James Nisbet Commentary - Acts 10:38 - 10:38

Online Resource Library

Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | Download

James Nisbet Commentary - Acts 10:38 - 10:38


(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)

This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

THE VICTORY OF BENEFICENCE

‘He went about doing good.’

Act_10:38

Here is a phrase which sums up in five words the remembrance of Christ’s life. ‘He went about doing good.’ ‘Doing good,’ I am afraid of narrowing that word—kindness, help, healing, service of others, help of body, help of soul; all these are in it. Beneficence, the harder Latin word for the same thing, brings a more formal thought. To be beneficient sounds like what only a few can be; but the plain English ‘to do good’ means something which is on a level for all.

I. Here then for us, who belong to Jesus, is another rule to try ourselves by.—‘He went about doing good.’ To do good to others—to be of use, that should be our aim—with that we should be busy and content. It is surprising to think how far this may go in life. For does it not give a new look to daily work? Is there not real help for us in remembering that all which we call work—all that mass and total of hard, weary, and often dull labour—all the drudgery is really doing service to somebody. So is the world made.

II. There are many to whom work is not given in quite this hard, drudging form.—To them Christ’s example seems to say, Find your work, and make your work. Leisure is only good if it means either rest to make work better, or opportunity to choose better work. If it means only passing your time or pleasing yourself, it ranks according to Christ’s scale below drudgery. For it does not do good. Service is the rule for every Christian. If any man will not work, neither let him eat—at least of Christ’s Table.

III. But though Christ’s example puts common work in a new light, it means more than that.—It means something that goes more into the heart of us, and comes out of our heart. For it really changes the bottom thought of life. Perhaps we spend all our money on ourselves, and give a chance penny or shilling or pound to others. Christ teaches us a different way; He shows us how the thought of doing good should be the master-thought of life. ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ We say, Why, surely this is too much; I shall have nothing for myself. And Christ is beforehand with us. ‘Whosoever shall lose his life for My sake shall find it.’ His eye rests with approval on the widow who casts in all her living. But in truth He takes plenty of care of us. He gives us many good things—homes, friends, comforts, health, even pleasures. Only let us set our hearts not on these, but on doing good.

IV. Be sure that if we try thus to go about doing good, our thought of what doing good means will grow higher or deeper.—It would be so anyhow, for we should feel more and more what man’s deepest needs really are. In ministering to others’ smaller wants, we shall find their greater ones.

—
Bishop E. S. Talbot.

Illustration

‘There are many who give much time, money, and work that they may serve God in their generation, or as one put it that she might lay up treasure in heaven. The Church of England cannot count her Sunday-school teachers and her district visitors and helps (as St. Paul called them), helps of every kind. If the enemy cannot hinder your active nature from working for God and His power, he will try to spoil it all by unworthy motives or want of consecration. Examine your motive; why are you doing your church work? Your work may be only the natural force of your character. Look and see the motive, and if it is consecrated, if each good act is offered up to God through Christ on the altar of Calvary.