Why we do good

Have you noticed that it's pretty in-vogue to do good. I was at the gym yesterday and the Today Show was interviewing Richard Branson on his new book that talks about using your business to do good. Movie stars like Angelina Jolie are known for their goodwill work around the world.

It has me wondering: Why do people do good works?

I could be wrong because I can't see into someone's heart, but I think that a lot of people are doing good to earn favor with God, or "the gods", or Allah, or the "big man in the sky", or "you fill in the blank." They are trying to make sure their good deeds outweigh their bad deeds.

And while that's all fine and good because people are helped, the truth is, your good deeds will never, ever, outweigh your bad deeds. I don't care how much good Richard Branson or Brangelina or you ever do. You just can't be good enough.

That's what makes Christmas such a great reminder to all of us. God knew we would never be good enough so he sent his Son to earth. He came to live the perfect life that we couldn't live and pay the price we could never pay.

As a result of what Jesus did we can do good works, not to earn God's favor, but to show our love for the God who came to save us. In other words, we do good not to earn favor from God, but because we've been shown favor by God.