Why Do We Do Good Works?

​The answer to the question, “Why do you do good works?” is very important.  Many Muslims and Christians answer, “We do good works, so we can go to Heaven when we die.”  If this is your answer, it is not good enough.  We believe in one compassionate, merciful, gracious God.  But if your whole relationship with God is based only on your efforts to avoid his wrath by doing good works, with the hope that He will let you into His heaven, then this is not enough!  This is true of both Muslims and Christians.

My wife is from the Republic of Panama, where she grew up on a farm.  Among other animals, they had chickens.  She talks about huevos de vicio, a Spanish phrase which can roughly be translated habitual eggs.  Such eggs are produced by a hen that has had no involvement with a rooster.  These eggs are good for food, but they will not produce chicks.

Both Christianity and Islam ephasize the importance of an intimate relationship with God based on faith and love.  Atheists are capable of doing good works, but they have no relationship with God and consequently no faith in God.  Such good works are like huevos de vicio (habitual eggs) that produce nothing–no eternal life in the case of good works, no chicks in the case of huevos de vicio.

On the other hand, faith in God that does not produce good works is useless.

The great Islamic scholar Ibn Taimiyyah compared faith and good works to a tree, where faith is the roots of the tree and good works are everything above the ground–the trunk, limbs, and fruit of the tree. He said, “Faith’s root is what is in the heart and the outer deeds are inevitable due to that.  It is inconceivable that there would exist Faith in the heart yet there be no [good] works from the limbs [as a consequence].  Rather, when the outer deeds diminish it is due to the diminishing of the belief which is in the heart… Since works are correlated to the heart, then surely it is desired that a man is not contented by the heart’s belief; rather, the righteous works are definitely with it.” (al-Fatâwâ, 7/198)

In the Holy Quran we read, “And those who believed and did good works, they are the inhabitants of Paradise, abiding therein eternally.” (Quran 2:82)

And in the Holy Bible we read, “Faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works. Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?” (James 2-17-20)

A God-fearing person, who has the type of effectual faith in God that produces an intimate relationship with Him, based on love, adoration, and worship, will inevitably produce good works, or outer deeds as Ibn Taimiyyah emphasized.  Such a God-fearing person who prays, “Our Lord, avert from us the punishment of hell, for the punishment thereof is a lasting torment.”  (Quran 25:65) can have faith that God will grant this petition.

We understand the same thing from the Holy Bible, when Jesus, peace be upon Him, tells us, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.” (John 5:24)

Hearing His word means obeying and trusting in what He taught us, which is:  good works.

My Christian friends may object, because I don’t say that one needs to believe in Jesus in order to have eternal life.

We do need to believe in Jesus, peace be upon Him.  What did Jesus ask us to believe?  See John 5:24 above.  Also listen to His prayer for His disciples--which include all who recognize Him as Messiah, “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” (John 17:3)

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