In response to Notes On 2 Timothy 1:8, Micah asks:
“How do you see the role of people who do the very actions you speak of without any Christian, let alone religious, compunction?”
This has proved to be a real doosey. At the end of the day I’ll have to go with, “I’m not entirely sure,” but I’ll share a bit of my thought process to make it more interesting.
I think it’s an issue of misplaced hope. Let me try to explain what I mean…
One the one hand you have a Christian who works hard at bringing healing and hope to others. She feeds the hungry, brings medicine to the sick, etc. But her hope is not ultimately in these things. She doesn’t try to end hunger, for example, only for the sake of ending hunger. She tries to please Christ and follow after Him, which necessarily leads her to such efforts. Her hope is in Christ whom she understands to be the fulfillment of everything, of God’s kingdom. The end of hunger and sickness and violence is found in Christ alone. She keeps in mind the direction in which God’s redemptive plan for all creation is moving. She works for healing because it is part of what happens at the end of the Story.
On the other hand you have a not-even-religious person doing the exact same things with at least the same level of sincere compassion for others. Even if he is realistic enough to admit that humans might never be able to end such things as hunger, he still strives for it. Health, peace, happiness, etc. are the things he is after for others, and that is where his hope is. His hope is in compassion, love, acts of healing toward others, or whatever. But all the things he is after can only be found, can only be realized, in Christ. He is suffering to end bad news but not as a witness to the Good News. His hope is in the medicine, not in the doctor.
That said, the non-Christian’s works are wonderful! Do I want him to stop if he’s not doing it for the sake of the Gospel? No! But I want his hope to be in the right place so that he and God might both receive greater pleasure in his works. But I’m still left with the question, what is his role? Where does he fit into God’s work in the world? I don’t know. Do his good works bring him closer to God than a non-Christian who doesn’t do good things? Maybe, but I really don’t know.
Tell me what you think?
