But, beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you, and things that accompany salvation, though we are speaking in this way. 10 For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward His name, in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints.

This Greek word paroxusmos is related to our English paroxysm which describes a sudden attack or violent expression of something. Although that is not exactly what the writer is saying for his readers to do, it does convey the sense that we are to be serious about spurring one another. Perhaps you have had this experience -- You were driving home late at night with someone else at the wheel and you noticed them begin to nod off. How did you stimulate them? A whisper? Hardly. Instead you would rather vigorously tried to excite them and arouse them from their stupor to prevent "the day" of your car crash from drawing near! In the same way, we believers are to consider seriously out to spur each other onward and upward and all the more as the day of His return draws nearer.

There are two uses of paroxusmos in the Septuagint...

Deuteronomy 29:28 and the LORD uprooted them from their land in anger and in fury and in great wrath (Hebrew = qetseph = anger; Lxx = paroxusmos), and cast them into another land, as it is this day.'

Jeremiah 32:37 "Behold, I will gather them (prophecy of future regathering of Israel prior to the Millennial reign) out of all the lands to which I have driven them in My anger, in My wrath, and in great indignation (Hebrew = qetseph = anger; Lxx = paroxusmos); and I will bring them back to this place and make them dwell in safety.

Matthew Poole adds that paroxusmos...

is a word borrowed from physicians, who use it to set out the violent incursion of a fever, when the fit is so strong as to make the body tremble and bed shake with the horror and rigour of it. In this place it is used to set out the vehemency  (speaks of intense emotion, feeling or conviction) of affection to which the sacrifice of Christ obligeth Christians, as those who had their whole persons acted by love to each other, with all vehemency, to the highest and fullest pitch of it; as who should exceed in benevolence, beneficence, and complacency in each other, such as is conscientious, pure, and extensive to the very end, see notes Hebrews 13:1; Romans 12:9, 12:20; 1Thessalonians 4:9; 1 Peter 1:22; and manifesting itself in good works to them, especially merciful ones, pitying, counselling, succouring, supplying, and comforting them, Jas 2:13, 15, 16 1 John 3:14, 16-18 and this freely, cheerfully, and constantly, see notes Ephesians 2:10;  4:32; 1 Ti 6:18. (Matthew Poole's Commentary)

One another (240) (allelon) is a frequent Pauline word which is found 40 times in the NAS and makes for a very interesting study (click the 40 uses).  Note that he does not say “Meet together so the pastor can stir you up to love and good works, and encourage you.” One another means that every believer can and should encourage, exhort, admonish and even rebuke other believers to press on for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus, to fight the good fight of faith, to run the race with endurance. And to reiterate, the verb katanoeo does not imply we are to give this activity an occasional thought but that we are to continually be putting our mind to this task (of stimulating one another), observing and considering carefully and attentively how we can carry out this exhortation toward other believers. We need to think carefully and not casually about how to stimulate one another. The end is at hand and we are to redeem the time for the days until the end are evil. In the meantime we are to think of ways to stimulate our brethren to love and good deeds.

What can I do today to stimulate a brother or sister in Christ to Christ-like loving deeds?

As John Piper says

This is a reason for living that is focused enough to be practical and big enough to last a lifetime.

Solomon alludes to this idea of the "one another-ness" our writer is calling his readers to pursue...

Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow; but woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up. (Ecclesiastes 4:9, 10)

John Wesley once said

There is nothing more unchristian than a solitary Christian.

In the next verse the writer says we are to do these things "all the more and as you see the day drawing near." In other words this stirring one another up to love and good deeds ought to be motivated by a sense of our Lord's imminent return. Each day closer to His glorious Second Coming should serve to motivate us to pour ourselves into acts of love toward one another.

John Piper has an interesting comment on this section writing that stimulating one another...

...is the focus for your life. Here is what you aim at from morning till night as a Christian. Notice carefully: it is not what you might expect. It is not: consider how to love each other and do good deeds. That would be Biblical and right. But it’s different: “Consider how to stimulate each other to love and good deeds.” Focus on helping others become loving people. Aim at stirring up others to do good deeds. And of course the implication would also be that if others need help and stirring, we do too, and so we would be aiming at what sorts of ways we can think and feel and talk and act that will stir each other up to love and to do good deeds. The aim of our lives is not just loving and doing good deeds, but helping to stir up others to love and to good deeds. (See the full text of Consider Each Other How to Stir Up Love)

A B Simpson explains stimulating one another this way...

Every new experience is a preparation for a higher ministry. We can only give to others the Christ that we ourselves know. After coming closer to God we shall always find some hungry heart waiting for our message and ready for our assistance. Let us go out of ourselves as soon as we can, and find our blessings in blessing one another. There is special reference in the following verse to the approaching day of the Lord's coming, and the ministry referred to has doubtless reference to the gathering out and preparation of the Bride to meet her Lord. This, indeed, seems to be the great work which the Holy Spirit has for the disciples of Christ today, not so much the conversion of sinners, although that is not to be forgotten, but the purifying and preparing of the Lord's own people to meet Him in the air. We shall find as we endeavor to give our blessing to others that it grows in the exercise, even as the traveler who found that he had saved himself from death by the warmth that came into his freezing limbs while he rubbed and chafed the limbs of a fellow-traveler, who was dying in the snow. So let us "consider one another to provoke unto love and good works." (A. B. Simpson. Christ in the Bible - Hebrews)

Here are four ways believers can be positive "irritants" to one another to incite them to love and good deeds...

(1) Prayer - If we specifically pray for each other by name and pray for the development of volitional, selfless love (agape) and for specific good deeds, God will answer for John says...

And this is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.  And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.  (1 John 5:14,15) As John Calvin well said "The door is closed to prayer unless it is opened with the key of trust...The true proof of faith is the assurance when we pray that God will really perform what He has promised us." The Puritan writer Thomas Watson put it this way "Faith is to prayer what the feather is to the arrow."

Paul "shot his arrows" very specifically as he interceded and importuned for the saints at Philippi...

And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ; having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. (See notes Philippians 1:9; 10; 11)

(2) Example - A second powerful way to spur one another on to “love and good deeds” is by example.

"We are living a Gospel
A chapter each day,
By deed that we do,
By word that we say;

Men read what we live,
Whether faithless or true,
Say! What is the Gospel
According to you?"

Oswald Chambers said

It is a most disturbing thing to be smitten in the ribs by some provoker from God, by someone who is full of spiritual activity.

Example is the most powerful rhetoric.-Thomas Brooks

Well done is better than well said. - Benjamin Franklin

More depends on my walk than talk. - D. L. Moody

Our lives should be such as men may safely copy. - C. H. Spurgeon

Example is more forceful than precept. People look at me six days a week to see what I mean on the seventh day. - Richard Cecil

It is a fact that loving God and man and doing good deeds are more readily caught than taught. Precepts may lead, but examples draw. To provoke others onward and upward by example is the high road and one worth pursuing with earnestness as did Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman who had what he termed "My rule for Christian living"

The rule that governs my life is this: anything that dims my vision of Christ, or takes away my taste for Bible study, or cramps my prayer life, or makes Christian work difficult, is wrong for me, and I must, as a Christian, turn away from it.

This simple rule would help all of us find a safe road for our feet along life's road as we seek to encourage others to do the same.

Example is greater than precept. A gentleman was seeking the directions in a strange city, and the person of whom he inquired was vague and unsatisfactory. Another, coming up and seeing the stranger's perplexity, asked him where he wished to go. On being told, he replied, "Just come along with me, I am going that way myself." When parent and teacher can say to the child, "Come along with me, I am going that way myself," they talk in a language any child can understand (Moody Monthly)

Life's Mirror

"There are loyal hearts, there are spirits brave,
There are souls that are pure and true;
Then give to the world the best you have,
And the best will come back to you.

"Give love, and love to your life will flow,
A strength in your utmost need;
Have faith, and a score of hearts will show
Their faith in your word and deed.

"Give truth, and your gift will be paid in kind,
And honor will honor meet;
And a smile that is sweet will surely find
A smile that is just as sweet.

"Give sorrow and pity to those who mourn,
You will gather in flowers again,
The scattered seeds of your thought outborne,
Though the sowing seemed but vain.

"For life is the mirror of king and slave;
'Tis just what you ARE and DO;
Then give to the world THE BEST YOU HAVE,
And the BEST will come back to you!"
—Madeline S. Bridges

(3) God’s Word - The Word of God is our basic primer for love and good deeds. When we internalize it and allow it renew our mind and transform us, we become veritable conduits of its virtues and gentle examples and provokers of this Spirit wrought grace to our brothers and sisters in Christ.

(4) Encouragement - Lastly, there is the responsibility to verbally spur others on through words of encouragement. Always remember that "A good word costs no more than a bad one." And as someone else once said more people fail for lack of encouragement than for any other reason. Spurgeon tells the following stories...

You remember the story of the man who had a good wife, and one said to him, "Why, she is worth her weight in gold." "Yes," he said, "she is worth a Gibraltar rock in gold, but I never tell her that. You know that it is necessary to maintain discipline, and if I were to tell her how much I really value her, she would not know herself." Well, now, that is wrong. It does people good to be told how highly we value them. There is many a Christian man and woman, who would do better if now and then some one would speak a kindly word to them, and let them know they had done well. — Barbed Arrows from the Quiver of C. H. Spurgeon

There was a blacksmith once who had two pieces of iron which he wished to weld into one, and he took them just as they were, all cold and hard, and put them on the anvil, and began to hammer with all his might, but they were two pieces still, and would not unite. At last he remembered what he ought never to have forgotten; he thrust both of them into the fire, took them out red-hot, laid the one upon the other, and by one or two blows of the hammer they very soon became one. — Feathers for Arrows

Stimulation to Good Deeds - The story is told of Ludwig von Beethoven. Born into a musical family in Germany, Beethoven was compelled to spend a lonely childhood while he practiced his music for hours upon hours every day. His genius soon showed itself. At the age of eleven he was composing his own music and conducting an orchestra, and in his late teens he went to Vienna for further study. There he reached fame if not fortune. There he composed what was perhaps his most bewitching composition. Beethoven was passing a cobbler's cottage early one evening and heard someone practicing one of his compositions. As he paused to listen, he overheard the girl express the desire to hear a real musician render it properly. He entered the house and discovered that the young lady was blind. Offering to play for her, he sat at the piano and did so for an hour or more. Dusk had settled into evening. The lone candle in the room went out. But the moonlight glistened in the room and, under its inspiration and that received from the blind girl who so loved his music, Beethoven composed the "Moonlight Sonata."

Love (26) (agape) speaks of unconditional, sacrificial love and Biblically refers to a love that God is (1Jn 4:8,16), that God shows (Jn 3:16, 1Jn 4:9) and that God enables in and through His yielded, humble saints (see note on fruit of the Spirit Galatians 5:22). Biblical agape love is the love of choice, the love that serves with humility, the highest love and noblest devotion, the love of one's will (intentional, a conscious choice), a love not motivated by superficial appearance, emotional attraction, or sentimental relationship but initiated and energized by the Spirit in the obedient saint. Agape is not based on  pleasant emotions or good feelings that might result from a physical attraction or a familial bond. Agape chooses as an act of self-sacrifice to serve the recipient. From all of the descriptions of agape love, it is clear that genuine agape love is a sure mark of salvation. 

By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love (agape) for one another. (John 13:35).

Agape love can exhibit emotion, but it  must always exhibit action. Agape is unrestricted, unrestrained, and unconditional. Agape love is the virtue that surpasses all others and is the prerequisite for all the other virtues. Jesus when asked

 

"Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” replied ”‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ “This is the great and foremost commandment." (Mt 22:36-38)

 

F B Meyer has the following description of agape love...

 

Wherever there is true love, there must be giving, and giving to the point of sacrifice. Love is not satisfied with giving trinkets; it must give at the cost of sacrifice: it must give blood, life, all. And it was so with the love of God. "He so loved the world, that He gave his only-begotten Son." "Christ also loved and gave Himself up, an offering and a sacrifice to God." (See note Ephesians 5:2)

 

We are to imitate God's love in Christ. The love that gives, that counts no cost too great, and, in sacrificing itself for others, offers all to God, and does all for His sake. Such was the love of Jesus--sweet to God, as the scent of fields of new-mown grass in June; and this must be our model.

Not to those who love us, but who hate; not to those who are pleasant and agreeable, but who repel; not because our natural feelings are excited, but because we will to minister, even to the point of the cross, must our love go out. And every time we thus sacrifice ourselves to another for the sake of the love of God, we enter into some of the meaning of the sacrifice of Calvary, and there is wafted up to God the odor of a sweet smell.  (
Devotional Commentary on Ephesians)

Meyer in his book The Way Into the Holiest adds that agape love...

is queen of all the graces of the inner life. Love is the passion of self-giving. It never stays to ask what it can afford, or what it may expect to receive; but it is ever shedding forth its perfume, breaking its alabaster boxes, and shedding its heart's blood. It will pine to death if it cannot give. It must share its possessions. It is prodigal of costliest service.

Such love is in the heart of God, and should also be in us; and we may increase it materially by considering one another, and associating with our fellow-believers. Distance begets coldness and indifference. When we forsake the assembly of our fellow Christians we are apt to wrap ourselves in the chill mantle of indifference.

But when we see others in need, and help them; when we are willing to succor and save; when we discover that there is something attractive in the least lovable; when we feel the glowing sympathy of others-our own love grows by the demands made on it, and by the opportunities of manifestation.

Let us seek earnestly these best gifts; and that we may have them and abound, let us invoke the blessed indwelling of the Lord Jesus, whose entrance brings with it the whole train of sweet Christian graces.

Good deeds (ergon = work + agathon = good) (Click incredible example of good deeds) is a frequent Pauline phrase used 6x in the short letter to Titus (see notes Titus 1:16; 2:7; 2:14; 3:1; 3:8; 3:14). 

John Morley helps us understand the "good" in "good deeds" writing that...

It is not enough to do good. One must do it in the right way.

Chester A. Pennington also adds the qualifier that...

No amount of good deeds can make us good persons. We must be good before we can do good.

See related resource by A W Pink - The Scriptures and Good Works

Paul emphasized the principle that good deeds flow from "ready" vessels, writing that

if a man cleanses himself from these things (Amplified - "from what is ignoble and unclean, who separates himself from contact with contaminating and corrupting influences"), he will be a vessel (instrument) for honor, sanctified, useful (beneficial for honorable and noble purposes) to the Master, prepared (ready, ripe, primed) for every good work (ergon agathon)." (see note 2 Timothy 2:21)

In other words, you get up, go to work, and immediately God gives you an opportunity to perform a good work. Are you ready?

Every morning is a new day of opportunity and we need to arise and "present (our) bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God" (see note Romans 12:1), redeem (buy up) "the time (opportunities), because the days are evil" (see note Ephesians 5:16), disciplining ourselves for godliness which is "profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come." (see notes 1Timothy 4:7; 1Timothy 4:8)

R. L. Dabney adds that...

The gospel teaches us that while believers are not rewarded on account of their works, they are rewarded according to their works...While our works are naught as a ground of merit for justification, they are all-important as evidences that we are justified.

Spurgeon put it this way...

I would not give much for your religion unless it can be seen. Lamps do not talk, but they do shine.

Don't let the opportunities slip by. Be "confessed up", "repented up" and "filled up" with the Holy Spirit and you will be ready to recognize the opportunities God graciously gives. And remember that although we are to be seen doing good works, we must not do good works in order to be seen!

Peter explained the vital importance of good deeds in a godless society exhorting us to

Keep (our) behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander (us) as evildoers, they may because of (our) good deeds, as they observe (behold with their own eyes like a spectator or overseer) them, glorify God in the day of visitation." (see note 1 Peter 2:12)

In light of the importance of good deeds, the writer of Hebrews encourages saints to

consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds. (see note Hebrews 10:24)

Your good works will validate your good words (works are fruit but words are leaves) which is in stark contrast to the false teachers who

profess to know God, but by their deeds they (continually) deny Him, being detestable (root word = "to stink"!) and disobedient and worthless for any good deed” (see note Titus 1:16).

Good deeds are not the root of salvation, but they are the fruit of genuine salvation (cf Mt 3:8, Ephesians 2:10 [note]). 

The lives of believers should continually demonstrate the reality of the spiritual regeneration and supernatural transformation they have received by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. 

Believers who have been redeemed...from every lawless deed and now are the rightful possessions of Christ, are to be zealous (afire, ardent, fervent, eager, enthusiastic) for good deeds. (see note Titus 2:14)

Thomas Adams phrased it this way...

Good deeds are such things that no man is saved for them nor without them.

John Calvin rightly reminds us (for a man is tested by the praise accorded him - Pr 27:21)...

In our good works nothing is our own.

Oswald Chambers explains it this way...

Do good until it is an unconscious habit of life and you do not know you are doing it.

Martin Luther in his preface to his comments on Romans wrote...

Oh, it is a living, busy, active, mighty thing, this faith; and so it is impossible for it not to do good works incessantly. It does not ask whether there are good works to do, but before the question rises; it has already done them, and is always at the doing of them. He who does not these works is a faithless man. He gropes and looks about after faith and good works, and knows neither what faith is nor what good works are, though he talks and talks, with many words, about faith and good works.

Spurgeon wrote the following regarding works and our Salvation.

William Wickham being appointed by King Edward to build a stately church, wrote in the windows, "This work made William Wickham." When charged by the king for assuming the honour of that work to himself as the author, whereas he was only the overseer, he answered that he meant not that he made the work, but that the work made him, having before been very poor, and then in great credit. Lord, when we read in thy Word that we must work out our own salvation, thy meaning is not that our salvation (see note Philippians 2:12) should be the effect of our work, but our — Feathers for Arrows (See notes on Ephesians 2:10 for a faith that works)

As alluded to in some of the preceding quotes, we must be careful to notice that the phrase is good deeds which differs from your deeds. Let me explain. Paul is calling for good (agathos = good in its character or constitution, beneficial in its effect) deeds, and the only "good" deeds are those borne by believers (like "branches") who are abiding in Christ ("the Vine"). Good deeds reflect Christ's life flowing through us, initiated and energized by His Spirit and bringing glory to His Father (see note Matthew 5:16). Paul reminds us in (see note Philippians 2:13)

it is God Who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

Jesus stated the basic principle of good deeds when He declared

"I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing (absolutely, totally nothing!)...By this is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit (good deeds = good fruit) and so prove to be My disciples...You did not choose Me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain...." (John 15:5,8,16)

Paul reminded the Corinthian church of this same foundational principle regarding "good deeds", explaining that

"God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed" (2Cor 9:8).

Paul acknowledged that the key to his good works was the grace of God writing that His

"grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me." (1Cor 15:10).  

In his first letter to the Corinthians Paul emphasized that

"no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ ("the Vine"). Now if any man builds upon the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man's work will become evident; for the day will show it, because it is to be revealed with fire; and the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work. If any man's work which he has built upon it remains, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work is burned up, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as through fire." (1Cor 3:11-15)

One day in the future the Lord Jesus will even

"disclose the motives of men's hearts; and then each man's praise will come to him from God." (1Cor 4:5)

In sum, good deeds in a Biblical sense refers to a genuine, sincere, loving, Spirit empowered, God glorifying eagerness to serve others. No matter how hostile the society around us may be, we are to be good to the people in it whose lives intersect with ours. Paul reminded the Galatian believers that

While we have opportunity, [we are to] do good (agathos) to all men, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith” (Gal. 6:10).

Believers are to be known for what might be described as consistent aggressive goodness, done however not simply out of a sense of obligation or duty but out of an unselfish love for our Lord and for other people,

for (we) have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for (us), leaving (us) an example...to follow in His steps...entrusting Himself to Him Who judges righteously. (see notes 1 Peter 2:21; 22; 23)

We do not witness just with our lips but with out life, validating our "talk" with our "walk." There should be nothing in our conduct that will give the unsaved world ammunition to attack Christ and the Gospel. Our good works must back up our good words. Jesus gave this same charge in Matthew 5:16 (note)

Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

Believers can make a profound impact on the lost when they combine a godly life with a loving witness. We all know of instances of conversions simply because dedicated Christians let their light shine. On the other hand, we can recall with grief some lost persons who rejected the Word because of the inconsistent lives of "professed" believers.