Trey Morgan posted this on Facebook:
Christians in a church are a lot like cow manure. If you spread them out all over a community as God intended, they do a lot of good. BUT if they only stay piled up doing church things in a building … they tend to just stink.
Now there’s an illustration that will stick with you! Better yet, hope it motivates you to get out and do some good! Even better… hope it motivates me to do the same.
[I’m speaking on Church Inside Out in Silver Spring, Maryland, this month. Then in November I’ll do another seminar in La Grange, Texas. And in December, I’ll be working through the material with the leaders of the Church of Christ in Princeton, New Jersey, as they prepare to study Church inside Out with their members. I’d love to do the same for your church… contact me, and we’ll talk about it.]
Isn’t it a bit presumptuous to say that we can just go out and do some good and that the Lord will approve. First, Matthew 7:23 shows that doing some good is actually lawlessness. Second, shouldn’t we walk in the good works the Lord has appointed for us – Ephesians 2:19? To know what those good works are requires personal and corporate prayer and fellowship with others in the Body of Christ. These works are not just the good works of our concept or preference, or the present focus of believers who have no clue what God’s will is. I’m am not offering this as an excuse for inaction or doing nothing. Neither just doing good works, nor doing nothing are God’s desire. He is looking for something else entirely – the living of Christ.
No, it’s not presumptuous at all. We are told many times to do good works, to let others see our good deeds, that we were created for good works, etc. There’s nothing to suggest that the “good works” in Matthew 7:23 were good at all.
It is true, however, that the Christian needs a connection with the Body; there’s nothing in the quote I mentioned that denies that.
You’re arguing against a straw man of your own creation, I’m afraid.
Interesting you consider it an argument. Here’s the list, prophesying, casting out demons, doing MANY works of power. Yeah no good there in that list. You win.
Just saying that much prophesying in the New Testament isn’t good. Others cast out demons. If Jesus never knew them, then they weren’t doing these things by God’s power. So no, there was nothing good about it.