Chris­tians don’t do bad things. At least they shouldn’t. If they do they should repent and make ret­ri­bu­tion. Repen­tance with­out ret­ri­bu­tion is not gen­uine. It is self-deception. If one robs his neigh­bour he can­not repent unless he restores what was stolen. Ret­ri­bu­tion is a must. He can­not keep the stolen goods.

When I ille­gally left com­mu­nist Hun­gary I bor­rowed a high qual­ity math book from the uni­ver­sity library and brought it with me to Aus­tralia. You see, I was an athe­ist. How­ever, about four years later I became a Chris­t­ian and the stolen book became a bur­den. My con­science was rest­less. I had a stolen book in my prop­erty. I could not dump it into the bin, the book had to be restored to the right­ful owner.

Six years later I finally man­aged to go to Hun­gary. I returned the book to the library. They could find no record that the book ever belonged to them. They might have already writ­ten it off and removed it from their cat­a­logue. How­ever, I left it with them. It was their prop­erty, not mine.

So when a Chris­t­ian fails, repen­tance and ret­ri­bu­tion alone can bring peace­ful mind and the expe­ri­ence of forgiveness.

How­ever, such a Chris­t­ian is not a good per­son, he is sim­ply not bad. The good per­son is actively good. He is a ben­e­fit to those around him. He sees the need an meets the need. He does char­ity (the Eng­lish is unfor­tu­nate, the Hebrew term means “jus­tice”). It is com­manded in the law.

I have met Chris­tians who boasted that because they believed the right stuff they went to heaven, but Mother Teresa, even though she laid down her life to help the poor, went to hell, because she believed the wrong stuff. It is not for me to pass judg­ment on this, but con­sider what Jacob (i.e. James) says:

Jam. 2:14 What good is it, my broth­ers, if a man says he has faith, but has no works? Can faith save him? 15 And if a brother or sis­ter is naked and in lack of daily food, 16 and one of you tells them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled;’ and yet you didn’t give them the things the body needs, what good is it? 17 Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead in itself. 18 Yes, a man will say, ‘You have faith, and I have works.’ Show me your faith from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith. 19 You believe that God is one. You do well. The demons also believe, and shud­der. 20 But do you want to know, vain man, that faith apart from works is dead? 21 Wasn’t Abra­ham our father jus­ti­fied by works, in that he offered up Isaac his son on the altar? 22 You see that faith worked with his works, and by works faith was per­fected; 23 and the Scrip­ture was ful­filled which says, ‘Abra­ham believed God, and it was accounted to him as right­eous­ness;’ and he was called the friend of God. 24 You see then that by works, a man is jus­ti­fied, and not only by faith. 25 In like man­ner wasn’t Rahab the pros­ti­tute also jus­ti­fied by works, in that she received the mes­sen­gers, and sent them out another way? 26 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, even so faith apart from works is dead.

Let’s read again:

“Show me your faith from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith.”

The pas­sage above shows us that faith is not “belief”, but faith­full­ness that is revealed by doing the good deeds com­manded in the law — char­ity (i.e. jus­tice — that is, it is the right think to do) towards one’s neighbour.

Eph 2:10 For we are his work­man­ship, cre­ated in Christ Jesus for good works, which God pre­pared before­hand, that we should walk in them.

Heb. 10:23 Let us hold fast the con­fes­sion of our hope with­out waver­ing, for he who promised is faith­ful; 24 and let us con­sider how to stir up one another to love and good works

How often we won­der what those good works are! How­ever, they are not secret. God pre­pared them before­hand. They are writ­ten in the law, and by the Spirit it is put into the heart of all those who par­take in the new covenant. The good deeds are summed up in the command:

Lev 19:18 You shall not take vengeance or bear any grudge against the sons of your own peo­ple, but you shall love your neigh­bor as your­self: I am the LORD.

Can you see the rea­son given for the com­mand? “I am the LORD”. Pow­er­ful words.

Finally, let me quote Jacob (i.e. James) again:

Jam. 3:13 Who is wise and under­stand­ing among you? By his good life let him show his works in the meek­ness of wisdom.