The importance of goodness in human life

"And those who have done good will come forth to the resurrection of life" (John 5:29). So said Jesus Christ, to whom the Heavenly Father has given judgment on all people (John 5:22). From this we can conclude that all those who do good in their lives will find eternal life with God after death on earth. A person's creation of good in his life is of the greatest significance not only for his salvation, but also, most importantly, for the fulfillment of the most important purpose of his life on earth: finding love for God. When God created the first people, Adam and Eve, God gave them everything they needed for life in paradise, with the exception of the concept of good and evil, the knowledge of which they did not need, since they did nothing bad for God or for each other. But as soon as they committed sin, refusing to believe in God, they committed evil. And God soon warned Adam and Eve's son Cain about this knowledge, as a warning to the new man after his parents' sin: "If you do not do good, sin lies at the door; "He desires you, but you must rule over him" (Genesis 4:7)

Doing what pleases God is good for God. "He has shown you, O man, what is good? And what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God" (Micah 6:8) "Depart from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it" (Psalm 35:14) "Depart from evil and do good, and you will live forever" (Psalm 38:27) "Hate evil and love good" (Amos 5:15); "And they will come forth, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of damnation" (John 5:29). The Bible warns people, saying, "Therefore to him who knows how to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin" (James 4:17). The Bible calls believers to do good to all people, and this is especially true for believers. "Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of faith" (Galatians 6:10).

A relative once asked me: how do you divide people, by what main characteristic? And I told her that God divided people long ago, from their creation, saying to Cain: "And the Lord God said to Cain, 'Why are you angry? And why is your countenance fallen? If you do good, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do well, sin lies at the door; its desire is your desire, but you must rule over it'" (Genesis 4:6, 7). That is, people should all do good to one another in their lives together, and this divides them into two camps in life. In the process of these actions, the person themselves change. Only good deeds can bring us closer to each other. In doing so, we open ourselves up and affirm ourselves in the one to whom we do good, and the recipient of the good begins to open up to us and draw closer to us. Thus, step by step, we gradually change ourselves and others, and, seeing this, God's Spirit dwells within us, and this is the birth of love in a person.
Therefore, we cannot learn to love another person, people, since love for someone is always a shared action with God. But everyone is obligated to learn to do good to others, and this is the path to the birth and development of love in people. So, the elder's words: "We must learn to love people, and first and foremost, of course, those with whom we live and work" should be understood as learning to do good to people.

Doing good for someone means doing something good for them, something that will help them in life. This could be something that will help them avoid some danger or simply help them find what they dream of in life, to be happy. Everyone A person who does good to people with a sincere desire to help them does what pleases God, for God loves people and strives to save them from evil; He strives to help them act righteously, while giving them the right to choose between good and evil. By giving people complete freedom to exercise their right to choose, God does not want to use violence, since violence is an obstacle to a person's development in the school of life with various circumstances, through which a person finds love for people and, ultimately, for God. And this is the whole meaning of human life on earth. The meaning of eternity with God is impossible for a person to understand while on earth.

Doing good means striving to be like God, striving to attain His righteousness. Therefore, the Bible tells everyone: "Whoever does good is of God" (3 John 11), "Walk in the way of goodness, and keep in the paths of the righteous" (Proverbs 2:20). Understanding the importance of doing good for people, we can say that a person who does good in his own life Life, he transforms himself so much that he becomes close to God, and this is only possible when his human spirit, inherited from Adam and Eve, is increasingly filled with the Holy Spirit. All this, over the course of life, reaches the point where love for people—and without love, true goodness cannot be accomplished—leads a person, even an unbeliever, to faith and love for God. And all this is a condition for receiving eternal life.

But doesn't this contradict other fundamental statements in the Bible about the attainment of eternal life for people? "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Not by works, lest anyone should boast" (Ephesians 2:8, 9). Yes, salvation is granted only through faith. Moreover, faith always implies repentance and love for God. And first and foremost, love for Jesus Christ, the Lord crucified on Golgotha. Repentance and love for God can occur for a person simultaneously with the emergence of faith in God in life, but they can also occur later. Faith, which acquires love for God, and repentance, of course, arise in people when they free themselves from their egoism, when they begin to care for and empathize with others, beginning with their loved ones. This is already the beginning of finding love for mother, father, family, and others. At the same time, wanting to help them, a person can perform actions that help them, even sacrificing something necessary for themselves. By sincerely doing good to others, a person finds love within themselves, and thus finds God within themselves, for "God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him" (1 John 4:16).

The sources of goodness can vary. It's one thing when goodness is done with a sincere desire, with an inner need to do something necessary and good for others. In this case, the source of goodness is love, which speaks of the presence of the Divine in people. It's quite another when goodness is done for self-glory, to elevate oneself in the eyes of others, or to gain some other benefit. Such charity is unspiritual. It doesn't bring a person closer to God, and therefore, it brings no benefit to the doer. Doing good without a meaning based on love, doing good simply for the sake of it, doing good out of vanity—this has never been in keeping with God, and believers should strive to be like God.
"And if I give all my goods to feed the poor, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing." (1 Cor. 13:3)

A person who does good out of selfishness and one who does good out of love are completely different. If a person does good out of love, then God is within them. Such a person may be an unbeliever, but this is only a temporary state in their life, when their thoughts are sometimes contradictory, when their human spirit still struggles to resist the filling Spirit of Love—the Spirit of God, Who will surely help them find faith sooner or later. And that means finding eternal life, as the biblical epigraph at the beginning of this article speaks of. "Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, and especially to those of the household of faith" (Galatians 6:10).