COMPLETE IN EVERY GOOD WORK
“Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to do his will” (Heb. 13:20-21).
Those who know Christ know that there is much that he would have us to do. We are saved for a purpose and we are always thinking about him and looking for ways to further his cause. Nothing matters to us like the work of God. This is the essence of faithfulness. If we want to be faithful to God, we should be consumed with God’s will the way Jesus was (John 2:17).
It is important to realize how many times the New Testament instructs Christians to be diligent to do the work of God. And there is nothing more acceptable to God than those who are trusting in Christ and seeking to please him by their lives. When God is the most important thing in our lives, when we live only for him, then we can truthfully say that we are faithful to him.
God has called us to work. We are to be “steadfast and immoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord” (1 Cor. 15:58). This is what God wants. Is this how we are living? Are we looking for ways to serve him and please him? Do we care about his work upon the earth?
Jesus is coming back. This life is not all there is. Will he find us busy for him? That is a question that should be important to us all. God makes us “complete for every good work.” He works in us to do what he wants us to do (Phil. 2:13). The evidence of God being in us—the evidence that we have a saving relationship with him—is that we are working for him. Doing good works, seeking to serve others and help people in his name.
Do not misunderstand this verse to teach that since God makes us “complete in every good work to do his will” (Heb. 13:21), we will do what he wants without trying. That is not what God is teaching us. It is teaching the opposite. God works in us and we know that he works in us because we are busy for him. Good works are the evidence of our salvation (James 2:14-26).
Doing good works for God—being busy doing his will—has nothing to do with working in a denominational structure, doing man-made religious “assignments,” or a tired mother being guilted into dragging her tired kids to “church” on Wednesday night. It has nothing to do with plans, programs, or institutions. It is simply a matter of loving Jesus and spending our time loving others in his name. That is the work of God.
Dewayne Dunaway
