“We devote our daily life to God, and to
serving our neighbors as images of God”
- I will daily seek to do good for someone without reward or recognition.
Heard about guerilla goodness, anonymous
or random acts of kindness, paying-it-forward? People voluntarily giving up their right to be
recognized, to be thanked, to be pleased with themselves, to receive some kind
of gain from their good actions? Most Western economic thinkers who trust the “invisible
hand” of self-interest see giving it up as unlikely human behavior—and they are
right. Yet this is exactly what Christ calls his followers to and models the
same himself. One of the earliest Christian
confessions about Jesus, Philippians 2:6-11, makes
clear that he gave up his right to gain from his privileged status and obedient
actions—willing to suffer for doing
good rather than receiving his deserved reward for it!
God’s ironic way left Jesus with far
more reward and recognition than if he had initially demanded what he deserved
for his status and good works, “regarding equality with God as something to be
exploited.” Jesus gave up his privilege and rights for recognition and suffered
for doing good, but in the end “God highly exalted him” because of it.
